Yesterday we arrived in Aswan which is our final Egyptian destination. It is basically the last civilised place (i.e. town with shops and stuff) we will be until we get to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan in about 10 days, and man we are enjoying the amenities! There are no campsites here so we are staying in a really nice 3* hotel (this is all included in the trip) with a rooftop swimming pool and (wait for it....) air con in the rooms (!!), we also have a fridge which is amazing as we've got so used to drinking warm (i.e. 40degrees) water and there is hot water in the bathroom although to be honest it's so hot the thought of a warm shower makes me want to cry, it's useful for washing clothes though. I have caught up with laundry and I even painted my nails today (it's so much easier when it isn't so dusty), this evening we have to go shopping to get 6 days worth of water and lunch as there's no guarantee in Sudan we'll be passing through towns for lunch. The other thing we've been enjoying in Aswan is the air conditioned McDonalds, for 9.50 EP (which is just over a pound) you can get an ice cream cone and a large diet coke and sit in the air con for as long as you want. The one here has really nice views over the Nile as well and the toilets actually flush and have toilet paper...bliss!
Right, enough about luxuries, on our final day in Luxor we got up early (5.30am - I was not in the best of moods) to avoid the heat and hopped on a boat to cross the Nile to the Valley of the Kings. We (well I say we, I actually mean a guy called Troy who is in my group) had previously negotiated a deal with a minibus driver so we had him driving us around. The Valley of the Kings is basically a collection of tombs built by the various Egyptian rulers over a 500 year period from about 16th century BC. The tombs are just phenomenal, the fact that they were built so so long ago yet they are still intact is just unfathomable (this makes Angor Wat look like a new build!), we went in three different tombs, the first was amazing because the first part was all finished and all the walls were pained (in really bright colours) with hyrogliphics, they haven't restored it either so it's exactly how it was found (minus all the treasure obviously which was looted years ago!) unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures. The back half of the tomb was unfinished as the pharoah died early so there were hyrogliphics but they weren't coloured in and loads of the pictures were unfinished. The second tomb we went in was one of the earliest built and the hyrogliphics were so different, they basically looked like stick figures, and it was all black and white, so interesting to see how it all moved on. That tomb was so hot though (even though it was buried under the ground) and you had to walk up loads of steps to get in. It was actually cooler outside in the 45 degree heat than in the tomb! The last one (I will find out the names and add them in later) was fairly unremarkable especially after seeing the other two but it was still cool and it's just crazy to think how old these things are. We headed though the sea of market sellers (conveniently located at the end of the Valley of the Kings) but with a bit of preservation I managed to get a pretty good deal on a scarf. We headed to another temple Rameses II I think which is the second biggest, it was really cool and there were again loads of huge huge pillars and hyrpogliphics both painted on and carved into the walls. After a quick ice cream shop we headed back across the river to the sanctuary of the pool back at our campsite.
The next day we drove all day to get to Aswan and then chilled out on the rooftop of our sweet hotel last night. Today, we headed to to Nubian Museum which is so modern by Egyptian standards and actually had some sort of air conditioning (!). There was loads to take in but the most interesting bit was about how they built a dam on the Nile in Aswan in the seventies and because of this they had to move hundreds of temples and towns so they wouldn't get flooded. The most famous of these is Abu Simbel which unfortunetly I won't be visiting but when we get the boat to Sudan we will sail right past it.
Tomorrow we will hopefully visit another famous temple that was moved onto an Island and then we've got a 2 night boat trip down the Nile for some R&R before we head into the craziness which is Sudan.
Sudan is going to be amazing, and so different from Egypt - we have an 18 hour ferry ride to get there and then about 5 days of desert driving and bush camping, this means no showers, no electricity and no alcohol (Sudan is completely dry) - wet wipes are going to become my best friends I think. The people in Sudan are supposed to be really nice and they're not used to tourists so there should be much less hassling (and ripping off) from people than in Egypt. There's quite a lot of alcohol on the truck which needs drinking before we get to the border so I think the boat trip may turn into a bit of a booze cruise!
Next update (hopefully) from Sudan!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment