Our train arrived in Aswan around 10 am (2 hours late). Everyone was bleary-eyed and very tired. The train was not very easy to sleep on because it stopped very abruptly throughout the night and had a terrible shimmy when it got up to speed. Both dinner the night before and breakfast this morning were served on the train. The food was adequate - but nothing to write home about.
We left the train and went on the buses for our guided sightseeing tour of Aswan.
Our first stop was the Aswan High Dam. It was built by Nasser, but he died a year before it opened (so Sadat was in charge when it was dedicated).
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| Aswan High Dam |
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| Aswan High Dam |
Next, we visited Philae Temple. We took a boat to get to the island it was relocated to after being moved as part of the Aswan Dam project (the original island is now under Lake Nasser). The temple complex was very impressive and everyone enjoyed the visit.
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| Boat to Philae Temple (Tourist Police on bow) |
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| Philae Temple |
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| Philae Temple |
Our third stop was the Unfinished Obilisk. It would have been an extremely tall and impressive monument, but it cracked while they were chipping/carving it out of the granite quarry where it's located in Aswan. It was very cool to get a glimpse into how this was done by the Ancient Egyptians.
Afterwards, we were dropped off at our cruise ship. It is considered a 5 star deluxe (instead of 5 star standard) Nile cruiser and the name of the ship is the M/S Nile Pioneer 1.
After we had our welcome drink, we checked out our rooms and then went on a wonderful Felucca cruise up and down the Nile in Aswan. While sailing, the Nubian captain of each boat had the groups singing and dancing around the boat.
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| Nile Felluca Cruise in Aswan |
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| Dancing on the Felluca |
Because our group is so large, we have been traveling around in two groups (Bus A & Bus B). Quite a rivalry seems to have developed between our two groups. We were on two Felucca boats on the Nile and each tried to out-do the other with their enthusiastic singing and dancing. I'm not entirely sure, but I think this also had something to do with one boat "gently" ramming the other during the cruise (everyone was just fine).
After the cruise, we had dinner and a Nubian musicians came aboard for a show in the lounge. The students, and many of the adults, had a fantastically fun time.
We all went to sleep exhausted - hoping that a better night's sleep was ahead!
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| Games at Nubian Night on the Cruise Ship |
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