Diary Travelogues - Egypt - The Nile & Pharaohs - 1996 - April 08 to 27 - Part 4

Hi Friends,

This is part 4, the final leg of my 1996 journey down the Nile in Egypt.

If you are just coming on board, you can read Part 1 here.

If you are following on from previous parts, welcome back 🔆

Thanks for reading
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Saturday, 20 April | 23.40 | Aswan

Lots of introspection. My moods change and my mind is going round and round. It's the usual result of seeing myself so intrinsically separate from the rest of the world, unable to either join in, or to let go!

Got in to Aswan by 4pm yesterday and checked into Hotel Arabi, for 8LE with breakfast. I had wanted to cycle today but there were no bikes available so I got a boat to the other (West) side of the Nile, climbed a hill and sat in the shade of a mosoleum, where I smoked and wrote a couple of postcards, relaxing with the view. Had fun sliding down the hillside on my shoes and then crossed back over the Nile. Walked around, ate and smoked some more.

Then I met Omar, a 31 year-old Nubian¹ with a felucca². Chatted, discussed pot, and I got two 15 LE deals off him. I don't allow people to get close to me in general. I felt he changed his opinion of me from a regular foreigner to someone he could be more natural with, and there's a lot to be said for my impression that he was sincere. Thing is I don't know, and can never know! What is sincerity that I am trying to define anyway? My definition is mine. Everything seems so relative and cannot be otherwise. But I cannot see that to others it is not necessarily so!

^{Aswan | one two three four five six seven eight}
Tiny, momentous things happen. I got the munchies this evening and went to a shop where last night I had bought 4 chocolates. This time I bought 8. The man recognised me and asked if I was buying them for children or for myself. Me, self-conscious in my introspective stonedness, said it was 'for me and friends'. I am a strange person. In another mood I might have said yes and joked about it.

Then, when I got back to the hotel, I made small talk with a New Zealander in tatoos and a rather posh sounding Australian. There was no tension or anything of the kind, but they were probably chuckling about me being stoned, and I found their subtle, inborn affectations amusing. People with fake laughs are funny, because it's crazy to think they are actually used to it!

I may be stoned but I don't feel I'm writing rubbish³. These are fractions of various trains of thought. I've gone all the way round in my head – how ridiculous to divide people into sane and insane! Do people interest me or just experiences? I think it's the latter!
<sub>1. "Nubia is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between Aswan in southern Egypt and Khartoum in central Sudan. It was the seat of one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa" (...link to wikipedia)
2. Felucca = traditional wooden sailing boat (see images).
3. LOL, maybe, maybe not @bargetheyounger, but you seem to be getting a bit paranoid are you not?</sub>

Sunday, 21 April | 20.00 | on a moored felucca, Aswan

Did some cycling today. Left 11.30 and cycled to Aswan High Dam. Sun blazing down and the road undulating through the desert, barren with sandy hills concealing the Nile's greenery.

^{Aswan 'High' Dam statistics | source 1 source 2}
Humongous project this dam. I cycled over it, looked down and then cycled back along the other side of the river and back over the smaller, but still large, British-build 'old' Aswan dam.

^{Aswan High Dam | one two three four five six seven eight}
Returned around 5.30pm, showered, got stoned and went out to eat and sit by the banks of the river at sunset. Then met Omar at 7pm – he's off to get some pot and I'm waiting in the felucca, bobbing around in the water.

Monday, 22 April | 10.15 | in car, Abu Simbel to Aswan

The Egyptians must think it hilarious that every day in Aswan, hundreds of foreigners wake up at 4am; pay fantastic prices (30 LE), travel 280 km - 3 and a half hours each way; spend a couple of hours at Abu Simbel after paying another 21 LE to get in; and then go back!

^{Abu Simbel | source 1 source 2}
But it was worth it! Slept on the way there and had two early joints in celebration of Ramses II's vanity that caused him to build on such stupendous scale. Sat and gazed at the enormous statues overlooking Lake Nassar¹. The characteristic feature of Pharaonic sculpture is that all the figures seem to be blind. Far to little time, just two hours, and I made the most of it. We left around 45 minutes ago.

<sup>Abu Simbel | one two three four five six seven eight
1. "The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC...The complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir. The relocation of the temples was necessary or they would have been submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River."(...link to wikipedia)</sup>

Wednesday, 24 April | 11.05 | on felucca, Aswan to Edfu

Been on the felucca since yesterday afternoon.

When I got back from Abu Simbel I slept until 6.30 in the evening and then met up with Omar and a youngish guy from Cairo called Mohammad. Mohammad took me to see someone would would take me on his felucca for two nights sailing for 55 LE. But there was some ensuing hassle and so today, I am with a different captain (Mohammad), his nephew (also Mohammad) and 6 other foreigners – an Australian who was in the car to Abu Simbel, an Israeli tourist (brave fellow), a Brazillian and his Dutch girlfriend, a couple from Denmark, and myself.

