Woke up at 5.30am as wanted to walk to Ramses & Nefertari sun temple for sunrise. The picture you see on this blog is exactly how it was a sunrise with the beautiful pink light.
Arrived at temple at 6.15am and as i climbed over the brow of the hill the sun was starting to come up and a very magical moment. There was a cruise ship docked up and thought there were going to be lots of tourists but to my amazement there were only 2 japanese. Took loads of photos outside as the light was changing as the sun was rising. By the time i went inside the Ramses temple the 2 japs had gone so i had it all to myself which was fantastic spiritual experience, did a 20 meditation which was nice. The cruise ship tourists started to come in at 7am so i moved onto Nefertari's temple.
Im glad i came back to these temples because seeing the sunrise is a very magical experience and dont really have the words to describe it...... I think the reason its so peaceful is because the temples are surrounded by Lake Nasser.
By 8.30am there were too many tourists so headed back to hostal to check out.
Stopped into a shop on my way back to buy some toilet roll and the owner asked me what football team i supported in england and said he like chelsea!! Say no more..... Also stopped in another shop to buy some water and tried to rip me off as now i know the cost of water as i have bought litres and litres of it since i have been here! He wanted me to pay 10 Eyptian pounds which is 1.20 but the normal price is 3 egyptian pounds anyway i walked away and he sold it for 5 and think he could see that i needed the water urgently!
Went to the bus stop to take the bus back to Aswan. The bus driver was very agressive and whilst waiting for the bus got a bad vibe about him and my instints were right as you will see later on in this blog....
Saw a european looking guy walking up and down the street also waiting for the bus. Found out he was from Berlin and called Stefan and only here for a week so had a tight schedule for doing Egypt. I asked him where he stayed last night and he also stayed with Mr Abdul and enountered his friendly charm. He wanted to sleep with Stefan and got the same treatment as me!! Stefan said that he had 4 proposals from men and had only been in Eypt for 3 days so it sounds like the men arent fussy here......
Got on the bus and a very large eyptian guy sat next to me and practically squashed me so decided to move seats. Went to sleep listening to arab music which sounded like the singers voice was constipated..... not a feeling i have had over the last few days!!
Arrived in Aswan at 5pm, Stefan and i went to Philae temple which was 10-15 min drive from Aswan on an island. Took a taxi and when we got there it was closed and would reopen at 7pm. Got something to eat and met another german girl who had just returned from Philae temple. It was refreshing to meet another female who was travelling alone, in fact she is the first female i have met who is travelling alone. She was called Katherine and worked for the german foreign office and was on holiday in eypt for a few weeks. She was very nice and was going to Abul simbel tomorrow to do what we had already done. It was a coincedence that her and stefan were both from Berlin and they spoke english to each other which was good for me.
Katherine left us at 7pm and we took the motor boat to Philae temple after haggling the price with the boat owner. It was a beautiful evening and the sun was starting to go down and nice to finally be on the Nile.
After a short boat ride arrived at temple and this was even better than Ramses temple this morning.
We paid for the sound and light show which wasnt really expecting much but turned out to be another magical experience here in Egypt.... We had to stand in certain places of the temples to see the lights shine on certain parts of it with a running commentary on the loud speaker system. A ginger and white cat came and sat by me and also watched the show. After 15 mins we walked round to the next part of the temples and given more information and then to the final part where we sat down to see the final part of the show. There are lots of temples on Philae island but the main one was built for Isis and very impressive.
After the show we took the boat back to at 9.10pm and went to the train station to go to Luxor, we tried to get the 9.30am train and were very lucky to get on it. We sat in 2nd class as we both had been in 1st class before and decided to see what 2nd class was like. The train was very clean and lots of leg room and beats british rail anyday. We met an egyptian from Abul simbel who had also taken the same bus as us earlier today. He was very interesting but we were both tired and wanted to sleep. Anyway we were told that we had to move compartments as we were sat in someones seats so we moved to an empty compartment which meant we could escape from the eyptian guy awell!!
Chatted to Stefan about Berlin and found out he was an architect and the first traveller who is older than me. He has a good sense of humour and good companion to travel with.
Arrived in Luxor at 12.30 and both were very tired as long day......
Went to hostal Nubian Oasis and did a deal for 30 eyptian pounds per night (3.60 english)