day 6 Egypt- smells and sights of Aswan

Another great sleep and quiet night after the partiers settled down from the Nubian party at 10:30. One last breakfast (love those omelettes but won’t miss the vile coffee) and we did the through -the -next -boat- disembarkment manouevre one last time, onto another bus with our luggage and headed out for our last tour together.

First stop Aswan dam, guarded as noted by the military including tanks, due to its importance to Egypt. We learned it was 80% financed by Russia after Nassar refused the World Banks’ loan condition of ceasing to buy Russian guns and this is marked by a huge (and beautiful) friendship Centre on the Dam itself, in the shape of a lotus flower. The guide wouldn’t answer this question but I suspect the old looking guns the military are toting are Kalishnakovs. And very interesting hearing the history from an Arabic perspective – there was a comment that the Suez Canal was “nationalized to raise money for the Aswan dam” and no mention of the circumstances surrounding that…. In any case it is truly impressive, though not much to look at but though there was lots of foreign help in the engineering, respect for the number of huge engineering projects that Egypt has taken on. We talked about how many temples were moved above the dam reservoir level – 12 – but Ahmed dodged the question about how many were ruined by the dam. The next project on the go is a solar panel project partnered by Siemens – totally makes sense in this country, though the blowing sand is hard on everything. And to be done on large scale of course!

Next to Philae Temple by boat, one of those saved from the rising waters due to the dam. Lovely site, on an island, lots of tourists around again. Lots of Italians, some Spanish, Chinese, Japanes, a few Canadians and fewer Americans, unusually – Brits seem to make up the rest milling about. At least they dispersed speedily. It was getting quite hot by this time. Group pic on the wall of the last stop at the temple and then back to the mainland to visit an essential oils place where there was a hard sell of “medicinal” essential oils after a very skilled glassblowing demonstration (they make the perfume bottles there – what a hot occupation in this climate!) and talk on the history of essential oils – but we were offered tea, coffee and the local hibiscus drink (karderah) which was delicious and the Turkish coffee was the best cup I’ve had in Egypt (very reviving). The collection of perfume bottles was extraordinary.

Purchases made (most went for some oils – sad to report my cold is still present after inhaling the mint cure during the demo ha ha) we moved on to the Unfinished Obelisk. This was found in a granite stone quarry and showed the ingenious way of cutting out the stone using wood expanding with water as well as stone tools. It was brutally hot here, now about 1:30 p.m. and it has been in the mid 30’s to upper 30’s at this time of the day for the last couple of days – today was 37 C feeling like 39C according to the forecast. But quite fascinating to contemplate the logistics of moving such large and heavy blocks once completed, by boat to Karnak, Luxor and Hapteschut’s temple (not to mention relocating them to London, Rome and Paris recently). The one in this quarry was abandoned after about 7 months painstaking work due to a large crack that developed.

Again noting that the vendors here are much less aggressive, we ran the gauntlet out of the site and back to the Centre of town to check into the Movenpick which is on an island. A huge complex – and respect to our bus driver who dropped us off at the ferry maneuvering in a very small parking lot; we were all wondering how he would get out of there with another bus coming down the one lane road. We scurried across on the ferry to the hotel reception and played the “check in game” which is tedious in a group and worse today as they wanted photocopies of our passports. Luggage arrived by the time it was all sorted out and we were on our own until 5 p.m. Stopping only to drop off luggage and change I was the first in the lovely, lovely pool. Appearing at the entrance, you are escorted to your selection of umbrella/chairs which is set up for you. A lovely lunch of chocolate milkshake (which I suspect they don’t do often given the interesting thin suspension that arrived – albeit tasty) and goat cheese arugula by the pool was quite reviving.

I sorted out my ride to the airport tomorrow with the hotel desk which surprisingly provides a car without the usual hotel exboritant cost – then onto a Feluca for a sunset sail. Very touristy indeed but quite fun albeit there was very little wind after being quite windy all day. Part way through the sail two bags were produced by the crew – yup, souvenirs……. Really not much sunset colours, but it was cool on the river and very enjoyable.

A brisk walk after dinner around the island as far as we could go with Anna and Christina (the Belgians) and visit to the Movenpick tower lounge on the other building – an eyesore but a gorgeous view of town – about finished me off and I bowed out of a trip into town to search for baklava and tea and retreated to my room to unpack a bit and get cleaned up – and more, to rest. This cold is still eating up a great deal of energy, although I am quite happy that I am still able to function and have not yet been laid flat. I suspect jet lag will accomplish that, but at least I’ll be at home then.

And yay, there is a kettle in the room and the first functioning ac I’ve had since Cairo! Life is good.

The journey home begins tomorrow, but another tour awaits in the morning by boat and camel to St. Simeon monastery.

Memories of the day – HOT, HOT, HOT. Fabulous glasswork. Bartering and extraordinary engineering both modern and ancient.