3/15 Monday & Aswan day 1

While I am blogging, I am also watching a live web cam on a hummingbird nest in Southern California. The eggs are just about to hatch. http://phoebeallens.com/

Update to the info about the hotel: The older lady and her husband own the hotel. The younger woman is her daughter-in-law and works in the dining room.

Since Sunday was a sunny day, Brian and I decided to take the lift to the top of the mountain and see what we could see. We waited until 11am hoping that the crowds would thin - but no such luck. 101 people fit on the car - and I think that is what we had.

This is the reason that Chuck did not come with us.

When we got to the top, we walked around a bit, took some pictures and then headed back down, since neither one of us had gloves or boots.

Brian

They make strange little snowmen here:

When we got down, we met Chuck and decided to "dine" at the sausage truck.

This time we chose the sausage of L'Aquila. They weren't as spicy as last week's. The ones on the right that are the most cooked are ours. Chuck and I share, so we get one sausage apiece.

Back to Egypt. We disembarked at Aswan. We will do some touring and then check in at the hotel.

Our first stop was the dam. We got to see them letting some water through, but since we were on top of the dam, there wasn't much more.

The great thing about Aswan, was that we took boats almost everywhere. OAT makes us put on our life jackets - not sure why, since we didn't wear them at Luxor. Maggi and Larry modeling theirs:

Rocks in the Nile. This was what caused the name "cataract" in the area.

Arriving at Philae Temple. This is the temple of Isis. Before the building of the high dam, this temple was flooded each year, it would have been completely submerged after the dam was built. So they built a coffer dam around it and moved it to a higher island.

Some pictures of the Temple:

After the temple, we got back in the boat and went to an island for an alfresco buffet lunch.

This was the path to the WC at the extreme end of the island. This island is owned by our hotel and has lots of fruit trees.

The WC and its attendant:

At this point, I will digress and talk about toilets in different countries. The middle east is the 3rd place I have been where you were not supposed to flush toilet paper. (Yes, even very soiled toilet paper!) This is the 1st place where the toilets have NOT SMELLED. At every bathroom there is someone who gives you toilet paper and/or towels in return for a tip. You are not really paying for what you are being given, you are paying for the fact that they clean the bathrooms almost constantly and empty the wastepaper baskets frequently. In China and in India, sometimes the smell was stomach churning and the bathroom itself wasn't really dirty.

Back to the trip. After checking in, resting, and eating at our hotel, we returned to Philae for the Sound and Light Show. Passant was at her best here. She got us to the island first, so they turned the lights on just as we approached the dock. It was fabulous - totally dark and then this:

We followed the S & L through the temple:

I took a little movie of the Sound and Light show. You can hear how wonderful the actors were. Maggi and I thought that we recognized Dame Judy Dench as Isis. We also thought that we heard Maggi Smith.

Passant told us that when we came back to the seats, to join her near the back. That way, we could be the first off the island, too. She held up her OAT sign so that we could see her. Sami (the other guide hadn't been as good at instructing his group, so they weren't as quick as we were. He said they knew, but they didn't!)

Back to the Hotel. We have to be on the bus at 5 am to go to Abu Simbel, so we hopped into bed right away.