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| Morning View from our Room |
We
already knew it would be a very short night, and we had a wake-up call
scheduled for 6:30am. Despite being so tired, I woke up around 5:00am
and was just laying in bed, trying not to wake the girls when I heard
Anna call out my name. I wasn't sure I heard correctly, as the room was
pitch black. Next thing I knew she was feeling her way along our bed
trying to reach the bathroom. I got up and helped her into the
bathroom, and she promptly pronounced that she had to throw up. Every
possible scenario went through my head as to what could be happening. I
ran through everything we had eaten, and realized she'd had nothing
that we didn't have, so I immediately wondered if K and I were next to
fall. Without going into detail, she wallowed quite uncomfortably for
about 30 minutes and then did get sick. As that was going on, I was
talking about options for one of us staying behind with her, and not
having her go on the day's planned visit to Abu Simbel. She promptly
put me in my place and announced that "nothing" would stop her from
seeing Abu Simbel. She said she felt "almost 100 better" and was going
to get ready for breakfast and the tour. The girl is absolutely the
best traveler I have ever known.
Sure enough, we all got up, had
breakfast, and got back on the boat launch in time to meet our guide on
the main bank at exactly 7:30am. K had read before we left about an
"Egyptian form of Cipro," which is supposed to work extremely well
against travelers' illnesses in Egypt. I called the Front Desk when
Anna first felt ill, but was told no pharmacies would be open for
another few hours. When I met our guide, I asked if we could stop at a
pharmacy, which we did, and I picked up the medicine, called Antinol.
It cost me all of .65 cents. Anna took two doses I think, and never
needed another one. Luckily, too, none of us needed it at all for the
remainder of the trip.
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| The Hotel Launch |
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| Riding the Launch in the Morning |
Abu
Simbel is located on the far end of Lake Nasser in pretty much the
middle of nowhere. It was built in that location as it marked the
traditional location from where the annual Nile floods would begin, and
also marked the effective border between Egypt and Nubia. To reach Abu
Simbel you can fly from Aswan, or drive. Whereas we were told in the
past there would be 10-12 flights a day, because of the drop in tourism,
they are down to one flight, five days a week. We elected for the
driving tour, and that entailed a 3-hour drive each way. I had visions
of the road being terrible, and that the drive would be torturous. I
was pleasantly surprised, however, to see that the highway between Aswan
and Abu Simbel is pretty much a straight line of very modern highway.
We could have covered the distance in much less time, but a strict speed
limit is imposed. The two ends of the highway, too, are controlled by
the military, who check all the cars going on and off of the highway.
For our tour, it was the five of us, our tour guide, a driver, and a
"security guard from the Ministry of Antiquities." I wondered -- and
questioned -- the need for the guard, as he slept pretty much the whole
way there. He ended up driving us back, however, and a later tour guide
informed us that the ministry requires the extra person specifically to
drive, as they don't want the same person driving up and back in one
day, especially when they're carrying foreign tourists.
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| Security Checkpoint |
The
drive itself was deadly boring. Nothing to see. It looked, in fact,
very much like the southern deserts of Jordan. The van, however, did
have WiFi, so we all surfed, slept, and read to pass the time.
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| On the road to Abu Simbel |
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| Stopping Along the Drive There |
The
town of Abu Simbel itself is very small and unassuming, and as it was
the only thing around for miles and miles, we could see it growing on
the horizon for a long time. The Abu Simbel visitor center and parking
lot were empty, save for us. It was very eerie. The entire Abu Simbel
complex consists of two temples, both from the 13th century BC. The
larger was built for King Ramses II, and the second for his wife, Queen
Nefetari. When they built the second dam at Aswan -- the High Dam --
both of the temples were at risk of being left under the rising waters
of what became Lake Nasser. UNESCO headed up a global campaign to raise
money and relocate both of the temples, which was completed in 1968. I
never truly understand how they completed the monumental task until we
visited. As you can see in the pictures, both temples are huge. What
they ended up doing was breaking the originals into pieces. This
included not only the exterior statues, but multi-room interior
chambers. They essentially chiseled everything out of the original
hillside like a puzzle, and then reassembled the interior rooms on a
piece of high ground. They then built an artificial mountain OVER those
rooms, and then reassembled the facade statues on the outside. It
still boggles my mind to imagine the scale of work that had to be done.
Plus, these weren't the only architectural sites that had to be moved
to higher ground because of the dam. We were to see several more the
very next day.
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| Approaching Abu Simbel |
We
were the only tourists at Abu Simbel, which still surprises me. There
was a lonely guard inside each of the temples, and they did not allow
our guide to speak to us inside. We couldn't figure that one out. We
asked a later tour guide, and he explained that when there are huge
crowds, they prohibit tour guides from going inside, as it can bottle up
people if tour groups keep stopping to talk. As we were the only
people there, I guess the guys there were just following the rules to a
"T," or maybe they were looking for a bribe. i don't know. Also
frustrating was that they made us purchase a special ticket in order to
use a camera inside the temples. The ticket, for foreigners I might
add, was over $20, so we just purchased one. In the first temple, the
Great Temple to Ramses, we tried to sneak some photos with other phones
and cameras, but the man got mad. We finally worked out a system to
keep him occupied in one area, while others went to take pictures in
other rooms. In the second temple, the man was more interested in
smoking that policing our camera activity.
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| Temple to Ramses II |
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| Entrance to Ramses Temple |
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| Family Pic |
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| Ramses |
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| Entering Ramses Temple |
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| Inside Temple to Ramses II |
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| Ramses |
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| Inside |
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| Anna outside Queen Nefetari Temple |
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| Approaching Temple to Queen Nefetari |
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| Contemplating Lake Nasser |
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| Interior |
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| Artificial Mountain |
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| Leaving Abu Simbel |
It
was getting hot by the time we finished, which was a little after noon.
It must have been in the high 90's, but not too bad. There was a
large collection of souvenir stalls set up outside. They had stalls for
about 30 vendors or so, with maybe half occupied. We felt guilty as we
were the only people there, and all them were desperate to get our
meager business.
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| Resting After the Tour |
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| Welcome SHADE! |
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| Shops Outside |
We
had some soft drinks and snacks in a small cafe area, and then piled
back in the van for the ride home. Our ministry escort drove us home,
and most all of us slept for a good portion of the trip. With only us
in the minibus, there was plenty of room to stretch out.
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| Driving Back |
It
was around 5:00pm when we arrived back in Aswan, and they were unable
to drive down the riverside corniche to reach the launch area, to get
back to our hotel. We saw soldiers assembled in the street where it had
been cordoned off. Our driver had to take a detour through some very
working-class areas, but we made it nonetheless. We later learned that
the troops had deployed ahead of the presidential election, voting for
which was to begin the following morning.
We were all tired, so we
elected to have some Egyptian food in our hotel. Again, we were the
only people in the restaurant, but we had a good meal, with an excellent
view of the sunset. Everyone turned in early. I did venture back out
for a little bit, taking the launch back across the river in search of
an ATM, which I found. Anna was worried about me heading out on my own,
but it was perfectly fine. As soon as I got back, however, we all fell
straight asleep.
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| Crossing Back to the Hotel |
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| Returning to the Hotel |
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| Dinner |
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| Sunset During Dinner |
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