Cairo and Aswan

So much has happened! This post covers some Cairo and all of Aswan.

May 6, 2010 - 1:30am
Today was insane. First (after being given the morning to sleep away our jet lag) Avery and I went to a little pastry shop and got danishes - I still haven't had real Egyptian food. Then we all met as a group and hailed cabs to get to the famous Egyptian bazaar, the Khan el-Khalili. Sensory overload doesn't even begin to describe it. While walking the winding maze of shops, we heard some amazing things from the street vendors. Things like "my future wife!" or "I recognize you from somewhere - my dreams!" or "How can I take your money?" They commented that Rob was very lucky to have all of us girls with him. Overall, it was very friendly banter, and never made us uncomfortable. The vendors sold everything - from cheap souvenirs to silver and exotic spices. The spice vendors kept offering us "smell tests" to see if we could guess the spice. Hibiscus is very popular here, and is made into a drink called Karkadeh. Many of these spice vendors sell dried hibiscus flowers to make this tea. The Khan el-Khalili is definitely a place I want to visit again.

Riding in a cab there was definitely its own experience. There are 3 colors of cabs here - white, yellow, and black. The black ones don't have meters, so you're expected to haggle your fare. We chose a white one (whose meter we never actually saw). The driver, Amr, was very friendly and tried to overcharge us by giving us the wrong change. He resolved the issue with a smile, and told us all to take his picture. The cab ride back was way less fun - the driver spoke almost no English, unlike Amr who taught us a few words in Arabic. Our second cab driver also had no idea where our hotel was, so we had him just drop us off somewhere in Zamalek and we walked to the hotel. It's funny, this was our first full day in Cairo and already Zamalek is starting to feel familiar and homey. Avery and I finagled free wi-fi at the hotel, which helps us feel not so cut off from the world.

Now I'm in an overnight sleeper train bound for Aswan. I tell myself it's like camping (the bathrooms are certainly similar) and I'm getting through it. The beds are actually much better than I expected. We were told to accept meals on the train (as to not offend the attendant), but not to eat them, because they make everyone sick. Avery and I ate the rolls and rice off the tray - so far, so good. We've also been drinking a ton of water to stay hydrated. We're all walking around with giant 1.5 liter bottles (which cost about $.20 in Zamalek and can be almost $5 in more touristy sites like Aswan).

At the beginning of the ride, Avery and I were working on journaling and reading. A group of us was partying in another room, but Avery and I only joined when it moved to the dining car and involved a lot of random older French people. By the time we got there, there was singing, dancing, and overall craziness. We're all pretty wired, so we stayed up late chatting bad bonding, which was good for us.

The train supposedly gets to the station around 7, but Denis said it'll be more like 8 or 9 because the train might stop so the conductor can sleep. Egypt is like Mexico in that way - very relaxed and informal when it comes to deadlines or schedules.

Tomorrow we spend the day relaxing at the hotel pool. I can't wait for that.

May 6, 2010 - 9:45am

The train last night was rough - we're all totally exhausted today. I took some video to document the noises of the train overnight. It's over with now, and it certainly was an experience. When we were woken up, the scenery had completely changed. There was farmland on both sides of the Nile, and sand beyond. The animals (donkeys and cows) are totally different from the ones in the US - they're thin and bony - but they certainly seem to get the job done in this harsh landscape. I saw a lot of men riding donkeys down the road, which looks funny because donkeys are so much smaller than horses.

We just arrived at our hotel, the Isis Corniche in Aswan - it's total paradise here! Our room overlooks the Nile with its feluccas. There's a huge pool, which all of us are excited to use, especially after that train ride. The room is beautiful and cool, and the birds are singing. We were all given Karkadeh when we got here. It looks like cranberry juice, but is very sweet and altogether different than anything I've had before.

The Isis Corniche as seen from the street.

The view from our room.

I can already tell that Aswan is much more touristy than Cairo. When we checked in, we saw a lot of foreign white people - all Europeans. The hotel is definitely catered to that kind of clientele, but is definitely a welcome break from our constant traveling.

May 6, 2010 - 4:30pm

Aswan is so much more of a tourist trap than Cairo. A 1.5 liter water costs about 5 pounds (or less) in Cairo - which is equivalent to less than $1. In Aswan, the same water is around 20 pounce, around $4 dollars (or more)!

Avery and I went on an excursion to find an American Express bank for her travelers checks. We got the same kind of attention here as we did in Cairo, but there are far more (white) tourists here. Many aren't American, though (or even speak English), so it's not so helpful for us.

May 7, 2010 - 2:24am

In regards to all my late nights, we have a saying here, "sleep when you're dead…or back in the States."

We spent some time at the pool, then went on a boat ride to a Nubian island, where we saw other tourists riding camels (they're HUGE!). The village was really cool, but totally tourist-oriented. There was a house that was totally open to tourists, where we were offered drinks and some people got henna tattoos and held a baby crocodile. The boat ride back was so nice - it was sunset and we all sat on the roof of the boat. The breeze was amazing, especially after this scorcher of a day.

Indigo is apparently better than bleach for your clothes!

Beautiful sunset on the Nile.

