Namrin in Egypt: Abu Simble-Aswan 24 Dec

Hi, everyone.

At the end of 2007, I gave myself a special reward by going to Egypt. The trip was awesome. I and my friend, Sayuri, experienced a lot of good things...including some bad things. Anyway, we survived and came back. Now I will show you some of fantastic places and activities we have done in Pharoah land.

First of all, I have to explain that the albums sent to you were arranged by the places alphabetically and by time, not by date because we went there for 10 days so I think 10 photo albums are too many! Secondly, following to albums, the story I'm telling you in each email would be run by places as well. Anyway, I'll show you our schedule which was quite busy because it was high season so we couldn't manage it more easily as we wanted to get around to many places. (It's the most often flying within 10 days in my life EVER!)

Day 1-20 Dec: Cairo and Saqqara
Day 2-21 Dec: Sharm El Sheikh (Red Sea)
Day 3-22 Dec: Sharm El Sheikh
Day 4-23 Dec: Cairo
Day 5-24 Dec: Abu Simbel and Aswan
Day 6-25 Dec: Kom Ombo, Edfu, (passing Esna)
Day 7-26 Dec: Luxor
Day 8-27 Dec: Luxor
Day 9-28 Dec: Cairo
Day 10-29 Dec: Cairo

For this album, Abu Simbel-Aswan, Sayuri and I were in the middle of our trip. And from this Abu Simbel until first day in Luxor, we joined the Thai group tour (but all guides are Egyptians). If you wonder why? It's simply because I couldn't find the tickets to Abu Simbel during this high season and Thai agency offered much cheaper package to cruise the Nile for 3 nights than I could find on the internet!!! Apart from these 3 days, we traveled on our own.

Abu Simbel (south of Egypt) is one of the highlights that you shouldn't miss it. It's actually a small town in my opinion but Pharoah Ramses(es) built the great 2 temples over there and they were rescued from flooding by Unesco before Egyptian government built Aswan Dam. It took about 40 MILLION US dollars to disassemble and re-assemble the temples. Let's appreciate it!

Oh, I have to tell you that the flight to Abu Simbel from Cairo starts at very early morning (i.e. 3.30 AM or 4.30 AM) and the return flight to Aswan or Cairo finish at noon or before that only. This means you can appreciate the temples for little less than a half day. I and Sayuri hardly slept (yet this was not the first time during this trip).

After enjoying Abu Simbel, we flew up north to Aswan. Then, we stopped by Aswan Dam which was not quite special for me but this dam means a lot for all Egyptians. Then, we visited the Unfinished Obelisk where is like a granite stone mountain which there were evidences that ancient Egyptian dig granite stone to make an Obelisk here. Don't worry... you will see the FINISHED Obelisk in later album.

What else? We checked in the hotel cruise. Sayuri was very happy because this was the best accommodation of the trip. After taking a nap, we were out for a fellucca trip, an Egyptian boat that is controlled by wind and hands (no engine). It was nice but little cold--dont' forget it's winter in Egypt.

This was Christmas' Eve so the hotel treated us with a special course which was fairly good. We went to see the show a bit before we accepted we were too tired as we woke at 1 or 2AM this morning. Bed time...zzzzz

See ya

Namrin

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/namrinb/Photo%202007/Egypt%20Trip%2020-29%20Dec07/Abu%20Simbel-Aswan%2024%20Dec/