Pretty light day today.
View of the sunrise from my hotel room
The beef bacon was back today :)
Left the hotel at 7:30 and went to the airport.
Like Jordan there is an xray to get into the airport before checkin. Checkin was a bit stressful because I didn't get a window seat on one of my flights so had to try and get it changed and it was all just messy and stressful :(
So go through that and found that Cairo airport has free wifi!
Then down to the "gate" (through security, which bans liquids over 100mL, even on domestic flights). We got driven all around the airport to our plane which was parked in the middle of nowhere.
The first flight was from Cairo to Aswan. I was sitting on the right side of the plane so could see a bit of the lake when we turned around and came in from the south, but not the dam :(
View over runway 23L at Cairo Airport
View over eastern Cairo
View towards Luxor
Western arm of Lake Nasser
Military jet hangar bunkers near the Aswan Airport
Went to the terminal in Aswan and it was basically time to board the next flight to Abu Simbel. Since everyone was there (it was just an Embraer 170, and not full) they said we could depart early! So we actually departed twenty five minutes early which was pretty awesome.
Bad luck with seating prevailed. We took off to the north but turned around to the left very quickly, before the dam, so I didn't see anything much from my right hand side seat. Dad again got better photos from the left side of the plane. However noone was in a window seat on the left side so I moved over there after the seatbelt sign turned off. This is because when you fly into Abu Simbel, if you fly in from the south east, you get a great view of the temples as you come into land. So did that and got my view - hurrah!!
MIG-21 aircraft at Aswan Airport
Military jet hangar bunkers near the Aswan Airport
Photo by Dad
View towards Aswan High Dam
Lake Nasser
Lake Nasser
Lake Nasser
Lake Nasser
Lake Nasser
Abu Simbel from the air
Abu Simbel from the air
Abu Simbel from the air (our boat is in the foreground)
Got the Egypt Air courtesy bus down the road to the entrance to Abu Simbel, and we walked the rest of the way down the hill to our boat.
Movenpick MS Prince Abbas at Abu Simbel
It's a pretty cool boat. It's like a little hotel on water. There's something like seventy rooms, as well as various lounges, bars and even a small pool.
All for twenty one tourists.
!
Yup, twenty one people on the ship plus guides. There's more crew than guests! Seems like a bit of a waste to be running the ship plus having all these bored staff. But on the other hand it's kinda cool to have the ship mostly deserted, and know half the people here.
My room on the MS Prince Abbas
My room on the MS Prince Abbas
So anyway, as soon as we arrived we went straight to lunch. It was a full four course fine dining meal!! Craziness. Of course I'd had a big breakfast. So this is not going to end well. Diet starts in a week when I get to London .. hrmmm
Our group at lunch on the MS Prince Abbas
Photo by Mum
Roast beef salad - slice of roasted beef meat, coleslaw, lettuce, served with thousand island sauce
After lunch we watched a documentary on the moving of the Abu Simbel temples to higher ground which was necessary when they built the Aswan High Dam, and explored the ship.
Comfy deck chairs on the MS Prince Abbas
Pools on the MS Prince Abbas
Me in a lounge area on the MS Prince Abbas
Photo by Mum
Lake Nasser at Abu Simbel
Then we had afternoon tea, but it felt like we'd only just had lunch, so didn't feel like much.
And then a little time to spare before going around to the temples for the sound and light show. Have I ever mentioned my bad luck with seating. So as to try and avoid heads in the way I said can we sit in the front row. The guide said if we wanted to. But there was a chain in the way there so decided to move and the guide said "I tried to tell you but you wouldn't believe me". *sigh*. So grumpy about the whole thing. Did find a spot with no heads in front, but then got a big block of some thing blocking part of it. But I wasn't going to move again. *sigh*. So didn't enjoy it as much as I might have. Plus being sick and tired certainly didn't help.
Movenpick MS Prince Abbas at Abu Simbel
The Great Temple of Ramesses II illuminated for the sound and light show
Small Temple of Hathor and Nefertari illuminated for the sound and light show
The Great Temple of Ramesses II illuminated for the sound and light show
Small Temple of Hathor and Nefertari illuminated for the sound and light show
The Great Temple of Ramesses II illuminated
The Great Temple of Ramesses II illuminated
The Great Temple of Ramesses II illuminated
The Great Temple of Ramesses II illuminated
Got back to the boat for another four course meal. But I just had an entrée and main, and skipped the soup and dessert. Came back here to type this up, but haven't even downloaded my photos from today - need to get to bed - getting up at stoopid o'clock tomorrow to see the temples in the sunrise.
Mozzarella salad - fried eggplant, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, served with pesto sauce
Beef steak - grilled beef steak meat in brown sauce, served with rice and sautéed vegetable
Distance covered on the GPS: 1050 km
Steps walked: 11378
Photos on the Canon: 190
Photos on the Sony: 91
Videos: 0
EGP Spent: 36