When we got back, we went off in groups in search of dinner. We were looking for a pizza place that other group members recommended, but we just couldn't find it. A random Egyptian guy brought us to his friend's hole-in-the-wall restaurant, which claimed to not have menus, and wanted to charge us 100 pounds for a pizza (which is around $20). We haggled down to 100 pounds for two pizzas, which was still expensive for Egypt. It was frustrating to have to negotiate the price for dinner after such a hot, busy day. Food is often at a set price, which is a relief. We clearly looked like tourists, and were being set up to be swindled.

We all met up after dinner and some people went drinking and swimming, while a few of us and Rob chatted in chairs overlooking the Nile (sooo beautiful). I was starting to droop around 10, but Rob convinced me and Megan to go on a night shoot. We ended up befriending some shopkeepers because it was closing time for them and they weren't as intense about selling their wares. We got little turquoise scarab beads from one shopkeeper, and a spice merchant offered us warm Karkadeh (which tasted a lot like cider - way better than having it cold!). When I told the spice vendor's merchant friend that I loved the Karkadeh hot, he said he respected me - that is the true Egyptian way to drink it. Megan and Rob bought some hibiscus to take home. I really enjoyed the night shoot because of the opportunity to finally see the merchants in a less aggressive state. They are a family, and it shows.

The spice vendor.


























May 7, 2010 - 6:00pm

We just got back from quite the busy day! At 10am, we boarded a felucca and sailed to the Aswan Botanic Island, where we took lots of photos of flowers and palms. Then we sailed again on the felucca to go have lunch at the Nubian Restaurant, which sat on its own little island in the Nile. It was the first "legit" Egyptian food I've had, and it was delicious! Appetizers were chickpea salads, tahini (which I'm now completely obsessed with), pickled fruits (someone actually ate the pickled lemon!) and other more mysterious salads, all accompanied by warm brown pita. The entree was a huge piece of grilled chicken with rice - it was so tender! Yum! Dessert was a bowl of small native bananas.

Flowers at the botanic garden.

The Unfinished Obelisk.

After lunch we waddled back onto a motorboat back to the street, where we boarded a bus en route to the Unfinished Obelisk in Aswan. The weather was brutally hot today (104 degrees I heard) so we climbed the quarry and took our pictures in record time. At the exit, we were met, as always, by vendors hawking their goods. We were able to get cooled off a bit from fans and A/C there.

We then took the bus to the Aswan High Dam and had a little history lesson about it. We'll have to do a "snap writing assignment" about it, and so I decided to videotape the guide so I could remember - I was pretty fried at that point. This was all a refresher, though, because I learned all this last summer in my Modern Middle Eastern History class. We got out of the bus for a few minutes for pictures. Lake Nasser is approximately 20x bigger than I thought it would be - it's huge! The construction of the dam and the resulting lake caused a lot of problems for old ruins, though.

Lake Nasser.

We took another little motorboat to the Philae Temple, located on an island in Lake Nasser. This temple, I learned, was actually moved from its original site to its current one because the construction of the dam would have put it underwater. This is the first Phaeronic temple I've seen here, and it was pretty majestic. Interestingly, there was a lot of defacing that was done to the temple by Christians seeking refuge there. They carved crosses and altars into the walls and obliterated the reliefs in some parts so that they could focus on their religion instead of the Ancient Egyptians'. Napoleon's men, as well as newer explorers from the 1800s have carved their names into the tomb walls. It was kind of distressing to me to see people leaning on the walls and touching them, but it doesn't seem to be a problem here. While I was taking photos, two Egyptians jumped in one, then one took my camera (eek!) and took a picture of me with the other one. Then they asked me for money - nothing is free here. I gave them each 1 pound ($.18).

My $.18 portrait


























Later, another Egyptian - this time a military tourist police officer (they're everywhere here, all carrying worn-looking Soviet guns) showed us a hidden nook and tunnel, which was a system used to measure Nile water height in the temple and gather information about the next flood. Rob and I got some neat photos, but of course we had to pay the guy 4 pounds afterwards. Worth it!

We're all back in the hotel now, recuperating and readying ourselves for dinner and another early morning. This is our last night here - tomorrow we go to Luxor and see two more Phaeronic temples - Kom Ombo and Edfu - on the way! I've become the resident Egypt nerd - Rob likes to ask me questions about it and poke fun at my nerdyness.

We had a relaxed dinner by the pool, and afterwards Alexis and I talked about our trip so far. We both agreed that we prefer Cairo to Aswan because Cairo isn't so touristy. Believe it or not, we don't seem to stick out quite as much in Cairo, especially when we know the lay of the land better. A lot of foreigners live in Cairo, especially Zamalek, and it's definitely more city-like overall. Aswan is clearly  focused on tourism. Every monument or attraction has vendors attached, and Egyptians don't seem to shop at the suq (marketplace) - only tourists. The huge floating hotel boats are docked 3 or 4 abreast all down the shore of the Nile, right across from the suq. In Cairo, this is less obvious. We didn't really see tourists in Cairo, only people who clearly live there (white people included).

I've noticed that Egyptians apparently love old 90s American music - especially Celine Dion. The Macarena is currently being played across the river at another hotel.