Trip to Abu Simbel

(see previous post for pictures)

This is an interesting sensation, cruising down the Nile and writing for the blog. We’ve never been on a cruise so this is a great place to give it a try. This morning we woke up at 2:45 and got ready for our excursion to Abu Simbel. After riding there and back in a cramped 27 passenger bus, we wished that Ramesses II had exercised better judgment and put it closer to a major metropolitan area. No doubt about it, the temples are located in the middle of nowhere, several hours drive into the Nubian Desert. We all know by know that Ramesses put them there to impress the Nubians, but the bottom line is it’s an inconvenient location for one of the major “must see” tourist spots in the world.

One fascinating part of the trip was driving around Aswan at 3 am picking up the other tourists. We got off the main street a few times and saw many people wandering around, playing cards, a few shops open, etc. I guess they were all taking advantage of this cool time of the day. As it was, with the AC not turned on, we were sweating in the bus. That’s sad to be already sweating at 3 am. We seemed to pick up everyone in Aswan, then, just when we thought the bus was full, we picked up some more people and they folded down the jump seats in the center aisle. Though I was not happy to be on the warm, cramped bus, I was thankful that I didn’t have to sit in a jump seat. Many of the bus riders came from cruise ships and fancy hotels, and had nice little breakfast boxes as did we. We had a few riders looking like they had just been rescued from the hostage exchange, who did not have nice breakfast boxes. There seemed to be quite a mix of nationalities, and I don’t think there were any other Americans because nobody was friendly like an American would be, and nobody said “it’s hotter than h--- in here!”

We did have a chance to get “up close and personal” with our fellow tourists from many nations. Many riders fell asleep on the way back and when that happened, you would get involuntarily “cuddled up” with your next door neighbor. Nancy had on her shoulder the head of a sleeping Japanese tourist while I worked most of the way back to avoid the bobbing head of an Egyptian man who I believe just hitched a ride back to Aswan. Always room for one more rider!

We continued on to the caravan assembly point where we waited for a full 30 minutes. Nothing like waking up at 2:45 in order to wait. They make a big show of protecting tourists everywhere (after the Luxor attack the Egyptians have to do this) and to go to Abu Simbel you have to use an operator with a spot in the caravan, which is supposedly escorted by the military. Though we went through several check points, including an exam for bombs under the vehicles at the start, I didn’t see any military vehicles accompanying us. Plus all the busses and vans were traveling at different speeds, so it really wasn’t much of a convoy. Even though we waited for so long, at the last minute, as we were loading back on the bus, two guys headed for the bathroom (a far distance removed) and our bus driver went ballistic. Of course the bus didn’t move for ten more minutes after the two guys returned.

The ride seemed to last forever. Once you hit the desert there is a great deal of flat sand, an occasional sand dune, a rare hill or pyramid shape, and that‘s it. A good time for a nap. The road made it interesting several times. Once it disappeared into the sand, though I think that was probably just a layer of sand blown over the tar they laid down the day before. There was a section of pure tar, ready to be paved. Driving though the tar was like rolling through molasses.

Arriving in Abu Simbel, the bus pulled into a dusty sand parking lot (what else?) with no major tourist attraction in sight. All that was visible was a sketchy little open air café, which in Egypt means a few beverage coolers and a bit of seating. Thank goodness as we got off the bus we were greeted by our guide of the moment. He spoke a little English and like most guides was only able to “tell the story” and not able to answer questions. So here we are, just off the van, our legs still asleep from the cramped up position, and this guide says “follow me” and then takes off in the opposite direction of everyone else as if his pants were on fire. I did my best to keep up but my best just wasn’t good enough. Nancy and the boys were trailing further behind. Finally our guide stopped and said that we were going to the Queen’s (Nefferari) temple first so that we could tour in peace and quiet, as everyone else would go to the main temple first. He sent us straight into the temple which was fine because we would prefer exploring most of these places on our own. The only guy who understands all this, Jacob, is just annoyed with the guides because he believes they all have their facts wrong. He is also annoyed to have to listen to someone telling the stories he already knows, and explaining basic stuff like hieroglyphics over and over. I believe the rest of us are actually learning things, I am happy to report, as we could answer all of the questions posed by this guide. For those of you who are planning a trip to Egypt, the correct answers are “a throne on top of the sun disc” and “look for the throne in the cartouche”. Those answers will get you far in Egypt.

