Day
6: Aswan : Morning Visit to Elephantine Island and Board the Nile
Cruise Ship
 We
took a feluca over to Elephantine Island to see the museum, the
Nilometer and the restored ruins of Temple of Khnum.
The Elephantine Museum
The Elephantine Museum was great! It had a lot of
pre-dynasty and dynastic material from Nubia and Aswan. There were
mummies, pottery, stele, early jewlery, all of which we were allowed
to photograph. There was a new annex with good displays of items
excavated by the German archaelolgists who are currently working
there..
The Khnum Temple and Nileometer
The Khnum temple was mud brick and had been restored by the Germans.
The Nileometer is the ptolomaic restoration. The levels of the rise
of the river are quite extraordinary, sometimes being 20 or 30 feet.
As we walked to the end of the island we saw a huge naos of solid
granite that housed the statue of the god at the temple.
Entrance 25 EP each and 5EP baksheesh.
Model
of the Khnum Temple complex above, and the ruins of the complex
below. See the Old Cataract and New Cataract hotels
across
the Nile in the background.
We took the feluca back to the dock to transfer to the boat--The
Nile Admiral for the Presidential line.
Felucas can sail directly against the current to go up the
Nile as there is a prevailing wind, however to come down the
Nile at faster than the current, they must tack against the
wind.
Our guide in Aswan was Ahmed
Salama.
Leave Isis Hotel and Transfer to Nile Admiral
 We
transferred to the boat.
When we picked up our luggage, the desk asked us if we had found
a pair of baby trousers in the laundry. The desk staff only spoke
limited English, and had asked me to bring my own laundry down the
previous evening. When I did they said they could not tell when
the laundry would be back but could only guarantee 24 hours, while
the previous day they had turned the lanundry around in 3 hours.
Kept the laundry and now carried it to the boat in my luggage. The
Isis Corniche Hotel was the type of place that people come to every
year and stay a week and a half. Good beds, nice marble floors and
bathroom, but a little past its prime. The location is excellent,
though, right on the corniche and it has a boat dock. The air conditioner
was old and we woke up with a terrific headache the first night,
and the air felt clammy when you ran it. We slept without it. I
noticed that my sinuses were playing up all through this trip, thankfully
I brought the saline nasal spray and the Azep allergy spray.
Really-we are too precious for words! Aswan doesn't really have
too many choices for hotels at the four star level. There are five
star and lots of lower levels. And as I said, we really liked the
location. An interesting note is that there seemed to be solar hot
water units on top each of the older units. If so, they had been
there a long time and the Isis was way ahead of the current ecological
trend.
The Nile Admiral
The boat, the Nile Admiral, looks really nice--red carpet, 1940's
style wooden trim. We arrived in time for lunch, which was an excellent
buffet. When we unpacked we found there was space enough in the
small room to put everything away, and it has an excellent shower!
Diner was great, too, a three course dinner with set menu. We didn't
attend the bar entertainment-- Nubian Dancers and we skipped the
feluca ride.
We had assigned tables
and at lunch we met Grant Monro from Christchurch, NZ. He
is the second cousin of Bert Monro, the "World's
Fastest Indian" (Anthony Hopkins was Bert in the movie).
He has been traveling for a month and one-half and has a month
and one-half to go. He has been to Turkey, Jordan, Israel before
he came here. A young couple came in late, Siad and Salam,
newly weds from Jordan (but now living in the USA). They were
a bit out of it, having just flown in from the wedding, I think.
That night at dinner Ken asked more questions about Burt Monro.
We took pictures of the boat, you can see them in the section
on the website about Nile Cruises. At Dinner, two new people
took the place of Siad and Salam (evidently we were too old and
boring for them) Debbie and Katie were friends traveling for two
weeks together from Ireland and they were a lively pair. Katie's
face was swollen from mosquite bites she had gotten in the hotel
at Cairo.
Debbie and Katie had spent the time in Cairo without going to the
museum! Astounding! They seemed less than impressed with the pyramids,
they liked the pyramids best when they took them out in desert so
that they could look back at the pyramids.
One night in Cairo they asked for a taxi to take them to a restaurant
and the concierge arranged for one. The driver immediately tried
to take them to a restaurant of his "friend" and while
they were arguing that they wanted to go to the restaurant they
named, he crashed into a mini bus.
They were shaken but not injured and asked to be taken back to
the hotel. He got out and discussed the crash with the mini bus
driver and got back into the vehicle. Obviously he had not settled
the issues surrounding the crash, because the mini bus pursued him
and when they forced him to the side of the road the men in the
bus, about 12, all got out, forced him out of the car and took his
keys. Eventually Debbie and Katie got out of the car and walked
the short distance remaining back to the hotel. No cabs in Cairo
for us!!!
Afternoon tea is served every day at 5:00, Dinner at 7:00
and then the nightly event. Nubian Dancers tonight. Due to
jet lag we didn't particpate in most of the late night activities. |