^{Nile & felucca | one two three four five six}

It was very pleasant yesterday, just floating down the river and smoking pot – all but one of the group smoke! There were a couple of drums and harmonicas and both the Mohammads joined in, singing river songs. Agreeable and relaxed company. Docked at sunset for a piss/shit and something to eat. Ate, smoked and set off again and we all slept by around 9.30pm. It was a bit chilly, but beautiful with the stars above and water below. Woken up at 7am by our arrival in Kom Ombo and we visited the temple there for a while, had breakfast and then set off again.

^{Temple of Kom Ombo | source 1 source 2 source 3}

Friday, 26 April | 17.50 | Luxor

Got into Luxor yesterday afternoon. The felucca trip was very pleasant. We stopped off outside a village for the night, where a wedding was taking place, and where we had all been invited by Mohammad, who lived there. There were three other feluccas besides ours. I found the village to be unlike the other villages I had come across, which were secluded from the tourist business. Here lots of boats stop off and it has made the villagers quite cynical with regard to foreigners. I didn't care much for the atmosphere and left early. I walked about, smoked and chatted with the others on the boat.

I had been wanting to swim in the Nile – it was just a fancy to jump in and hold on to the boat in midstream. Yesterday, when underway again, Gavin – the Australian's cap fell in the water and we spent 15 minutes spinning round chasing it. Then Gronon, the Israeli's cap fell in and we chased it for a further 10 minutes, during which time both he and I got into swimming trunks and I finally jumped in when we got close enough. I was only in the water for a few minutes and it was hilariously dramatic. I swam after the boat which was pulling away from me, Henerique – the Brazillian stretching his hand out which I eventually was able to grasp. I did get my swim out in the middle of the Nile after all!

^{Luxor | source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4}
Had initially meant to leave for Cairo today, but I bumped into Brendan¹ and some other people I had met before and we got stoned till 4.30am. I just go deeper and deeper into subjectivity when I smoke in company and do not feel like joining in conversation. Not keen on spending long in Cairo – heavy having to meet so many people and say bye. Am getting the 11.30 train tomorrow.
_{1. I had previously cycled out to the Valley of the Kings with Brendan - in part 3.}

Saturday, 27 April | 19.25 | train Luxor to Cairo

The clocks went forward by an hour. Said byes to Gavin (who I was sharing a room with and who was leaving for Hurgada and the Sinai), Brendan and gang. Boarded the train on time.

^{Egypt rail | source 1 source 2}

Feeling fairly low and unenthusiastic. Train's just pulling out of Beni Suef, so another couple of hours to go. There are a couple of young (mid 20s) policemen sitting in front of me and I've had to chat with them. Ok types, but I'm in no mood for their ignorant jokes and propaganda opinions. All mixed up!

Sunday, 27 April | 20.15 | Cairo

Today has been warm! I got in at 21.10 last night and was in Matareyya¹ by 10pm. Good to see Ibrahim again and I got two deals of poor quality pot for 25 LE each.

Done very little today. People I tried to call gone away over the 4-day 'Eid' holiday², the first of which is today. Lots of ants about!

^{Cairo | source 1 source 2 source 3}
I'm only going to spend 4-5 days here and will then head for the Sinai, Jordan, Syria (maybe spend a few weeks there if I can find someone to give me intensive Arabic coaching), Lebanon, Turkey. Then if I can contact Zlot³, I'll get a boat from Istanbul to Odessa, spend a few days and then make my way from there to Germany⁴.
<sub>1. Matariya – a surburb in N. Cairo where I had rented a room for a few months after I arrived in November 1995. Ibrahim was landlord and became a good friend.
2. Eid – 55 days after the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.
3. My friend from university in Scotland who was studying Russian, and was in Odessa at this time. He is @camuel here on Steemit :D.
4. I have blogged my journey from Egypt back to Europe. Here's the link if you would like to see how it unfolded :D.</sub>

^{source & description of what Papyrus sez}

If you'd like to read on, here are links to some other travel blogs:

• The Levant - 1996 - this follows on chronologically from the account you have just finished reading. My attempt to return to Europe overland :D (5 parts)
• Eastern Europe - 1994 - Poland, Belarus, Russia and the Baltics (9 parts)
• UK to India via Turkey, Iraq - 1973 - as a baby, with my parents who were migrating East (1 part)
• French Polynesia 2005 & 2007 - Tahiti & some islands in the South Pacific Ocean in photos and few words (3 parts)
• New York - 2013 - photographs and a heavy heart (1 part)

If you are curious about my diary-writing, here's the backstory.

Namaste!
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