Despite these imminent deadlines, I couldn't resist taking advantage of the 5 day weekend afforded to us. In reality, we only had one day off, a Sunday, but since we also get classes off every Tuesday, nearly everyone simply skipped classes on Monday in order to create a nice, little break.
With my time, I decided to travel down to Upper Egypt and feast my eyes on the Pharaonic wonders of Aswan, Luxor and Abu Simbel. So on Thursday night, I headed to the Cairo's Ramsees Train Station in order to catch a south bound train.
Ben had actually purchased our tickets a few days earlier, so we didn't need to worry about that. We had planned on traveling in the uber-cheap second class carriage, but Ben was informed that foreigners had to purchase first class tickets. We'd paid 330 Egyptian pounds a piece for a round-trip, well more than I thought was justifiable, but I took solace in the fact that at least we would be riding in the lap of luxury. Or so I thought.
Simply put, the train was unfit for human beings to ride on. Well, I suppose that was a bit of a stretch, but it really wouldn't surprise me if it doubled as a camel freighter. It was smelly, dank, itchy and just plain-old gross. Our compartment didn't have a door, so the sounds of babies screaming and Egyptians jamming to music from their cellphones was a common theme throughout the 13 hour ride that began at 11:15 pm. Mumtaz!We arrived in Aswan, Egypt just before noon, and set off locating our hotel. Despite its size (1 million) Aswan seemed incredibly chill and relaxing. Lazily meandering down the Nile (which is infinitely more pristine and clean at this point than it is a couple thousand miles down stream in Cairo) is the attraction of choice for many tourists who visit. The souq area of the town was also refreshingly muted in comparison to the madness of Khan al-Khalilee.
After checking into the Hathor Hotel, we grabbed some lunch and then caught a one pound fairy to Elephantine Island, a truly remarkable place. Here, a Nubian community operates as it has for hundreds of years (with some modern technological infusions, of course). There weren't really any "must-see" destinations per say, but I vastly enjoyed aimlessly ambling through the thick jungle fauna and navigating through packs of goats and chickens. It was a lovely slice of nature that isn't obtainable within the city limit of Cairo.
We returned to the mainland in the early evening, and looked around for a little while. Aswan wasn't overflowing with tourist attractions like some other destinations we'd visited in the past months, but perhaps that's what made it so appealing. It had a very down-to-earth type feel to it that I couldn't help but appreciate.
We ate an early dinner and were in bed by 9 pm. We were headed to Abu Simbel the next morning, and our minibus would be departing at 3:30 am. Getting to Abu Simbel is a bit cumbersome due to the fact that you have to travel in a military convoy, thanks to a nasty streak of terrorism targeting tourists in the 1990's. But after waking up the next morning and hoping in our transportation, I hardly noticed as I slept the entire way.
We poked around the various temples for a bit and checked out Lake Nasser, which claims to be the largest man-made body of water in the world, extending all the way into Sudan (which quite possibly we saw...it's only 40 miles from Abu Simbel). After our 45 minutes of fun was up, we were back in the minibus and on to the next destination of the day: The Aswan High Dam.
For whatever reason, I was expecting the Aswan High Dam to be a modern marvel of engineering on the same scale as the Hoover Dam. Boy was it anything but. It was extremely boring. Really, all we could see was just a road going across a structure with a pile of rocks on either side. And it wasn't even that high!
Philae itself was actually pretty dang neat. It wasn't a huge complex, but it had enough to keep one occupied for a while without constantly running into throngs of khawagas (tourists), a big plus for Ben and me.
We completed our tour and were back at the Hathor Hotel in the early afternoon, ready to make the next leg of our trip north along the Nile to Luxor. After eating lunch, we climbed aboard yet another minibus, and were on our way. The trip was a scenic one, filled with several of picturesque shots of the Nile lined with exotic vegetation, but it was a long one; over three hours. When added up with our morning trip to Abu Simbel and then the drive to other destinations, we'd been in a vehicle for over 10 hours that day alone. Not exactly how I like to spend my vacation time. but c'est la vie.
