Aswan

11th January 2004
Breakfasting in the hotel, we made the acquaintance of the delightful Jocelyn Sinclair Patrick Mahoney aka Jay from Vancouver. A spritely septuagenarian, Jay travels for at least six months of the year and is an expert on Egypt, having been here many times and at one time owning a shop in Vancouver selling Egyptian artefacts and bringing small tour groups to Egypt. He also was part owner of a hotel in Luxor for some years.

We mentioned to him our plan to enquire about cruises to Luxor (because it was far too cold to travel by felucca as we had intended.) Speaking fluent Arabic, he kindly offered to assist us.
He obtained the name of a travel agent who came to see us at the hotel and we eventually booked to travel on Tuesday afternoon on a 4 star boat at a discounted price of EP910.00 (A$199.00) for two nights, all inclusive. The ship stops at Kom Ombo and Edfu to see the temples and arrives in Luxor at lunchtime on Thursday.
In the afternoon, Guy had a haircut at an Egyptian barber (EP20) (A$4.40) and had the added benefit of "fatla". This involves cotton thread held tightly and run across the skin to remove soft down from the face and ears. I tried it myself and it's not as painful as it sounds - ticklish.
In the evening, we dined with Jay at the Panorama Restaurant on the Corniche. Soup, moussaka and spicy beef tagen, followed by Bedouin coffee, this sumptous repast came to EP66.00 (A$14.55) for three - such a bargain! Jay ordered some special herbal tea to settle a tummy problem and spent some time telling me of various herbs used in Egypt as cures for ailments. Later I did some research of my own and was intrigued by how much these ancients knew.
 
12th January
Today we visited the Nubian Museum (EP20)($A4.40). This newly built Museum does an excellent job of portraying Nubia from early times to the construction of the High Dam and the repositioning of many of the temples before Lake Nasser caused them to be lost forever. A series of photographs detailed all the sites overtaken by the rising waters and which ones had been saved. They didn't mention too much about the local population. These poor people were simply uprooted - some 20,000 of them - and relocated in the Western Desert towns of Kharga and Dhakla. No choice - just moved. No wonder some of the desert towns are less than welcoming!