Thursday, September 23, 2010

Philae and travel to Cairo.

It was 9 am and we had finally rested a long night after the long day at Abu Simbel. Now, we had felucca ride and the visit to the Nubian Village.We started the tour, following negotiations with the manager of the ship to leave the room after the meal rather than before 12.Thus, the return could take a shower and change clothes because the heat was still unbearable even during this stage of the journey.


So we started to take a small boat that took us to the temple of Philae, a temple of Roman origin located on an island in the Nile. A lovely place with beautiful views.


Two other tours are available that morning, which made our Argentinean partners and they advised against us, the Aswan Dam and the Unfinished Obelisk.Subsequently, shower, meal and transfer to Aswan airport (after many requests for tips from the ship's departure to boarding the plane for anyone who could play sometime in your suitcase, look at her or take her away for you).After a short flight (about two hours) we landed at Cairo airport, a modern airport in a backward culture. Valgo the example of being in time of Ramadan every store where you could have bought snuff or alcohol were closed.


So, we took a small truck (at this stage of their journey we were only Cristina, Raquel, Jesus and me) that took us to our hotel, the luxurious Mena House Oberai, located at the very foot of the pyramids of Giza and rated 5 stars (from the top flight within five stars, because in Egypt this category is subdivided into many more). During the journey from the airport to the hotel we saw chaos in the way of driving in this country, can see from a child clinging to the exterior of a vehicle to change direction or reversing loop in the middle of the freeway.


After leaving luggage in the rooms, a beer in the garden of the hotel, dinner at a restaurant opposite the hotel (apparently one of the best of Cairo in Egypt although the restaurants outside the main hotels leave much to be desired). The dinner of fish and typical products Egyptians, with plenty of spice. As I said in the previous report from this time and we were not able to control the meals on the trip, because they were all in local restaurants where the quality with respect to the buffet of the cruise was abysmal. So, little by little all (some sooner than others) suffered "the vengeance of the pharaoh."


After dinner, accompanied by the guide (which like most of the guides in Egypt were arrogant and had a girlfriend out of the country, but when we began to investigate his history of international lover fell under its own weight) and after crossing a street (all an odyssey in this country for traffic chaos) helped by a villager with a later request for a tip, we went for a coffee (or whatever you want to call it) close to take some drinks and smoke a shisha.And so, back to the hotel to rest and prepare for the next day's excursion to the pyramids at Giza.


Ver Asuan. en un mapa más grande

1 comment: