Getting Used to Life in Egypt

There is little doubt that now I have relaxed into the way things are done in Egypt I have become much happier. It is still occasionally hard work and frustrating, but it has become so much more rewarding. it seems, to a certain extent at least, that you get back what you put out. It has reinforced that, as a traveller at least, my favourite places will tend to be away from the big cities.

I rose early yesterday, keen to get some sightseeing done before the heat of the day became unbearable (it has been in the low 40s every day). I caught the ferry across to the west bank of Aswan and wandered some of the tombs of local dignitaries from the Old and Middle Kingdoms. They provide a magnificant view of the sprawling city of Aswan and of the islands that grace the Nile River.

Despite being thought crazy by the local camel drivers, I elected to walk the couple of kilometres to the Monastery of St Simeon. Older, but not as grand as its namesake in northern Syria, it is a very well preserved 6th century mud brick Coptic Christian monastery that affords unsurpassed views across the Mausoleum of the Aga Khan and the desert that borders the Nile.

After a slight hiccup with organising a ride back across the Nile, and some animated discussion, I was rowed back across the occasionally swirling waters in a boat so old and tiny that it would barely have been at home on the placid waters of a farm dam!

Later in the afternoon I elected to save my legs and take a horse drawn carriage up to the museum. Right from the very first morning I had landed in Istanbul, part of me had expected to be in an accident any time I was within shouting distance of a road. And so it came to pass yesterday afternoon, when a taxi, not concentrating on the road infront of him, struck the carriage in which I was riding. I am absolutely fine (although now I can cross off carriages and camels as forms of transport I will use in the future!) and have come out of it with nothing more than a small bruise on my right shoulder.

My driver, Mustafa, appeared so genuinely concerned with my welfare that he insisted on taking me to his house and plying me with tea until was able to convince hime that I was OK. I missed the museum, but I saw a side of Aswan seen by few tourists and I met and spent some time with a real Egyptian family. Of the 9 children that he and his wife have had, Mustafa was unashamedly proudest of the most recent addition to the family, their first son. Mustafa however, seemingly like all Egyptian men, is at heart a businessman. What followed was quite a barrage of offering to source me nearly any product my heart desired, from t shirts or papyrus to sheesa pipes and hash. Despite my protestations and continual declining of his offers, he agreed to drop me at the Nubian House Restaurant where I relaxed over tea and pastries, and savoured every last second of a memorable and spectacular sunset.

Today I am tackling a new form of transport for me, a felucca. I have negotiated with a captain who will take me and four others down the Nile to Kom Ombo, Edfu and Esna, before being picked up and ferried by bus to Luxor. It will be 2 nights aboard what can at best be described as a primitive sail boat, so Im sure there will be some tales to tell when I get to the other end.