The reason why we could not see any attraction when we drove up and walked from the bus is that the temples were lifted up from the rising waters of Lake Nasser (formed by the high Aswan Dam) and were built into a new cliff face, which is actually a manmade mountain of rock, sand and dirt. Though the new cliff surrounding the temples looks real, it’s actually just a fascade on the front of the mound, sort of like you’d see at the zoo or at Disney World. We also learned later than the temples are encased in concrete domes covered with sand and rock, in order to protect the templates as the mountain of dirt shifts over time.

The statues in front of the Nefretari temple were immense. Since Ramesses built the temple, there were four of him and three of Nefretari. Though these statues were immense, the seated figures in front of the main temple were truly mammoth. Photos do not do these justice, as the size is beyond our frame of reference. An interesting aspect of this temple is that the design is precisely laid out so at the two solstices the first rays of the sun shine through the entrance hall and the next hall into the “holy of holies” and light up three of the four gods seated on the back wall. (Remember the “Raiders of the Lost Ark”…sort of like that, only there isn’t a stick with the big jewel to focus the light beam. The fourth god is not lit because he is the “god of darkness”. Anyway, when they moved the temple everything was calculated precisely so this effect would be carried on. However, due to the change in elevation, the sun hits the gods one day later.

We noticed in these temples that main of the first European “discoverers” in the early, middle and late 1800s chose to chisel their names and the dates right into the fronts of the many sculptures, sort of like Daniel Boone’s “I kilt a bare here”. We decided this illustrated the colonizing mentality of that era, including a complete lack of respect for a culture, even if much of that culture was 3000 or more years past.

We fought the crowd inside the main temple for a while, then returned to Nefretari for a last look, and then stopped back in the main temple. All the other tourists in the caravan must have been overheated and pooped at that point, because we had the place to ourselves. This was a nice bonus to have a last tour without any distractions, other than the scary guys dressed in their flowing robes looking for a handout. They do look exactly like the shady characters from Raiders and often want to drag you into a dark room around the corner to show you something. Or they sit right in the middle of a Kodak photo spot (just kidding, no signage in Egypt) and demand money if they are going to be in your photo.

We made it back to the bus at the appointed departure time, being a bit worried that everyone else would be loaded up and mad at us for lingering. However we should have known better as many things operate in a “real time vs. Egypt time” mode. This was Egypt time and our driver was sitting in the café swapping some lies with his friends and finishing up his last (five) cigs. This gave us a chance to cool off with a big bottle of water and prepare for the trip back. Finally after about 20 minutes the driver starts to move toward the bus and we all follow. Everyone respectfully got into their same seats, even those poor folks in the little miniature jump seats. Unfortunately this meant that Nancy and Craig do stuck with their “wheel well” seats. It was evident that some cultures don’t fully understand air conditioning, as it had to be emphasized to several window sitters to close their windows so the AC would work properly.

Simple mathematics would tell you that we would not get back to Aswan by the 1 pm boat departure time but this seemed to be a shocking fact when the bewitching hour passed and we were still quite a distance from the Aswan Dam. This challenge was negotiated by our driver, who spoke on the phone constantly during our return trip. It turned out that many other ship passengers (on other ships docked with ours) were in the same caravan, so the boat departures were simply slipped back an hour. Talk about flexibility! If the drive to Abu Simbel seemed to take forever, the return trip really did take forever. Our driver apologized at the end and explained that the police were monitoring his speed on the return trip and if he was caught going over 80 kpm then he’d be fined 150 Egyptian pounds. This drew a big groan from our bus, as we all had paid a big amount of $$$ for this trip and we’d have been glad to pass the hat and raise the $30 for the fine.

We got to the ship, were greeted warmly, took a great shower in our awesome rooms, and enjoyed a fast lunch before being met by another guide for our afternoon activities.