Egypt 2002

 

 

 

We had been talking about going to Egypt on a river cruise on the Nile for a long time when one day, a few weeks ago, we got an inviting email from a local tour operator: “Last Minute deal for Michael Schwab etc...”. Well, it did not take long to persuade Sissy and sure enough, a few days before term break, we had tickets to Egypt in our hands. Flight from Vienna to Luxor, accommodation on a five star liner, trip to Assuan and return to Luxor, flight back home via Cairo, all included. The price was right, so we managed to entice Carl, another friend of ours and his wife Irene to join us.

 

So on Saturday, 16 February, we embarked on our trip to Vienna, red-eyed and anxious to get away from the cold and miserable weather in Austria. After a calm and uneventful flight on Egypt Air (beverages on board included non-alcoholic beer and non-alcoholic wine ;-)) we were picked up at the airport by Said, our Egyptian guide - not after having paid USD 25 to be allowed to enter the country, in the form of a tongue-licked stamp, glued into our passports.

 

 

On the way to our – supposedly – luxury liner, we were explained that five Egyptian stars do not equal five European or American stars. This lowered our expectations immediately, and for a good reason. When we entered our ship – after passing three other ships, parked in line on the pier – we were welcome by a strange smell that was to stay with us for the remainder of the trip. It appeared to be a mixture of recently applied disinfectant, year-old dust on the red carpet and an unidentified mixture of spices, sweat and urine. Anyway, the air-conditioning was working, the outside temperature was fantastic, the mood was good and everybody enjoyed the first meal on board on a wiggly table at river level. Looking out of the window, we looked straight into other ships docked beside and above us – something which was going to change, once we had left Luxor.

 

 

The next morning broke with radiant sunshine, warm temperatures and - undrinkable coffee. So we all settled for tea and were ready to fight caffeine withdrawal symptoms for a week. After breakfast a group went to explore the City of the Dead, including the Valley of the Kings on the western side. Having been there and done that before, we decided to stay in town and explore the markets of Luxor. Shortly upon leaving the ship and walking only a few yards on what used to be walkable pavement, we were surrounded by zillions of merchants trying to throw their goods at us. Meeting Egyptian peddlers should be made a compulsory experience for anyone trying to go into business – their methods are simply mind-boggling and unspeakable. It takes a lot of rudeness and explaining you are from Iceland or outer space to get them off your back.

 

Anyway, after a few unsuccessful attempts to walk into town we fell prey to a taxi driver, the taxi being a horse drawn carriage that almost collapsed when our good friend Carl, weighing about 300+ pounds, got on. We wanted to see the market and told our driver to go to the “bazar”. He sped us around town, ignoring red lights, whipping the horse like crazy, drove around in circles to completely confuse us and eventually dropped us in front of a so-called “papyrus factory” in the worst part of town. The dirt and poverty were undescribable and when we refused to get off, he became a little angry. Obviously, he was cashing in on anything we would buy in that store, so we eventually got off, reluctantly, wandered through the shop and got on the carriage again, after Carl, our friend, had acquired a page of blank papyrus at an outrageous price.

 

 

After getting out of the labyrinth of Luxor’s back streets we decided it was time for a rest, got back to the ship and enjoyed a superb afternoon, looking at the Nile, admiring the mountains to the west, sipping Egyptian tea and living through a breathtaking sunset on the sundeck. The evening was spent in good company, trying to outdo each other in swapping stories in what we had done during the day, the deals we had made and the sites and sights we had discovered.

 

The next morning was spent on the sundeck, looking lazily at the river banks floating by, lined by palm trees, long stretches of nothing and occasional fishing boats. The villages we passed looked incredibly poor and people stood there, waving at us and we stood there marvelling at how they could survive under these conditions, doing their laundry or their dishes in the river. The waters of the Nile are unspeakably dirty, we suspected that all the sewage went directly into it, without any sewage plants between the toilets and the river.

 

 

 

 

Edfu was our next stop where we got off after lunch to visit the best preserved temple in all Egypt. And indeed, it is an impressive sight with its mighty walls, fine inner court and delicate stone carvings inside. It was the one that impressed me most in its layout and good condition. It was so well preserved because it had been covered by sand for many centuries and only where the Copts could get to the temple walls in a few places did they succeed in destroying some of the wall figures by chiselling them out.

 

 

 

 

 

We got a few wonderful shots of market scenes in Edfu where we could every conceivable fruit and spice except one – garlic. After an exciting horse carriage ride we got back to ship jut in time, not without spending minutes haggling over the fare. Back on board, we continued our trip to Assuan, again enjoying another wonderful sunset over the desert.

 

 

Tuesday started pretty early – and without breakfast. The ship had docked at Komombo and we were up early to look at the temple of the Nile crocodiles there. After going through masses of rock and columns we got back to the ship by 8, where a healthy breakfast awaited us again on the sundeck. No time was wasted and we took off for Assuan, the southernmost point of our river cruise, which we reached by noon that day, Tuesday.

 

Assuan was no exception when it comes to hassle. Even though there were a few shops which considered themselves “hassle free zones“ -  hassle free was over as soon as you stepped outside a sheltered area. Again, we did not get very far when leaving the Solaris/Cesar – we never knew what the real name of our ship was - when Captain Lovely, an Egyptian with a sweet tongue, invited us on a tour down the river to visit the Mausoleum of Aga Khan, Elelefantine Island, the botanical garden and other sights to be reached in his “feluka“, the local variety of a traditional sailing boat.

