Day 95. Friday November 5th. Army convoy to Abu Simbel. An Egyptian Souk shows its origins in the old trade routes. How to negotiate.

Wake up call at 4.20am for tea and then a 3 hour coach ride further south almost to the border with Sudan. Although things are a little more relaxed now since the last terrorist attack on tourists in 2006 we still have to be guarded by an armed escort as our three coaches are grouped into a convoy for the trip to one of the most famous temples anywhere. Built for Ramses II this is the one that had to be relocated to avoid it being submerged under Lake Nasser following the construction of the Aswan Dam. We arrive at 8.30am and it’s hot. We are a lot further south now. The temple was carved into a mountain and the façade carved onto its face. The modern feat of cutting everything up and moving it above the new water level, reconstructing it and then building a new mountain around it was also quite an achievement. The antiquities and modern technology comes together. It’s well worth the effort of the 6 hour round trip, the inside of the temple is also well preserved.
We are back on the boat (which has been waiting for us at Aswan) by 2.30pm and relax on the sun deck until the steward announces afternoon tea in the salon. This is the life.
We brave the Aswan main Souk in the evening but are too tired to enjoy the touts and the bartering. Being well rested and a sense of humor are essential to enjoy it. It’s interesting that Agatha Christie has Hercule Poirot moan about the Souk touts in 1920s Egypt. They stand in the middle of the street and shout their wares and pluck your sleeve or block your path. Some shout “no hassle in my shop” so they know that their approach puts most Westerners off but they just can’t help it. It’s been going on for thousands of years. Aswan was an old camel trading site in the days of the Old Silk Road and you can still see the roots of that with all the shops that sell buckets of spices (Saffron, Cumin, Paprika, Turmeric, Cinnamon, Vanilla), perfumes made from the flowers of Jasmine; Mimosa; Hibiscus; Lotus; Nubian Henna; and silver and gold trinkets. It’s fun to watch the shop owners and locals shopping, however. Christine and I buy an Egyptian cotton scarf and the tout starts at LE250 (Egyptian Pounds, about US$40) and I open at LE50. We settle at LE100, probably too much-but that’s OK, but I do wish I could get more fun out of it. It’s Friday and so all the men are visiting the Mosques to pray, we can see into many of them as we walk through the Souk. I look over the railing onto the foredeck of the M/S Hamees and see one of the engineers unfold his prayer mat and pray for a few minutes.