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What a long day. This morning we woke up at 3:30 AM and packed our things for our departure from Cairo. Our flight was late, however, and we didn't actually fly out until 7. The funny thing is that late departures are really expected, and flights never leave on time. This is because the only airline in Egypt is EgyptAir, and since they have no other competition, they can pretty much do whatever they want. The flight was freakin' awesome, though. We flew to South to Aswan, Egypt on a 777-200, which had me pretty pumped because I have never flown on a 777 before. The plane was very spacious with plenty of legroom, and a little camera mounted underneath gave us a sweet view of the nile below as we flew--so I have to give Boeing some major props for that one... Anyway, after the 45 minute flight we landed in Aswan, located in Upper Egypt (because the Nile flows from South to North, Upper Egypt is actually the southern half). A side note-- we later found out that only a few hours after we left, Cairo experienced its worst sand storm in 10 years, preventing anyone from even leaving their homes. Had the storm come a day earlier we would not have been able to visit the Pyramids, and we would not have been able to fly out as scheduled, missing our cruise. God was sure watching out for us it seems... Anyway, from the airport we headed straight to Philae, an island which houses an ancient temple to Isis. We had to take a ferryboat to the island, which is not actually the original site of the temple at all. Before the construction of the dams, the Nile would flood on a regular cycle and covered much of the temple. In the 1960s, however, the massive temple was taken apart and reassembled, stone by stone, on a higher rock next to the original location. The temple is very big, but according to Osmond it is the smallest temple that we will see this week on our tours. It really is an amazing structure, and the walls are all covered top to bottom with hieroglyphics and carvings of the gods. Many of the carvings are defaced, though, thanks to early Christians who discovered the monuments. The Christians would chisel away at whatever they could, since the pagan temple was a tribute to foreign and false gods. I can see their point, but it is too bad that so much of the original artwork was destroyed. All in all it was a very interesting visit and I am just anxious to see what the other temples will be like. After we sailed back to our bus, we drove to a famous papyrus shop, where the workers demonstrated how the ancient paper is made. The papyrus reeds are first cut into long strips, and after removing the outer skin they are hammered and flattened with rolling pins to squeeze the excess water from them. This greatly increases their strength and makes them easily pliable and durable. The flattened strips are then soaked in water for 7 days to allow the sugar inside to be dissolved. After a week, only 10% of the sugar remains and they are laid out in cross-hatch form until a large enough sheet is produced. The sheet is then paced in a large press, where after 6 days it is finished. The resulting papyrus paper is surprisingly strong and the paintings and prints in the shop were very beautiful. After many people bought souvenirs, we loaded back onto the buses and visited a giant unfinished obelisk, which sits on is side in a nearby rock quarry. The obelisk was one of the ancient Egyptians' trademarks and is created from a single stone. The tower, shaped like the Washington Monument, would have been 120 feet tall if finished, however a crack was discovered in the rock and the effort was abandoned. Not really much to see there though, so I was ready to move on. |
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After our morning visits, we finally headed to the cruise ship, which was docked on the Nile at Aswan. The ship was built to hold 250 passengers, and aside from a few dutch couples we were the only ones on the boat. Daniel and I are rooming together and we found our room to be quite comfortable--all the furnishings and trappings of a nice hotel, and best of all one giant bed for the both of us... We immediately met in the dining room for a delicious buffet lunch. It was there that we first saw "the Henchman". He works on the boat and is in charge of the meals, but derives his name from the fact that he looks like a shady character from a James Bond or Indiana Jones movie. You know the type-- the tall, skinny dude who tries to sneak up on Bond with a gun in the shadows. Here's the only picture we have of him (he's the one lurking in the background) since he is so shadowy and elusive. Daniel and I kept expecting him to creep up on us with a cord in an attempt to strangle us from behind... Anyway, after lunch we all got on two sailboats, or "feluccas" and sailed to the other side of the river to the Botanical Gardens of Aswan. They weren't very impressive, but afterward we just sailed around for a couple of hours until sunset. It was very relaxing since we hadn't had a chance to catch our breath since arriving in Egypt. The captain of the boat led us in a local chant and he played the drums while we danced. It was a blast. Also, while we were sailing around, a boy in a tiny little boat kept paddling up to us and singing the most random songs in hopes of getting a "tip" (everyone in Egypt is constantly doing every little mundane thing they can think of for a "tip"). Anyway, we were serenaded to the tunes of "Macarena", "She'll be coming 'round the mountain" (in French AND English!) and Wyclef Jean's "Guantanamera". Pretty crazy stuff, but the kid was a riot. When the sun had set, we again boarded the ship and had a devotional on the top deck, under the stars. While we were singing praises to God, we heard the loudspeakers of the Muslim call to prayer. As Daniel said, it was almost like doing battle. Very cool. After our dinner, a bunch of us went to the disco lounge and had a big dance party for a couple of hours. A couple of members of the crew showed us some new dances and we pretty much danced the night away to classic 80s and 90s dance hits like "the macarena" and "YMCA". It was a blast and a heck of a workout. So, that was Day 2 of our week... the ship pulls out at around 3:00 AM so when I wake up we will hopefully be cruising up the Nile River! |
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