Aswan-derful as it gets!

Aswan, Egypt

So after the hot air balloon ride, we realised we missed our train to Aswan (they didn't have any more tickets. COOL!) ... so we did what anyone else would do in this situation. Go in a police escorted convoy! (at least it wasn't a livestock transporting van cough*cairo*cough). I'm so glad the police got in the car with a big huge gun and slept the entire 4 hour ride to Aswan...made me feel so safe!

So Aswan is similar to Luxor, resort like, chill, and an even CLEANER Nile, which we had great views of from the restaurant we ate at 3 times in the 2 days we were there!

Sitting at our normal table at our normal restaurant by the Nile.

So we take a stroll around Aswan, buy some souvenirs, Pimp or Cairo meets another one of her husbands, and head to bed early to get ready for our 2:30am wake up call to go to...Abu Simbel!! I mean, why go to bed at 2:30am when you can wake up at 2:30am?!

So we wake up at 2, get in a police escorted convoy (getting used to this now) for the 2 hour drive to Abu Simbel. We get there around 6am, still half a sleep and see HUNDREDS of people leaving the site and already heading back to their tour buses. I mean, honestly:
1) who FINISHES a tour at 6am?
2) what time does this place OPEN?!

Our police convoy, stopping for a cig break

So Abu Simbel - built by and for Ramses II for himself and his wife Nefertari had been moved and relocated to avoid being submerged by Lake Nasser. (one of 2 facts I remember from our tour guide). Regardless how many times we saw temples and tombs in Egypt, it was still mind boggling that this stuff was in such amazing condition, AND it was crazy to be standing next to these statues and seeing how large they actually were!

We finished our tour around 10am, and when we asked the tour guide if we could JUST go to the Aswan Dam (without doing the rest of the tour that came with it), she told us "Yes.... it'll cost.............. hmm.. 50 Egyptian pounds..including your entrance fee." So this is what the tour consisted of: Pulling off to the side of the road, and getting out for us to see this:

Clearly not impressed

The one other fact I remember from our tour guide: This is the symbol of friendship between Russia and Egypt. Learn it, live it, love it.

So after another delish meal of sanswiches and chicken with herpes (that was legit on the menu) at our favorite restaurant in Aswan, a few of us decided to take a boat and venture to the other side of the Nile to the Tomb of Nobles. Apparently they had already closed for tourism for the day, but with a little bribe - anything is possible in this country! They actually led us up the path and gave us a tour of the place - complete with baskets of bones! This was one of the coolest ones we've visited, I think it may have been the fact that it felt so adventurous! We had to use flashlights to find out way around and we were pretty much the only ones in there!

Bones!

Inside the Tomb of Nobles

So after our tour, we wanted to go to the other side of the mountain to a monastary, so our "tour guides" told us ok here go! Uh, so we climbed up this sanded mountain (seriously I felt like it was perpendicular to the ground and I thought I was going to slide down and end up in the Nile) and through the desert trying to find this place.

Climbing up the mountain towards the monastary

Playing in the desert

So about 2 hours later we don't know where we are, all we see is desert (and a sunset we're trying to race against!)and a guy on a camel with what we thought was a sword, telling us there would be no boats and in laymens terms.. that we were screwed. We almost climbed farther away from the Nile to try to get on an ASPAC tour bus that would take us back down to Aswan city center. But after doing somersaults in the sand and taking ridiculous pictures of the sunset, we actually made it to the river and the guy we had hired to take us back was waiting. Thankgooodness!

This is what we climbed up, illuminated at night.
Taken from the boat that rescued us from having to spend the night on the other side of the Nile!

So we went back to meet BoozeFaces' husband and smoked some shisha with him. So the next day we were going to "catch the felucca boat from 10am to 2pm.. that'll give us 4 hours on it."

"10am?!?! thats so early!!"

"thats a whole 8 hours later than we woke up today!!!!!"

Felucca ride - great way to end our amazing holiday in Egypt. Our own little Bob Marley boat, playing Bob Marley music while we floated down the Nile, soaking in the gorgeous 75 degree weather. This is also where I got my awesome sunglass tan which earned me the nickname Panda & raccoon eyes for the next 3 weeks! Being able to tan easily is a blessing in disguise (not disguised so well this time!)



We stopped at a few places, drank some Nile water tea (which maybe only boozeface with her Mammoth Constitution could handle? I mean, who else can eat a falaffel off the streets of Egypt and not get sick?!) and soaked in life. This is Aswan-derful as it gets!!!

In denial, that we drank de.nile!

The gals :)

LODGE-istics:

Lodging
Keylany Hotel
$12/person/night (2 people per room)
It's definitely clean, they have a really nice rooftop garden for breakfast (which includes amazing crepes!)
If you're looking for a cheap simple place to stay, this is it - each room has its own bathroom too, so it doesn't feel hostel like.

Felucca Boat Ride
300 Egyptian Pounds for all 8 of us for about 4 hours total. I think we each paid about 50 Egyptian pounds each to include tip (about $10). Definitely well worth it. Just go along the Nile and there'll be loads of them waiting for your business.

ISIC Card
If you have an ISIC card, definitely bring it to Egypt. If you don't and can get a hold of one, it'll probably be worth it for you to purchase one for $20. You get 50% off to ALL the museums, tombs, and temples. They don't cost TOO much to begin with (I would less than $5 for each site), but since we were visiting so many, the savings really did add up.