Abu Simbel

After a lot of talking, we decided that we should go to Abu Simbel on the local bus, stay there one night and go back the next afternoon, rather than taking the convoy. The convoy leaves at 3 in the morning and if we took it we would arrive at the temple with 5 hundred other tourists.

We took a taxi to the bus station in the morning and successfully bought our tickets. The 4 hour bus ride there was uneventful but we had lovely views out the window of the desert and the Nile valley.

The village of Abu Simbel was nice and well... very small. We checked in at the cheapest hotel in town which was A) Full of cockroaches B) Full of mosquitoes and C) Not that cheap; quite expensive in fact.

In the morning at 6 am we went to the Abu Simbel Temples. They were HUGE and the insides were slightly spooky. There were two temples the big one -the Great Temple of Ramses II- which is on all the posters and most of the post cards and a little temple -Nefertari- which is just as nice but a little smaller. We hung around the temples till the convoy came at 8am. It was fascinating to watch the space around the temples fill up. It was like being in an empty sheep pen and then all the sheep were being herded inside around you. We left the temples at about 8:30 and went back to our hotel. The bus ride back was just as nice as the ride there except dad and I lost our hats. Humff! I had just bought my in Luxor, it was pretty and blue.

Tourist Convoy arriving at Abu Simbel

Kitties in Cairo

The Kitten lying in the sun is a girl the dark kitty playing is also a girl and the light kitty playing is a boy. 

Aswan Faluka

We finally escaped Luxor for Aswan which seemed better at first, but the Faluka Captains were unstoppable. Falukas are smallish sail boats with very big sails. They can fit ten easily and the bigger boats can squeeze twenty on board.

We finally booked a Faluka ride, 50le for 2 hours. Only minutes later a Faluka Captain asked if we wanted a Faluka ride. When we said no, he did the usual ' Why not?! I have very good boat. Beautiful sunset. Please! Good price, good price!'. We told we already booked a Faluka ride, and he asked us the name of our captain. We told him it was none of his business. He kept pestering us and we finally told him that his name was Abdula. Then we escaped and had a McDonald's ice cream. When we left the McDonald's he was at it again. He told us to 'forget Abdula!'  

Egypt

When we were done with Dahab we took a 20 hour night bus to Luxor. This time it wasn't a sleeper bus and we stayed on the same bus the whole time (not like in India). The bus journey was relatively uneventful but they did make us get up at midnight at the African border. This was entertaining because they spent a longtime searching through all the Egyptians bags so we had our bags all ready and they just came along with a detecter of some sort and kept walking by ours. But they spent a very long time pouring over our passports.

Luxor was very fun but you couldn't go for a nice walk because the calesh drivers woudn't leave you alone and you know they thought that meant you still wanted to go for a ride, but for a cheaper price. I DON'T WANT A CALESH. I WANT TO WALK!!! Valley of the Kings was amazing. I don't think I realised it then because it took a little time for my dad and brother to covince me that they didn't just repaint the hieroglyphics (I think I have been in India too long).  

Delhi to Dahab (India to Egypt via Jordan)

We went to Delhi after two nights in Amritsar and frequent walks around the golden Temple. We flew from Delhi to Amman with one quick stop in Kuwait. When we arrived in Amman we were so tired we took a taxi to our hotel and then we went to bed. - the plane left Delhi at 5:00 am and we arrived at 11:30 am after eight hours on flights or at the Kuwait Airport.

Jordan was nice: Amman had good baklava; Aqaba had good snorkeling; Wadi Rum was pretty and Petra... Well, Petra was amazing! It had really nice hikes and really cute kitties!

We are now in Egypt, in Dahab (the kitties here are cute, but not as clean as in Petra.) Dahab is supposed to be a backpacker hang out but it's more of a scuba diver's place, where they are starting to build some resorts. Nooooo!

The hotel we stayed at had a restaurant where there was mother cat and her kitten who practically lived there. The kitten was growing up, sometimes she would not leave her mother's side and sometimes she would be far away but still within meowing distance.  We ate at 1 restaurant where we had 7 cats under our table fighting for the prime spot to catch any food that dropped.