Day Four - Aswan, Unfinished Obelisk, High Dam, Aswan Museum & Spice Market
Aswan, the hottest province in Egypt, and largest southern most town. It's another early start - thank god Friday's going to be a day off. This is, after all a holiday as well as an historical, cultural experience. The first signs of the dreaded sickness has taken hold of about a dozen people here, and of course we're not sure what caused it. I feel fine thankfully, and with luck won't catch anything now. To go down with a bug when you're on holiday for two weeks is acceptable, but when you've only a week with a large amount to cram in, it's not amusing.
This morning's tour proves to be a relaxing one with not too much hiking around. We go to the quarry here, where all of the rock and stone for the temples and pyramids came from, to commence their long trip up to Luxor and further, to Cairo. The main attraction here is what is known as the Unfinished Obelisk. After carving the monolith from the stone, the structure was found to be weakening, with cracks appearing, and was abandoned. For some reason I had expected the obelisk to be standing upright. Instead it is still lying flat in a trench where it was originally carved. It's a fascinating insight into the construction technologies, and Max, our guide throughout explains the complete process that was used. I chuck in a few alien theories, but for some reason I don't think he took me seriously...
After a drawn out visit to a perfumery, where we do not part with money, we take a trip to the Aswan High Dam, the beast that finally tamed the Nile floods, and provides massive electricity as well as continuing safety from the devastating annual floods, and the Egyptians are obviously pvery proud of its existence. The dam itself proves to be a great disappointment as it is a gradually sloping one, and not at all what one expects, apart from providing a nice view onto Lake Nasser. Much better instead though, is the Lotus Tower. This 84 metre high construction was built to celebrate the opening of the dam and commemorates the USSR/Egyptian collaboration. It's a pleasure to witness a modern landmark, and while impressive from the road, it's nothing compared to standing in the middle, looking up. The are lifts that will take people to the top, though I'm incredibly disappointed to find they only do this for a couple of people at a time - not groups.
Security here is paramount, as the destruction of the dam would bring complete chaos to the entirety of Egypt, so the ubiquitous kalashnikov-wielding guards are numerous. As we leave the tower, I pass a soldier standing nonchalantly, machine gun over his shoulder sniffing a bright red rose. It's a beautiful and poignant image and I would dearly liked to have taken his picture, but I don't have the courage to ask (and certainly enough to steal a photo). A great shame.
After a stop at a papyrus gallery, where we buy a couple of paintings, we take a journey back to the boat on a felucca along the Nile. Although essentially all we did was sail around in circles due to the short distance to the boat, it was very pleasant to be close to the sea level of the Nile. On the whole I've been surprised by the relative cleanliness of the Nile - there's been no real evidence of grime or dirt, but as we quietly sail on, a dead mammal of some description floats past. I don't examine it too closely to fin out what it was, preferring to live in denial that I hadn't seen anything.
After a relaxing afternoon we take one of the optional tours, though I got the time wrong and end up rushing from the sun deck, sweating and covered in suntan lotion. We take a coach up to a high point of Aswan to a restaurant to witness the sun going down. It's a lovely, unique view of the Nile, with feluccas gently sailing up and down. Due to the lack of clouds, the sunsets here are not actually that spectacular (New York still gets my vote for the best I've seen - pollution does achieve some good after all!), yet it's still a pleasurable experience.
We then go to the Aswan Museum. I'm starting to feel tired due to a lack of an afternoon snooze (damn this journal!), and find it difficult to concentrate on the artefacts in the somewhat dour and dry museum. I get the impression that everything of real interest in the way of artefacts lie in the Cairo museum, and I find it difficult to raise enthusiasm for umpteenth pot.
At lunchtime we were speaking to a couple who were assigned to another group (the boat is split into three groups, 'Horus' is ours, led by Max. Max is a certified Egyptologist and is ridiculously knowledgeable and enthusiastic about all this historical (as well as a genuinely nice and funny bloke). So much so that occasionally he can still be wittering on while the rest of us are stood by a monument, involuntarily flagging in the heat). Anyway, their guide sounds atrocious, and didn't even take them to the Lotus Tower. He tells them to stop talking and listen regularly and goes on endlessly about shopping. The general consensus is that Max is the best guide by far, which is a happy stroke of luck (for us at least).
Anyway, this guide is our leader for tonight, and his inexperience starts to show through. After the museum two people are missing on the coach. We spend a long twenty minutes waiting, with him getting ever more agitated until it's eventually found out that they'd made their own way back to the boat. This is incredibly annoying, especially as we're due to go to the Aswan Spice Market next, and time's getting on. When we arrive, we're told we only have half an hour and are all to stick together and not to go into shops. If he seriously thinks we're going to be herded around like school children he's mistaken in a big way.
It's especially frustrating when we step into the market as it's a delight. Aswan comes alive in the night, and the market is a teeming mass of people and sellers. Max was right that the attitude of the Nubian people of Aswan is much more laid back, and it's exhilarating to walk through here, albeit at an accelerated speed. We buy some saffron and incense, and I haggle a guy down from £LP50 to 25 for a belt. The belt wasn't that brilliant, but the haggle was good fun. Although packed, again the cafes with their bong-smoking clientele are solely populated by men. Where are the women, and moreover, where do they go to pull?
Our boat sails at 8:30pm the next evening and with luck we'll try to come back to the market before then to spend a little more time, though I suspect that a later time is better and we'll have missed the best. By this experience, Aswan is out favourite city so far and one to be recommended. I feel the need to break free from the confines of our package tour somewhat (enjoyable as it is). On the other side of the Nile is a majestic small mountain containing the Valley Of The Lords. I resolve tomorrow to take a felucca over there to do a bit of exploring, unconstrained by others.
After our brief visit to the market we return to the docks to find our boat has moved, obviously to let out another cruiser. We wait an agonisingly long thirty minutes until the boat re-docks. We're tired, hungry and parched as we wait, rueing the fact that we had to leave the market early in order to stand here, bored by the docks.
We're an hour late for dinner and the waiters are evidently none-too-happy about serving us this late. It's upsetting as it's not our fault, but we're too tired to say anything. After a couple of quiet drinks it's to bed for well-deserved early night, and a well-timed lie in.