When we arrived in Luxor, we were collected by the proprietors of the Luxor Oasis Hotel, who had us dropped off in front of their establishment. This was probably a good thing, because apparently a certain rogue hotel in the vicinity, the Nubian Oasis Hotel, likes to steal their customers. Here's an excerpt from an actual email I received from the Oasis:
If you wish to come to the hotel by yourself,(Please do not believe what you say about anything for the Oasis Hotel, perhaps offset some people say to you I am hassan or I'm from Oasis Hotel, please do not believe what is said)and please, do not make the mistake many people do, our is the Oasis Hotel, not Nubian Oasis, which is down the same street. The Nubian Oasis staff may badger you, as they do to other tourists on their arrival either in the bus or train station, and will not hesitate to make you believe they act for us, we do not like this method, and many of our customers have been misled. If you arrive by a taxi, insist that the driver brings you to our Hotel, they will often take you elsewhere as many of them have families which run other hotels.Good old Egypt! We went to our rooms and I immediately began using the free wireless internet for all it was worth (wait...does that make sense?), frantically catching up on the NFL Draft (I admit, I had actually broken down in Aswan and paid three pounds at an internet cafe in order to see who the Packers drafted in the first round).
The next morning, Ben and I woke up early and began what has quite possibly been our greatest single day adventure yet: bike riding throughout Luxor's West Bank. We had the option to join some other AUC students on a tour, but naturally had a preference for the more independent (and cheaper!) method of transportation. So for 10 pounds a piece, we each had our own personal bicycle at our disposal.
These bikes weren't your run of the mill variety- they had character, as if they were their own individuals. Ben selected a stoic green one, while I nabbed a pink beaut with a basket and all. Now, granted they were probably 20+ years old and the brakes didn't work. But over the course of the day, Ben and I formed a special bond with these bikes that made it hard to let them go.Our first objective was to actually cross the Nile and get to the West Bank (no, not that one). We drove to the corniche and soon located the public ferry, which carries people across for just a pound a person. We'd read in our guide book that even if you had a bicycle, you should only be charged 1 LE, so we were prepared when the Egyptians at the entrance tried to charge us 2 LE each. We remained calm and collected in the face of their blatant lies, looked around, and noticed an Egyptian man behind us also with a bike. We told them we wanted to see how much he paid, at which point they quickly let us through for the correct price of 1 LE. It may have only been a pound difference, but we relished our little victory. It was a good way to start the morning.
On the other side, we hopped on our bikes and started making our way to the West Bank's destinations, about 3 kilometers from the Nile's waters. We passed lush groves of banana trees on either side as the mountains in the distance came closer. After being cooped up in Cairo for three months, it felt so freeing to be able to cruise around on our bikes and be in complete control of where we went and what we did. Ahh, good times.
Our next stop was Deir al-Medinat, a former settlement where the Pharaoh's workers once resided. Aside from a couple tombs adorned in (apparently time-proof) brightly colored artwork (which, of course, we couldn't take pictures of), there didn't appear to be a whole lot going on there. The same could be said about the Valley of the Queens. A couple of interesting tombs, but nothing really astounding.
The Ramesseum, Ramsees II's mortuary temple, was actually pretty interesting, although it wasn't nearly as well preserved as Medinet Habu. In fact, its focal point was a huge statue of Ramsees II that lay broken in several pieces. Additionally, it would've been a lot more intersting if an old Egyptian guy hadn't been following us around, undoubtedly trying to score some baksheesh from us.
After finishing up at the Ramesseum, we pedaled our way to the Temple of Hatshetsup, another well-known Egyptian attraction, but for a variety of very different reasons. On the one hand, the temple an impressive edifice, dedicated to one of Egypt's most successful pharaohs, who also happened to be a female. On the other hand, it's also the site of a 1997 terrorist massacre that left 62 people dead, most of them foreign tourists. Cheery thoughts indeed!
Upon arriving, we set about looking for a suitable place to lock up or bikes. This had been a challenge for numerous reasons. For starters, the bike lock itself was silly short, making it difficult to even find a post or tree or fence that was skinny enough to allow us to lock two bikes to it. Secondly, we had to strike a delicate balance putting the bikes far enough away from tourist security so that they didn't ask for baksheesh, but close enough that randos would be discouraged from messing with/stealing them. We thought we found a suitable place in the parking lot of the Temple of Hatshetsup, but then some punk kids came up to us and tried to provide us with "protection" services, which we tried to tell them we didn't need. Nonetheless, they wouldn't budge, so we had to find a different spot, and became paranoid that the kids would sabatoge our bikes or something. Little tykes.
The temple itself was pretty neat, but I'm running out of good ways to describe pillars, hieroglyphics, and statues, so a couple of pictures will have to suffice:
After the temple, we made sure to refill our water bottles and paused to have a healthy portion of the bread we'd purchased that morning. Our next stop was the Valley of the Kings, 6 km away, by far the longest stretch of biking we'd be doing. Additionally, the sun was just about at its peak, and my body (more specifically, my neck) was beginning to feel it. I was anticipating a difficult ride, and that's what I got. The bike had been a champ up to that point, but it had some serious trouble keeping steam. And the weirdest part was that I could swear we were going downhill! I was convinced the little kids had screwed something up in retaliation for not not patronizing them. Egyptian Business Ethics 101.
