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Aswan

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Sunday February 20th, 2005

Africa > Egypt > AswanAfrica > Egypt > Edfu

(travel diary) Edfu and Aswan arrival

Category: Egypt, 2005
Today we took the 09.40-train from Luxor to Edfu and then shared a taxi to the Horus Temple together with two german guys that we had met on the train. The Horus Temple was built around 3000 years BC and is one of the most well preserved temples in Egypt.

After visiting the temple we walked back to the town. We where thinking about eating something but couldn't find any restaurants. After a while we gave up and took a taxi back to the train station. When we got there, the train to Aswan was standing on the platform, but we where hungry and supposed that the trip would take a while... so we decided to get som food first and take the next train which where leaving at 17:00 (3 hours later).

We searched around in this small isolated part of the town around the train station but couldn't find any restaurant. I guess not much tourists get here. We got some bottled water, potato chips and bread/cookies at a little shop. Short after our so called food-shopping we met an egyptian who had had some troubles with the police... we drank some tea together with him at a small cafe. The cafe was filled with egyptians smoking water pipe while watching some old (70's?) TV-soap.

At about 17:00 the train arrived as promised (on time!) and we headed for Aswan!

A couple of hours later, we arrived. We checked in at Nubian Oasis Hotel. It wasn't as nice as our last hotel but it was ok. It was clean and had a pretty good view. No TV. The price was 30 pounds per night (double room). Pretty good price.
After installing ourselves at the hotel we walked around a bit. We were looking for the internet cafe Aswanet. We had a map but couldn't find it. It probably didn't exist anymore.

We then got some dinner at one of the restaurants floating on the Nile. Great atmosphere and environment! Both Tobias and I ordered "egyptian hamburger plate" and two really good fruit juices each... After a while we wanted to have two more juices each and the waiter got a wide smile on his face and asked us "Whyyyyyyy?!". Haha! First time anyone ordered lots of fresh fruit juice?
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Monday February 21st, 2005

Africa > Egypt > Aswan

(travel diary) Aswan. Laundry, instrument search

Category: Egypt, 2005
Today we slept out in the morning. Then we got a small breakfast at a restaurant on the Nile.

Right now we have left our clothes for cleaning and are currently surfing in an internet cafe beside the laundry service. We will see what happens later today. It's still pretty early, the time is now about 11 AM. One goal today is to purchase a rababa (a type of string instrument). I'll try to find some nice drum (tabla) also because we need to practice some before our planned jam session at the train to Cairo.

Tonight at 1 AM we are thinking about going to the Abu Simbel to watch the sunrise at the Abu Simbel temple. Tomorrow 22 feb is one of the occasions every year when the first rays of the sun shines in through the temple and hits the statues of Ramses II, Amun and Ra-Harakhty!

Update: What happened later today
Tobias surfed for 5-6 hours (from morning until evening). He updated his blog-page while I walked around in Aswan photographing panoramas and searching for the Aswan's best musical instruments! I found lots of interesting instruments, but I havn't bought any yet.
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Monday February 21st, 2005

Africa > Egypt > Aswan

Backstreet in Aswan

Category: Egypt, 2005
Backstreet in Aswan - Just when we where about to surf the internet the power disappeared which[...]
Just when we where about to surf the internet the power disappeared which happens a couple of times every day. Their electrical network is not the best. We are now standing here and waiting for the power to return. And why not take a photograph of an 'Aswanian' backstreet?
Tags » alleys
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Monday February 21st, 2005

Africa > Egypt > Aswan

Greek-orthodox church in Aswan

Category: Egypt, 2005
Greek-orthodox church in Aswan - Big, white and situated in southern Aswan.
Big, white and situated in southern Aswan.
Tags » churches
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Monday February 21st, 2005

Africa > Egypt > Aswan

Collage of instruments

Category: Egypt, 2005
Collage of instruments - Instruments are fun. These are some of the instruments I found in different[...]
Instruments are fun. These are some of the instruments I found in different shops in Aswan.

Aswan is a pretty good place for shopping. Good prices and good assortment. Much better than Hurghada.

Up to the left: These are the two instruments I bought. One tabla drum and one rababa
Up to the right: Rababa
Down to the left: Tabla
Down to the right: I don't know what these are called
Tags » instrument
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Monday February 21st, 2005

Africa > Egypt > Aswan

Nubian museum in Aswan

Category: Egypt, 2005
Nubian museum in Aswan - One of the statues that has been transported to the nubian museum in Aswan[...]
One of the statues that has been transported to the nubian museum in Aswan from different temple sites.
Tags » museums, statues
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Tuesday February 22nd, 2005

Africa > Egypt > Aswan

(travel diary) Aswan. The nearby islands. Felucca ride

Category: Egypt, 2005
We didn't go to Abu Simbel early this morning. All buses were full. We walked around in Aswan and asked travel agents but this special day everything was full. Maybe it was good.. because I guess that the temple area was packed with tens of thousands of people and we would have seen the sun on TV-screens.
Instead, we booked our Abu Simbel-tour for tomorrow and today we booked a felucca-ride around the Aswan area.

Yep, today we went on a felucca ride (a small typical egyptian sailboat). The captain on our litte boat called himself "the Boss". He was heavily influenced by Bob Marley and sang "Alouette, smoking cigarette".
We checked out the islands in the area. First stop was Kitcheners Island. It's a small island which was transformed into a garden by an englishman some long time ago. A person interested in plants and butterflies would have loved it here.
Then, we continued to Elephantine Island. A bigger island with colorful nubian houses and a small museum.
After this we had planned to visit Tombs of the Nobles but time ran faster than our felucca so we had to skip that one. After this we floated around on the Nile in the sunset.

In the evening Tobias and I bought one Rababa each (string instrument with three strings). I also bought a tabla drum and Tobbe got an oud (guitar-style instrument).
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Tuesday February 22nd, 2005

Africa > Egypt > Aswan

Sunset sailing on the Nile

Category: Egypt, 2005
Sunset sailing on the Nile - On the Nile. This was the ending of our check-all-the-islands-in-Aswan-day.[...]
On the Nile. This was the ending of our check-all-the-islands-in-Aswan-day.
Tags » rivers, sunsets, the Nile
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Wednesday February 23rd, 2005

Africa > Egypt > Aswan

(travel diary) Aswan. Daytrip to Abu Simbel, Philaeh and Unfinished obelisk

Category: Egypt, 2005
Today it was time for Abu Simbel!
The hotel staff woke us up about three in the morning. After a small breakfast, we drove off in a small micro bus. We were 12 persons sitting in this micro bus (collected from three different hotels). Two swedes (Tobias and I), three self-destructive girls from Germany, a family from Poland and two girls and two guys from Korea.
After a speedy, sweaty, hot, 44 miles long journey we were finally in Abu Simbel.
The area was full of tourists. The entry fee to the temples was 61 pounds (adults with no student card).
The Abu Simbel temple was impressive. I like temples partly built into mountains :). I was also impressed by the work my grandfather's company did when they saved these temples from the water masses in the sixties.

After about two hours in Abu Simbel we continued to the Philae-temple. A pretty nice temple situated on an island. This is also a temple that has been saved from the rising water masses. The temple was bigger than I had thought.

After Philae we continued to the "unfinished obelisk". A 42m tall stone. A crack in the granite stopped the work and the workers left it there on the ground. In comparison to Abu Simbel this wasn't that exciting.

After this we drove back to our hotel.

Heading for Cairo. 17:45 we stood at the Aswan train station and entered the 18:15 wagon-lit train to Cairo. We sat on the train for about one hour before it departed... We ate a nice dinner and in the club-wagon we had a jam-session with the train staff and some children.
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Thursday February 24th, 2005

Africa > Egypt > AswanAfrica > Egypt > Cairo

Car traffic and early morning life (video)

Category: Egypt, 2005
Car traffic and early morning life (video) - A video clip of the dense Cairo traffic and some tranquil early morning[...]
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A video clip of the dense Cairo traffic and some tranquil early morning life observations from Aswan.
Tags » cars, traffic, video
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