So we received our wake up call at 3am this morning, got ready, grabbed our pillows and met everyone in the lobby before heading out to the van. We drove just down the road where we met a bunch of policemen who were organising our convoy that morning. A polceman joined us in our van and we started on the three hour trip to Abu Simbel. The journey was very slightly better with pillows on board, but still ridiculously bumpy enough for us to get hardly any sleep. I think I got an hour, and Darren got none. We got woken up half an hour before arriving and Ramzy handed out our breakfast boxes (which were pretty disappointing) and we got to see the most glorious sunrise over the desert hills. Amazing. We arrived at another police checkpoint and were joined by another policeman (with a big gun!) until we arrived at the temple. We got our tickets, then followed a guide into the temple of King Rameses II. As it came into view, our jaws pretty much hit the sand as we stood and marveled at the four colossal statues of Rameses guarding the entrance to the temple. And on the other side was the largest man made lake in the world, which the temple used to sit at the bottom of. It was rescued and completely moved to a different location before the dam was built! Crazy! We got some photos out the front and got given a short explanation of what we were looking at, then got some free time to go inside and explore the temple. It was amazing. Filled with more huge statues of Rameses, ancient carvings, hieroglyphs and sculptures, a lot of them still with the original colours still painted on them. One massive wall was filled with the first ever peace treaty between the Hittites and the Egyptians. It was just insanely beautiful! And so well preserved considering how old it was! We got some sneaky photos without flash (photos are forbidden inside the temple as the flash ruins the colours that remain there) then as I was walking outside the guard handed me a giant golden key saying I am Neferteri, (Ramses II's favourite wife out of sixty-something wives!) and took a photo of me holding the 'key of life' like Neferteri. When we'd explored Ramses' temple for a while we went over to the temple he had built for Neferteri. Out the front of this temple were six huge statues. Four of Rameses and two of Neferteri. I think this guy liked himself just a bit! This temple was much smaller but still amazing and beautiful. There were a lot of preserved colours on the walls here too! I can only imagine what it could have looked like with the whole place painted, it would have been amazing! We got some more sneaky photos inside, then some legal photos outside before finishing up there and heading back out. As we walked back we had to go through the markets, where we were hassled like crazy! Steve and Sophie wanted to buy a few things and were looking at things, and Darren kept going back and forth between them to help them with their bargaining! He got them good prices too! We kept walking and got hassled heaps more, a group of them even completely blocked our way so we couldn't get through! Darren called my name, then all of a sudden all the sellers are calling my name too! It was crazy! We eventually got through though and went back up to the cafe to meet the group. When everyone was back, we got in the van and waited for a bit. There was some kind of argument going on out the front between our driver, Ramzy, some other guys and a whole lot of policemen with guns. We were a bit nervous as we didn't know what was going on, but eventually Ramzy came back in and told us there was an environmental officer there trying to get the police to write a report against our driver for washing his car, because apparently for tourism vehicles its illegal to wash your car anywhere except at a petrol station! Crazy laws! Eventually they must have sorted something out cos Ramzy, the driver and two policemen got back in the van and we headed off back to Aswan. Three bumpy hours and some carsickness later we arrived in Aswan and stopped at an essence factory. We were given a demonstration there on how they used totally natural procedures to get fragrances and perfumes in their pure form, no alcohol, oils, water or anything. We got some hibiscus tea and mint tea and the man gave us little samples of different fragrances to rub into our skin. He ran through a list telling us what they were all used for, and there was a whole section of blends that they sell to companies who make it into very famous perfumes like Chanel No5, Calvin Klein, Cool Water and pretty much every one you could think of! Once the company buys the essence, they mix it with alcohol and whatever else to make their profits go further! After the demonstration we got to wander around looking at all the cool blown glass perfume bottles, and testing out other fragrances, and we ended up buying a tiny bottle of cool water, which is one Darren often buys at home. When we were done there, we left and headed back to the boat, via an ATM. We all had some delicious lunch together then went back to our rooms to drop off our stuff, when we heard a scream from Brittany and Nikki who were in the front. When they opened their door, the cleaner had made a little man out of toilet paper, towels and a blanket and hung it in the doorway, so when it opened they thought there was someone hanging in their room! We all had a laugh at that, then Steve and Spphie cautiously opened their door. They had a towel man lounging on their beds with his legs crossed and arms behind his head. Very funny! So we went up to our rooms and found a couple of kissing swans (one wearing my sunnies!) with the do not disturb sign in front of them! So funny! After some photos of them, and dropping off our stuff, Darren and I went up to the top deck for a swim in the pool. It was a bit chilly in the water so we didn't stay in for long, but found some lounge seats and soaked up the last of the sun before it set. We were joined by the others after a bit, then as the sun went down, I went down to the room where I used some shower gel to make myself an amazing bubble bath and soaked in there for a while. I haven't had a bath since leaving home, it was the best! After a while it was dinner time so we all went downstairs for dinner. As we were eating a waiter came and balanced two intertwined forks on a toothpick, balanced on another toothpick inside a salt shaker! Pretty cool. He was a funny guy and after asking our names, thought Darren was called Dammit, so called him Dammit the rest of the night! After dinner our whole group went up to the bar for some drinks together and ended up playing some drinking games! We played kings cup, F*#k the bus, then when we were all a little tipsy played a non-drinking game called the name game. Everyone had to write three things each, could be anything, and put them into a bowl on the table. Then we split into teams (boys vs girls) and there were four rounds. The first round you got to give three words as a clue and your teammates had to guess the word. You had to get as many words as you could in one minute, then it was the next teams turn, and you kept going until all the words in the bowl were gone. In the second round, it was the same but you only got one word as a clue, so you had to try to remember some of the words from the last round. The third round was charades, then the last round was sounds, so you got to make a sound of the word, which was hard for things like 'potato'! It was such a hilarious game, that by the end of it my tummy was so sore from laughing so much! When we finished the game (girls won by one!) we headed upstairs to bed.