 

 

We eventually agreed and were taken to Captain Lovely’s boat, to be accessed only via a wafer-thin plank, which would hardly have coped with my weight, let alone our friend Carl’s. Sissy staunchly refused to hop on board and we had a minor crisis on our hands. Captain Lovely increased the thickness of the pier by stacking a few more planks and we found ourselves on the feluka, without great enthusiasm on the side of our women, though.

 

Off we went, the entertainment program on board consisted of Nubian songs and handclapping by the 2 captains and we eventually enjoyed a wonderful ride on the river, gliding along the riverbank in fantastic weather with a breathtaking scenery. Back home, we had more stories to swap and even the ladies acknowledged it had been a good trip.

 

Abu Simbel was the next item on the agenda. Can you leave Egypt without having seen it? You could, but you won’t. So I got my wake-up call at 3 am to get on the bus across the desert by 4. Sissy had more sense than I and decided to stay behind to enjoy a quiet morning, but the rest of us felt compelled to “do it right“ and were ready to suffer. The bus too small, the trip was too long (550 km) but the view was great. Was it worth a detour? Yes and no. If you were struck by Pharao’s revenge, it was definitely a bad idea to go. No bathroom on the bus and only one at Abu Simbel visitor center. Hundreds of victims trying to find relief there, imagine the lines, the smell and the contorted faces. You have to suffer for culture’s sake!

 

 

Abu Simbel, nevertheless, is an impressive sight, albeit somewhat disillusioning, especially if you have seen Agatha Chrisitie’s “Death on the Nile” which was only partly taken there. The scenes inside the temple with the falling rock were taken in Luxor at a different site.

 

Anyway, we got back by 2 pm and since there is no rest for wicked, we were on our feet again soon after, roaming the streets of Luxor, dodging peddlers and hawkers, getting a few video shots and trying to ignore the suspicious smells wafting at us from various directions.

 

 

Thursday saw us on our way back to Luxor, stopping at the river locks again. We were anxiously awaited by local traders who would hurl their merchandise – mainly tablecloths, napkins and scarves made of beautiful Egyptian cotton – on deck to anyone showing only the slightest interest. If you did not want it, just throw it back – quite a few landing in the river, which they did not seem to mind. Once you agree on a price, you just throw the money down in a plastic bag and the deal is cut. Funny way of doing business.

 

 

Speaking of business, the really know all the tricks. The locals can smell tourists for miles and as soon as they have spotted you, they start chatting you up. “Germany?” - “Austria?” - “Switzerland?”  As soon as you nod they have almost got you there. If that does not work, they start bidding camels for your wife, forcing a smile on the dry lips of the resisting tourist. If that does not help, they offer you tea, free of charge, to get you into their shop. If even that proves to be unsuccessful, they wait for you a few metres away from their shop, asking you to write down an address on an envelope in western writing. After you have obliged them, they will try to compensate you with a cup of tea or a papyrus bookmark, when you pass their shop which happens to be just down the road. I have never met more artful businessman – always smiling, and taking a refusal very graciously.

 

One case in point was when they almost got our friend Carl. Carl, looking big, healthy and wealthy, got drawn into a bazar by a trader who promised genuine Egyptian antiquities. The man locked the store, drew the curtains and dramatically produced a mysterious box with items he had supposedly dug up from the sands of Egypt. Old coins, some stones, statues and other stuff, which wettened Carl’s appetite. When it came to getting a price, the man gravely pounded on his pocket calculator, and eventually showed the result to Carl. 3500 LE, about 820 USD, for a handful of antiquities. Carl sadly shook his head, willing to pay no more than 350 LE. However, out of respect for the man, he refused to give his price and turned to the door. The man followed them down the road and kept lowering his price. After 10 minutes and a few hundred feet away from the shop he settled at 100 LE. From 3500 down to 100 – Carl was so furious by this reckless price-beating that he did not buy anything from this man. Who knows what he would have bought, anyway….

 

 

A cup of Turkish coffee at the “Winter Palace” in Luxor, the place where Carter and all the other famous archaeologists used to stay, ended another balmy afternoon in Egypt. Right at sunset we visited Luxor temple where hordes of tourists roamed about until long after darkness. It is another impressive place, with originally 2 obelisks at its entrance. There is only one left, dangerously slanted to one side, the other one being in Paris at the Place de la Concorde.

 

Friday morning was spent on the sundeck, looking at the river, reading, drinking tea and soaking in the enchanting atmosphere of the place. It was the day of an Egyptian holiday, called Bayram, when every family is supposed to slaughter a sheep and cut it in three parts. One for the family, one for friends and one for the poor. A lot of sheep were taken to the cruise ship by the locals and slaughtered on board where they had the necessary equipment to do it. Sissy did not particularly like the sight. It was also the aftermath of that terrible train tragedy near Cairo.

 

 

Carl made us visit the market again in the afternoon, thousands of people on the streets because of the festival – quite a crowd, mostly men, few women or girls. So our two blondes were soon surrounded by boys in their late puberty, all wanting their picture taken with 2 beauties from the North.

 

Before the day was over we took a horse carriage to Karnak, the largest temple city in Egypt, built over a time span of 2000 (!) years. We witnessed the sound and light show which was very impressive and left the following day early in the morning to fly back home.

 

 

It was a great trip, a fascinating place, sometimes a little too much for our weak stomachs (both literally and figuratively), but it is definitely a place to be visited, even more than once. We saw very few American tourist, so this is the time to go now; by Egyptian standards, it is relatively quiet and we never felt unsafe or threatened. You have armed people guarding the ships and the monuments everywhere and safety precautions are taken very seriously (100% HBS at every airport). We hope you have enjoyed our report and hope to see you soon!

 

Mike and Sissy Schwab