Still Pissed Off.

As per the heading of my last post I'm very very pisssed off. Thing is even though I was sitting there for a hour typing away before the connection cut out they won't take any responsibility because they say it's their provider & that it's not their fault so I still have to pay…. But they'll let me use MS Word to type it up for free again. ARGHHHHHHHHH. I'm hot, tired, grumpy & now severely pissed off so it looks like I'm now going to write a crappy post. The thing that sucks the most is that I'd just hit the post button when the connection died, plus it was a really good post!

Once again here's another rushed version of what I've been up to with a slightly sour tinge to it because I'm in a crappy mood now.

I think I left off the afternoon before we headed to Aswan.

Sun 15/8 - That night a few of us, Kate, Nick, Carolyn, Helen, Aaron & I, headed out to the kings head for dinner then to Moses shop to hang out for a bit. (The contents of this in the last post was quite a chunky paragraph or 2 but I just don't have it in me now… L) Moses sells silver jewelry & which I've managed to spend quite a bit of money on as per most other people in our group. Anyway we smoked shisha which is really relaxing. Moses brother is going to buy me one of the pipes, they're pretty cool.

Mon 16/8 - Caught the early morning train to Aswan which only took 2 or 3 hours. It made me feel like I was traveling again which was cool. Maybe it could have been cause the train was dirty and there were rivulets of urine running down the isle… We did however stay at a 4.5 star hotel which was awesome, much swimming in the pool! That afternoon we went on a tour & went to the Aswan high & low dams. These dams generate all of the power for Egypt. The high dam project created Lake Nassa which is something like 300km long & goes into Sudan. After the dams we went to the Phile Temple. This temple was actually relocated because Lake Nassa covers its original site. They did a really good job of putting it back together.

Tue 17/8 - We had to wake up at 3am in order to beat the heat & the tourists to get to Abu Simbel. It was well worth it though because the temples were amazing. Some of the people in our group decided not to go & I think that they seriously need their heads read!!! At the entrance of the big temple there are 4 statues of Ramsies II which are over 30m high – Very impressive! Inside is also a sight to see. The smaller temple is pretty cool too. One day I'll get to down load the photos. I'm now getting grumpier & grumpier by the minute cause this dam computer keeps changing to Arabic & the side arrows go the wrong ways! That afternoon we went out to Kitcheners Island which is Aswan's botanical gardens in the middle of the Nile. It was really nice to be surrounded by greenery again. That night we went to a local family's house for dinner which was really cool.

Wed 18/8 & Thu 19/8 – Our first 9am start in quite some time which was really good. I enjoyed the sleep in! We set off down the Nile at 9 in the Felucca's. A Felucca is a basic sail boat. They pretty much have a deck with mattresses on them & a shade cloth thing, underneath the deck there is just enough room to fit your backpacks & that's about it. Toilet stops were at the side of the river – strange that it doesn’t faze me anymore, 2 girls decided not to come with us & stayed an extra day in Aswan, caught a train & met us this morning as they couldn't face the thought J. We pretty much just chilled out for 2 days & watched the world go by as we floated down the Nile. It's really cool & a little freaky to see this lush green vegetation & fields right next to the river the look over a little further & see desert. There were 9 of us on my Felucca & 2 other boats – one with 5 & another with 9 people. I didn't sleep to well the first night, last night was a little better but I'm still whacked.

Today, Fri 20/8 – I was woke up at 5am by the ore's next to my head squeaking, don't think there was enough wind for the sail… We left the Felucca's & went to Edfu temple. It's one of the only complete temples left. It's interesting that it looks like an Ancient Egyptian temple but our guide said that it was built in 3000bc which is the Roman period. It was really cool to see but Abu Simbel is still my pick.

We're now back in Luxor for the afternoon & tonight we're catching the night train back to Cairo where we leave most of the group. Out of 24 only 5 or are going on. We leave just after 9 tonight & think we get to Cairo about 6.30 tomorrow morning. I think that will make 3 nights with out a bed.

The title of the post I lost was "I really feel like I'm traveling again". It's been great to catch trains, busses & Felucca's, I really love it. I wrote a couple of paragraphs on this too but need to go get clean now & eat some food…

I'm really enjoying Egypt & this tour is great!!!!

x

Luxor – Egypt, Friday 20th August 2004, 3pm