Aswan and Abu Simbel, Egypt: Day Two (11/21)

After a long day of traveling, we had what I would define as a quick nap as we were up at 4:30 AM local time to catch our flight to Aswan via Egypt Air. With a quick hearty breakfast of instant cup of noodles from home, we were set to head off to finally see something. Our tour representative, Mohammed Basheer met us early in the morning to walk us through Cairo Airport. For us US-based globe trotters this was a new experience. Mohammed was able to walk us all the way to our gate until the final bag scan. The only downside to this is that because you have a final scan before you board, you can't bring any water on-board your flight. But the actual process of boarding was def. an experience worth writing about. You think Chinese people don't know how to line up? Egyptians are even worse. It doesn't matter if you are in first class or no status, everyone rushes the door and pushes to get to the front, they have no concept of a line or waiting patiently. The second part of it is that there is no jetway, you actually have to take a shuttle bus to your plane and then haul your own luggage up a set of stairs all while fighting all the Egyptians pushing and shoving you to get ahead.

After a quick 1 hour flight, we arrive in Aswan which is at the southern most point of Egyptian and about 10 degrees warmer. It was a humid 85 degrees when we landed and we were greeted by another tour representative, Mustafa.

We had a nice drive by our driver, H through central Aswan with the city on one side and the Nile River on the other side. We arrived at the dock to take the ferry boat to our hotel, Movenpick Aswan. Upon arrival we were greeted with fresh hibiscus juice, which is similar to cranberry juice but sweeter and less tart.

After a quick refresh, we went to the main side of Aswan to meet with our tour guide, Friday and our drive H for the 3 hour drive to Abu Simbel. Sadly, due to the current situation of 80-90% less tourists as a whole, Abu Simbel airport only had 2 limited flights per week so most tour operators are now forced to plan a 3 hour drive from Aswan for tourists. Prior to all this, Abu Simbel had a busy airport with multiple daily flights shuttling tourists in and out. On our way, our tour guide picked up a local roasted chicken, hummus, french fries and pita bread for our lunch. We had a strict deadline to meet at 11 AM at a tourist checkpoint at which point our car was inspected. We were lucky enough to be the last car in the caravan and given a back up driver and a tourism police officer armed with a machine gun.

The drive to Abu Simbel was nothing but dessert, red sand for stretches. There was only one highlight, about 1 hour in there was a mirage on the left hand side of the freeway. It looked like there was a palm tree and huge pond. After 5 minutes when we passed what looked to be the center of the mirage, you saw nothing but sand. It was pretty cool and def. worth waking up for!

We knew after 3 checkpoints, we knew we had reached the city of Abu Simbel. There were small villages, each government subsidized. They had built from the center of the city out and as we proceeded into the city center, you could see the lush trees and flowers in bloom. Who knew a desert could look so green and lively?

Finally, we reached Abu Simbel. Friday gave us a brief overview of the two temples we were visiting and gave us 45 minutes to explore ourselves. An interesting fact about Abu Simbel is that the government moved the entire 2 temples in fear of the it sinking in the Nile River after the completion of the High Dam. Every single piece was cut and put back together and reinforced. Can you imagine the process of taking apart and putting together? A side note, we were the second group to head to Abu Simbel from Aswan but while here we only saw 4 tourists not including ourselves. It was so sad to see how much tourism has died in Egypt. It was nice to be VIP but it was terrible knowing the consequences it had on the Egyptian people.

Temple #1 was a tribute to Pharaoh Ramesses II built for himself. Temple #2 was temple Pharaoh Ramesses II built for his Queen Nefertari. To read more about the history of Abu Simbel, click here.

After some pictures and exploring, we headed back into the car for the long three hour drive back.

Finally, we arrived safely backed in Aswan famished. We decided to eat at the rooftop restaurant of our hotel which gave us a fantastic view of Aswan at night. I had the Egyptian lentil soup which was served with fried onions, croutons and fresh lemon juice. It was hot, thick and exactly what I needed. My main course was spaghetti bolognese which was sour and salty but I just didn't feel like eating stringy, dry meat. For dessert, we ordered strawberry and vanilla ice cream. Movenpick is famous for their ice cream and it is sold all over Egypt but we were lucky enough to have it from the source. The strawberry wasn't creamy but more of a sorbet. The vanilla was to die for. Creamy and a true vanilla flavor that only a vanilla bean could provide versus vanilla extract. After dinner, it was time to hit the sack as tomorrow would be another long day of sightseeing.