After the train station, I had some drinks at Paul’s place with some of his friends who taught at the school with him, before packing and heading back to the station.

I know that I have met a lot of people who were very friendly and helpful during my travels in Egypt, but on my 15 hour train ride to Aswan I had one of the most annoying men in the world sitting near me.  This man, although I’m sure had good intentions, woke me three times during my very comfortable slumber, by sitting on the arm of my aisle seat, tapping me until I woke up, and talking to me, in Arabic, in a normal voice.  I have no idea what this man wanted from me, but he was smiling the whole time he talked to me while I politely said, “I don’t understand you….I have no earthly idea what you are saying to me…why are you still talking to me….Please, for the love of God, let me sleep!” Now, in my younger days, I have been known to throw bedside table objects at people for waking me up, and having no recollection of doing so afterwards (sorry Mom), but because I was in a foreign country and everything I tried to be civilized about my actions.  Eventually, about the third time he woke me up, I just started to laugh deliriously with him, and said, with a big smile on my face, “Listen man, I am sure you have some great things to talk about, and I want to hear about them all, really, I do, but right now I am trying to sleep. So, if you could just not wake me up again for, say, a good three or four solid hours, I will wake up and we can talk. You can tell me everything you want to in Arabic and I’ll tell you a good story or two in English.  How does that sound?”  Imeddiately upon finishing my speach, someone a few seats back said something to the man in Arabic.  It was possibly a loose translation because the man shook my hand and went back to his seat, as well as shaking my hand when his stop came, which was a few hours before mine.  Luckily, I avoided the gibbrish pow wow that I had promised and of which I was seriously dreading the arrival.

 Upon arriving in Aswan I quickly made my way to a hotel which was in my guide book.  For $1.50 a night the bed is actually pretty comfortable.  I used my newly acquired skill of not waiting in lines to change my train ticket, giving me an extra day in both Aswan and Luxor.  I figured if I am going to get all the way to southern Egypt, I may ass well see everything rather than be in a rush.  And I booked my trip to Abu Simbel the next morning, at 3:30 am. 

 Later that night I found one of the only places in Egypt that sold beer and, after about two beers (light weight), I was ready to call it an early night since I had to wake up so early the next morning.  On my way home some Egyptian kid, 23, started talking to me, asking me where I was from and all that good stuff.  He quickly invited me to his friend’s Egyptian wedding, and as you all know I never turn down invitations to awkward, out-of-place, cultural experiences.  The guy taught me how to say “congratulations” in Arabic, so I followed him around shaking the hands of the family members and telling them “Alf mebrook” before taking my seat.  I only stayed for about twenty minutes before I told the kid I had to go, but he insisted to go with me and grab a beer.  Now, most Muslims dont drink as it is part of the religion and, when I asked him about this, his answer was simple, “I’m a bad Muslim”.  He was also a little punk and only stayed at his friends wedding for twenty minutes, but maybe thats how they are set up, I dont know. 

 I made it to sleep by about 12:30 and about three hours later my alarm went off.  My mini-bus was packed with about 40 people, 39 of whom were Asian.  Abu Simbel is an ancient Egyptian Temple whose entrance is carved out of rock and comes close to the detail found in some of the sites in Petra, Jordan. 

When I returned from Abu Simbel it was about 1pm.  I decided to hire a felluca (sail boat) to cruise to a couple of different islands and see some Nubian villages.
The first island we went to we were greeted by guards who said they had to lead me around the island and they wouldn’t let my captain walk with us (i call him my captain because, even though he told me his name a hundred times, I cant remember it…really, he’s just a dude with a boat).  The guards both had oozies strapped around their arms. (Quick note: ever since the bombing in luxor in 1997, Egypt has been trying to recoup their image as being tourist friendly.  So, if you go to a really touristy place and say you are American, most likely, they will appoint an armed guard to you….not sure what the armed guard is instructed to do if a bomb blows up, but I guess they think it looks better in the eyes of the world)  They lead me to a place where a lady served me tea and then proceeded to bring out a number of different things one by one, as if I were a professional tourist-product-buyer, which I politely looked at, “hmmm, interesting….no thank you”.  Obviously these oozied guards had a little commisioned agenda of their own that I did not want to fuel.  I may have just put some money directly into their hands if they agreed to let me take a photo with both of the oozies in my hands, but they were stubborn.  I took my time on the walk back despite their impatience of waiting for me to do something that made them no money…Snapped some good photos…

The little brat with her finger on her face ran up to me after I took this photo and asked for 2 Euro…which is like 20 egyptian pounds, and just to put that into perspective for you, this morning I had two fallafels and a soda for 4.50 Egyptian pounds, and I am paying 7 pounds for a nights accomodation.  So, I gave her a pound and said to share it with her brothers but she took off at a full sprint while they all yelled at her and then came to me for more money, which didn’t happen.

One common trend I have found about Egyptian tastes in music is that they all have that damn theme song from the movie “Titanic” on their phone.  Not sure if they all have an obsession with Celine Dion or it just comes as a stock tune on their cell phones, but they sure as hell all have it, and they like to play it using the speakers on their cell phone. Now, when I worked at Chick-fil-a, 14, the instrumental version of this song played in Galleria Mall on repeat, so, sort of like Pavlov’s dog, I start to crave a chargrilled club combo with a half sweet tea, half lemonade, supersized.  That is all on this topic.

 Yesterday, I made my way to the Nile for a full day on the Felluca with my trusted two man crew.  This time I had bargained them down to 15 Egyptian pounds an hour (3$ USD), down from 20 the day ($4 USD) which was a big drop in his initial asking price of 75 E. pounds an hour.  In 11 hours I got a lot of good reading done.  Richard Branson’s book about how he started Virgin Airlines and all the other companies he started as well as all of his crazy adventures such as trying to fly a hot air balloon around the world.  We took a few hour trip to their Nubian Island where my captain’s mother cooked me lunch and I met his mother, sister, grandmother, and 2 sons.

When we left his village, we head back to Aswan and caught an awesome sunset on the way.

The captains were listening to the soccer game on the radio and, upon approaching Aswan, the radio barked and there came an uproar from the town.  Egypt had scored a goal in the last remaining seconds of the game, in the African Cup,  and the town of Aswan had turned into a full blown festival by the time we made it to the mainland.  There were multiple parades, motorcycles screaming up and down the roads honking their horns and drums were banging everywhere.  People were standing on moving cars, waving flags, shooting off fireworks and making torches out of aerosol cans (mostly kids doing the last one).  It was the craziest soccer celebration I have ever seen.  I shot a few photos and captured a few videos on my digital camera and then made my way to my room to listen to the rest of the cellebration from my bed.

 That is all for now.  My next move is to Cairo tomorrow.  Make sure to check out all the pictures that I didn’t put on this post.  And make sure to scroll down to my last two entries which were also done today, “Honest work from a dishonest man”, and “Waiting in line”.