Aswan - 31/12/11 - Tombs of the Nobles, Elephantine Island and New Years Eve

  New years eve, and a little different this year.  After a vey satisfying breakfast at the hotel - pancakes, fruit salad, brown bread, cheese, jam and tea - we set out along the Nile to find the ferry to cross it.  




 We had to walk through a barrage of touts trying to sell us felucca and ferry rides till we finally arrived at the ferry station.  There they told us that the price was 5LE each (we had expected 1LE).  After a fairly lively battle (which amused the other local passengers no end), I finally paid 5LE for the four of us.  It turned out that the locals actually pay 0.5 for the sme trip!.  


  The actual ferry ride was fun and we got a good view of the area on our first boat crossing of the Nile.  On the other side we found the ticket office.  As usual there was an issue with student cards.  The price was 30LE for adults and 15LE for students.  The ticket man gave us a knowing wink and gave all of us student tickets - and charged 80LE.  20LE for him and a saving of 10LE for us (or even more if he had charged everyone as adults).  We walked up a steep poorly kept stairway (usual rubbish eveywhere) .  At the top was a man in normal clothing and a bedoin.  We had come to realize that the bedoins seemed to be the keepers of the tombs.  The man in the suite wanted 20LE each (20 for him 20 for the bedoin) and the bedoin would unlock the good stuff.  





 We decided (somewhat angrily) not to take the offere and explored the tombs ourselves.  There were a lot of tombs both from the roman and the pharoic  times.  Some of the tombs were very impressive and because there were so few tourists, it was possible for us to spend some time looking at the inscriptions and the children enjoyed creeping down the passages to the inner tombs.  We also found  two tombs with two differen types of bat - small ones at first and much bigger ones later.

  After we had satisfied ourselves that we had seen all the available tombs, we climbed the steep hill up to the ruins of a mosque.  

 From this high point there were excellent views over the city showing the blue houses of a village on our side of the river and the new development on the other side - as well as the islands in the Nile.  Fiona was not feeling well so we decided  not to follow our original plan which was to walk through the desert to the Mausoleum of the Agar Khan and the monastery.  This would have involved a 2km, 3/4 of an hour walk in high temperatures.

 We returned to the river to negotiate a private boat taxi to Elephanine Island.  The boat driver came from the island and this was our first opportunity to get an idea of the difference between a 'Nubian' and an "Egyptian' .  The nubians have a darker skin and different - more musical culture.  The nubians were used as slaves in the pharoic times and subsequently became more important as they were also used in the Egyptian armies.  The driver gave us some tips on what to do when we got to the island.  

 He landed us just below one of the nubian villages and spent a while wandering through the narrow streets reminiscent of the Greek villages.  It struck me how clean the streets were in comparison to the city streets.  After a while we came out at the other side of the island where there was a small shop selling scarves.  


 There was a man operating an old fashioned lomb there who showed us what was on offer without being pushy.  In retrospect, I was sorry I had not bought anything from him.  We bought some marie biscuits from a small shop and then headed off towrds the end of the island to find the temple of Khan.  





   We bypassed the nubian museum and a man offered us a tour (which we refused of course).  A little further on, we found an open gate.  We wandered through some old ruins expecting someone to approach us for tickets at any time.  No-one did so we kept going.  On the one side were brick ruins.  We carried on and found a path to the other side.  Fiona felt that we sould leave through the bck gate at this stage, but through a majority vote, we carried on to find the fuins of a fairly large temple which we explored for a while.  Eventually we were worried that the ticket man would suddenly arrive so we left the area through the rear open gate thinking that we would easily find a way round back to the front.  We were mistaken and in stead of an easy path back to where we thought the public ferrys would leave, there were large rocks obstructing our way. 


It was a short hop to the mainland and a river taxi man saw us from a distance and arrived  to offer us a trip.  We said no but he stayed and befriended  us and turned out to be genuinely interested in us.  We finally decided to take his taxi to the mainland and he settled for 8LE (all the change I had left coming down from 20).  



     He dropped us off next to the famous old Cataract Hotel, made famous by Agatha Chistie and we made our way back to the main road, stopping briefly to take a look at a large coptic church - just a huge hall filled with chairs.  On the way back, we checked our options for the evening.


Before going back to the hotel we got some pancakes to keep us going until the evening


 Back at the hotel, we discussed our trip the next day to Abu Simbal where there are the very large statues and tomb of Ramses II and his wife Nefrotiti.  The same agent also gave us prices for a felucca to Kom Omba (150LE each including a trip to Luxor).  At 6pm, I'd arranged to meet Aly, the felucca captain from whom I had previously got a quote for the felucca ride.  I met him wiht Fiona and although the price was a lot more (740LE excluding the Luxor trip), we decided that he would be the best option.  I phoned him after he left and he came back to settle the deal.


After a sleep in our room (remembering that the trip to Abu Simbal left at 3am the next morning and this was New Years Eve), we set off to find the restaurant.  After getting money (a frighteningly regular necessity) we bough some festive hats and walked almost back to the coptic church before we realized that we'd missed the restaurant.  

 Came back and found it almost  opposite  the torad to the guest house.  The full meal offered turned out to be less than expected so we opted for specific food.  Fiona had the fish tagen (stew) and the rest of us had the mixed grill (Kofta, kebabs, chips and rice).  Beers were 11LE and cool drinks 6LE.  There were a couple of old men on the front tables overlooking the Nile.  As the evening continued people started to stream in.  


 It turned out that this was clearly more of a drinking venue than an eating one.  On the table next to us a man was busy preparing a large fruit salad, which tured out to be for the staff - looked delicious!  A few tables away there was a group with an old guy with a bottle in a bag.  He and those at his table started to sing and the restaurant started to get noiser.  He stood up and tried to get the other tables going and before long there was music throughout.  Someone found a had drum and the noise levels increased.





 The party started in earnest when Guy offered the old man his hat.  The restaurant burst in to applause and the singing went in to full swing.  This continued as the evening went on becoming rowdier and nosier.  
      The young men at the table next to us showed a great deal of interest in Lauren and this became more and more so as the booze flowed and their courage increased.  A man came up to Guy and told him that what he had done was a good thing and gave him a leather bracelet (Guy tried to give him the hat that had since been returned, but he refused it).  As 12pm drew near, there were English songs sung in a nubian vein - Coming round the mountain and In the Jungle got their own special verses such as 'she'll be....walking like an Egyptian, smoking a shisha, smoking marijuana, singing nubian songs ... when she comes' and 'in the jungle, the nubian jungle....'  .  WE counted down to the New Year although the rest of the restaurant didn't seem to notice.  We left shortly afterwards and went straight back to the hotel in anticipation of our 3am morning.