Saturday, July 12, 2008

TRAIN / CRUISE RIDE TO UPPER EGYPT

Upper Egypt is hotter as it's nearer to other parts of Africa like Sudan. It's 40 degrees celcius when we there. The people are tanned, in comparison to their fellow egyptians from Alexandria and Cairo.

Day 5 -7 pictures here!
Day 8 pictures here....and
Day 9 here.

Day 5: 19 June (Thurs)

We checked out from the hotel at about 11am and left our backpacks at the storage room. Cos we are going to come back on 24 June.

Together with Ahmad, we took a local cab (and yes, with my luggage on top of the cab!) We reached City Stars which is linked to Inter-Continental Hotel (which Hafiz stayed before - jealous!) The security was tight. It was almost like going into the airport. It was packed with teenagers who were having their summer hols. It was a huge mall with international brands like H&M, Virgin Music Store, etc.

We had KFC for lunch -he bought us 3 piece meals each. Cant finish it! We then went to Spinneys, a hypermart like Carrefour and was surprised when Ahmad grabbed a can of Pepsi from the fridge and drank it in the store. At the cashier, he just paid for it and they dispose the empty can for him. Interesting.

After much walking aimlessly,we decided to watch a movie 'Prince Caspian - Narnia'. Sort of a GV without the holders for drinks and popcorn. About 1 1/2 hrs to the show, they stopped the movie and thought it was technical prob. But they actually have a break time for people to buy snacks or go the washroom.

We had to leave 30mins prior to the end of the show, cos we dun wanna miss our train!

Train station was packed with locals and tourists. Both of us seemed to be the only Malays. The rest are Spanish, Mexicans, Japs. The walk in the mall and while waiting for our train, gave us time to know Ahmad better. He had another group the next few days and might not be fetching us when we are back from Luxor. So, we exchanged email addresses.

The Sleeping Train finally arrived. We bought snacks - chips and my fav Yahoo Mango Juice prior to boarding. It was a comfortable 12-hrs ride. Manage to sleep half of the journey. Except you have to bear with the toilet condition. What do you expect, it's a train! And dont use the toilet when the train stops!

Dinner and breakfast served on the train was more than enough.

Day 6: 20 June (Fri)

We reached Aswan at 10.30am and was greeted by Said our tour guide who travelled all the way from Alexandria. We nicknamed him Bruce Willis wannabe. The way he tried to look tough with his sleeves rolled up. His jokes which most of the time are not funny at all. And he is afraid of the sun!

We visited Lake Nasser, a huge man-made lake and the High Dam. We then checked in the cruise and slept until lunch time. Lunch was a great buffet but gave me the headache hearing people talking at the same time - Mexican, Spanish, Indian and Arabic. The rest of the day was spent watching movies on Dubai One Channel. That's when I started gaining weight I guess! Dinner on board is at 8pm.

Day 7: 21 June (Sat)

We were up early for our feluccas ride to Aswan Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough wind to sail the feluccas, so we had to settle for a motor boat. Botanical Gardens was just alright. It was the vast dessert across the river that amazed me. It was then back to the cruise.

It was the few hrs after lunch, when it started sailing then we realised how boring it was on the cruise. TV aint working when it's sailing. Even if it's not sailing, the channels are centrally controlled i.e. if he feels like watching soccer, he would just switch the channel! Damn! Wished we had our IPOD, PSP or DVD Player. Thats when we went to the sun deck to enjoy the breeze, supposedly. But it was a hot breeze!!!

Kom Ombo Temple was our next destination. It's not the biggest temple. But well, being tourist and city people, it was quite a sight. It was more of a sight when we see street sellers taking their ablution/wudhu' at the Nile River and praying by the side, ignoring the hustle and bustle of tourists haggling for better price.

While we were sleeping, the cruise sailed to Edfu.

Day 8: 22 June (Sun)

From the cruise, we took a horse carriage to Edfu Temple. It was a more fun place for taking pictures. It's bigger than Kom Ombo definitely. The rest of the day was spent 'rotting' in the room and enjoying the sunset. And star gazing.

Day 9: 23 June (Mon)

The day that I've been waiting for ever since we've board the cruise! Why? It's the last day of the cruise, saying goodbye to our boring guide and we missed Cairo so much. We checked out at 8.30am. So we have no room for the rest of the day :(

We went to Colossi of Memnon, Temple Funeral of Queen Hatshepshut and Valley of the Kings. We were perspiring! Too bad, we cant take pix of the interior of the Valley of the Kings. We visited 3 tombs.

We then isited the largest temple - Karnak Temple. It was huge! We got lost when were taking photos. We used the obelisk as an indicator to find our way out. Phew!

It was lunch time after that, but we were more thirsty then hungry. So we gulped down a bottle of Coke. It was then time to say BYE to the tour guide. We alighted from the van. And saw the other cruises which were linked to our cruise 'Princess Amira'. We 'cruise-hopped' and realised that our cruise was not there!!!

We panicked cos our luggage was in there! Alhamdulillah one kind soul recognised us and told us that Princess Amira was finding another 'parking space'.

While waiting for our 9pm train, we sat at the lobby, at the same seat for 7hrs!!!

At 8pm, finally another guide came to fetch us and we are on our way back on a 9hr train ride!

naniz @ 5:55:00 PM