Finally we got to the entrance for the Valley of the Kings and proceeded to take another brief rest and rehydrate break. The Valley of the Kings has a plethora of pharaonic tombs, but only a few of them are open to the public at a time, and a regular admittance ticket only allows you access to three. Our Lonely Plant guide book suggested which three to visit, but, of course, only one of them was open. So with that as really our only reference point, we headed up the hill and into the valley.
We followed the markers to the tomb we had selected (I forget the name), climbed a steep set of stairs, and entered. It was cool I guess, but I was a little over tombs at this point. Also, the no photography policy was a little annoying. The second tomb we checked out was actually more extensive and interesting than the first one, which the guide book had mentioned. The final one was a bit of a disappointment: although the map outside of it made it seem like it went on forever, tourists were only allowed access up to a certain point.
After finishing up with the Valley of the Kings, we got ready for the bike ride back. Since I was convinced that the grueling bike ride in had been downhill, I was prepared for a beastly uphill ride. However, it was a breeze, and it was definitely not uphill. The sun must've made me a little crazy on the approach trip. But if, you're going to be wrong, I suppose it's better to expect the worst and then get the best. Not too shabby.
Last on our list of West Bank sites was the Temple of Seti. We actually hadn't planned on seeing it, but we were making such good time half way though the day that we'd gone back to the ticket office and purchased additional tickets for it. Possibly a mistake, as it was an extremely boring place. Oh well.We spent the next half an hour or so carelessly pedaling through the endless fields of lush banana farms that line the Nile, and eventually made our way back to the ferry. We had a late lunch, went to Mass at a tiny little Franciscan church, and that was that. It had been an extremely enjoyable day. We'd thoroughly dominated all of the West Bank in typical Jonathan and Ben style (cheap, rugged, and efficient). Even though the pharaonic temples and tombs didn't blow my mind like some of the sites we'd seen over spring break had, it was still a great time, in large part due to the joy of bike riding. It was great to get some fresh air (well, at least fresher than Cairo air) and solid exercise. Perhaps most importantly, it felt great to be free and empowered, a feeling that only a bike ride could provide to someone who's been trapped in an urban sprawl, shuttled to and fro daily on a bus for over two hours. Maybe it wasn't so much that I missed riding a bike as much it was that I missed being out in the empty openness with the wind in my hair. I definitely plan on going on some joyrides, by bike or by car, once back in Minnesota. Corny, perhaps, but true.
On Monday, we only had a few destinations, all on the East Bank. We took public transportation to Karnak, an expansive and imposing complex of temples that covers two square kilometers. Karnak is considered by many to be the largest religious site of the ancient world, an impressive accolade when one considers its competition. Karnak was really an amalgum of all the things we'd seen the day before thrown into one huge display, with a plethora of statues, pillars, and depictions nearly every way we turned. We spent about an hour exploring many of its nooks and crannies, but probably didn't come close to seeing all it had to offer. One place we did find, however, was a neat little room, completely dark except for a single shaft of light that came down from the ceiling. It was a fascinating spectacle that had a sort of mesmerizing effect on me. Below is a neat picture Ben took that instantly became my Facebook profile picture.
We got to the train station at 9 pm and waited a while before our Cairo-bound train pulled in. This train was at least in better shape than the one we had taken down, although it had its share of drawbacks: it wasn't compartmentalized and they didn't turn off the lights the entire night. If you know me, you probably know I'm a very, very deep sleeper. However, although it takes a lot to wake me up, it's pretty difficult for me to go to sleep. I lay in bed for at least half an hour before I doze off, and that's on a good day with perfect conditions. Needless to say, I found it nearly impossible to fall asleep on this train. I tried a lot of different techniques, even laying down on the floor, but nothing really worked. I finally got to sleep around 4 am and slept until about eight. After what seemed like forever, we finally made it back to the Ramsees station at 10:30. We got a cab back to Zamalek and that was that.
Overall, I'd say my four day excursion to Upper Egypt was pretty successful. There were a lot of uncomfortable hours spent aboard trains and some of the sites might not have been mind-blowing, but we found enjoyment in other, unconventional forms, such as strolling around Elephantine Island or pedaling through the banana fields of Luxor. It was, for the most part, a relaxing and carefree jaunt, taken just before the horrors of the end-of-the-semester workload finally must be confronted. Speaking of, I've got to write 1000+ words a night for the next week, so I should probably wrap this up. Wish me luck!
