Continue the Cruise

TUESDAY…..Nov 20th:


Well…..another day of some outstanding sightseeing in and amongst the ancient Egyptian temples and other historic areas….hmmmmm, when it comes to Egypt, just what ISN’T historic?????

Today, I have spent still suffering from TUT’S TUMMY……and just not “up to par” all day and into this evening. I have taken several Immodium and a pill that the Clinin on the boat gave to me this morning……..and I probably will not have to visit the restroom for the remainder of my Life, BUT…….my abdomen is still cramping from time to time….not often, but it does occur enough to make the day not pleasant. I’m told it takes from 2-4 days to get rid of this…….thank goodness my fever is gone! This evening I did take some bread/rolls and the dining room manager had the Chefs fix me a bowl of plain rice. Now??? Well, here we go again with the cramps…….already!!!!

We left this morning and drove south to the Aswan High Dam, which the Soviet Union assisted Egypt in building in the late 60’s/early 70’s. It is nothing really exciting in the construction or the area around it……..but, having heard about this all of my Life, it is pretty cool to visit it. It dams up the Nile River coming NORTH out of central Africa…..and the lake….Lake Nasser…..is now the largest man-made lake in the world!

Following that we went out to a small island in the lake where the Philae Temple was moved to when the Lake formed…..and the setting on this island is one of terrific beauty!!!!!!! It is a gorgeous, well-preserved temple with sooooooo many hieroglyphics on each and every wall………Honestly…..I just can’t see how they did all of this chiseling and carving on these massive stones and managed to cover almost every square inch with these huge…and tiny…..hieroglyphics!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! I could stand and look at these for hours and hours. And……we are beginning….and I stress the word beginning……to understand them a wee bit more.

Then it off to the Unfinished Obelisk which was found in the last century partially squared up but still connected to the granite of the quarry at the top and underneath, as it was laying on one side. It weighs, according to the calculations, 12,000 tons!!!!!!!!! No one understands HOW these huge, massive blocks of granite were moved…….down the river as far as Cairo……….just can’t imagine!

Lunch was back on the boat, however, I didn’t partake of it…..still afraid to eat. During the afternoon several of us went a few blocks from where the boat is tied up to the Aswan Bazaar/Market. Again……great fun!!! Aswan, as a city, seems to be much, much cleaner, less people, and more modern in their city center. Really impressed with this place…..AND…..it is a beautiful setting for it!!!! Did we haggle???? DAMN right we did!!!! And, the 1st Lady is getting really good at it…..buying three t-shirts for a total of $2.00 each!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wherever we go, people are sooooooooo friendly!!!!!!!! Oh sure…..we get hassled by the shop keepers who want us to “buy a special price”…….but, you know…..it is NOT as bad as everyone had said when discussing the markets!!! In fact, here in Aswan they are sooooo friendly. I had a conversation with one nice fellow…..and after discussing several topics….him in his broken English and me trying to insert an Arabic phrase or word every once in a while…….he invited me inside for tea……a high compliment for a foreigner. The worst thing is that we had a time schedule to keep and I had to turn him down.

Items for sale: belly dancer outfits, all sorts of clothing,ALL kinds of spices….some of which I hadn’t seen ever before……and many Egyptian souvenir type things, not to mention thousands of other items. GREAT FUN!!!!!

Then at 4:30 this afternoon, we all boarded a Felucca……the Egyptian sail boat…..and went up the Nile to see the sun set……and it was another gorgeous evening. Such fun…..and sooooo many things to see……!!

Back to the boat for dinner. We have the best cabin boy……..he cleans things soooo well, and each evening when we return from dinner he as turned down the beds, and then there always a surprise for us. He is GREAT at making animals and people out of our clothes and fresh towels!!!!!!!!! I will post the pictures as soon as I can get to online!!!!

And….hopefully, I will get online tomorrow. The internet cafes are quite a ways from here and it was a long dinner, even with me only eating rice……and so I didn’t go tonight to try to post. Tomorrow, we fly down to Abu Simbel……where Ramses II built two magnificent temples for his favorite wife……out of 200!!! It is an hour flight down….a visit for about 2-3 hours and then we fly back. We will be staying in the New Cataract Hotel tomorrow night and then fly to Cairo on Thursday afternoon to return to the Ramses Hilton Hotel before we fly to Amman, Jordan on Sunday…….I believe. Damn…I can’t even remember what day it is………and the IS the truth. No one can…..we are soooo far removed from the rest of the world….the boat’s tv is horrible, we have no radios, no wifi. And sooooooo, even with these minor complaints about not having the tools of communication in today’s modern world…..

LIFE IS GREAT……..OH SOOOOOO GREAT!!!!!!….And, I hope it is for all of you, also!!!!!