So it looks like I will have another 7 weeks or so to go until lil Munchkin should arrive into this world, hopefully via a waterbirth at home. The nursery is nearly all ready to go with the walls now a calmer cream colour, furniture assembled and placed, curtains replaced and now we just have some smaller touch-up jobs to do, some more kids books to unpack from Nath’s childhood ‘library’, some gorgeous pics to hang up and a whole load of baby clothes and MCN’s (modern cloth nappies) to wash. Yeah, not much to do there I guess!

At the moment I am planning to start my parental leave about 4 weeks before my due date although that could change considering recent events! On Wednesday night we went to hospital after I felt some pretty strong abdominal pains on my right hand side. I was rather nervous that it might be appendicitis so I thought it might be best to get it checked out. After spending a couple of hours at QE2, we got sent to the Mater Mothers hospital for further observation. They ended up keeping me in overnight just to monitor me and to have an ultrasound. I was freaking out thinking that I might need to have an operation (my first!), and that also possibly meaning that little girl might have to come out at the same time. I definitely did not feel ready to meet her just yet!! Anyway, it turned out to be a fibroid (which I had known about), and which is manageable with paracetamol. So now I am having ‘bed rest’ for a week or so, until it calms down. This means I go back to work for 2 weeks before taking 12 months off. I’m pretty excited about that!

Lessons learnt? Hospitals might seem scary but there are so many lovely people there (nurses/midwives/doctors/other patients!) that it doesn’t have to be a negative place. If I need to go to hospital for this birth (complications or pain relief etc), then I am definitely ok with that. At this stage I am hoping that this won’t be required, and that all will be well. I am keen to be flexible with whatever happens, and I think that’s very important in these types of situations. ‘All is happening as it should…’

So now it’s back to reading a plethora of books on birth and parenting, now that I have finally finished my struggle through the Twilight series. Maybe it’s time to start on the new Robin Hobb series to try and re-balance my mind again!

So, introducing Baby Keynes (aka Munchkin), who we look forward to meeting in March 2010!!

In other news, I’m still enjoying my night classes for the naturopathy degree, so that’s a positive. One of my classes, intro to communication and counselling, has just blown my mind with the way it has gotten me to view things in my life, and even change things in my life. When something like that happens, you know you are on a good thing

Zamalek has a lot of leafy streets and some interesting buildings. Some of the shops were still closed or were in the process of opening as we walked past. Nath and I both had the sniffles so we wanted to rest up and get better as soon as we could, before the next leg of our journey. We found a cafe next door – ‘Cafe Noir’ that had these huge cups of coffee and some pretty awesome burgers too. I couldn’t finish mine though (too much food) and  I think my dehydration had finally caught up with me.

I ended up resting/sleeping in the hotel room for the rest of the day while trying to rehydrate myself.

It was quite a change in pace – cleaner streets, nicer shops, less dust and narrower roads. The hotel itself is gorgeous too! Lots of little nooks decorated with comfy chairs, flowers and pictures. They had 2 balconies that were covered with plants, that provided nice little reading areas. Nearby there was a building that had an entire wall covered with some sort of flowering plant. The staff were super friendly, and I was so glad to see tea and coffee in the room. As an extra added bonus, they had free wifi through the hotel! When Nath went to ask for milk at reception, the guy followed him all the way back to the room because he didn’t want Nath to do it himself!

When we first walked into the building, there wasn’t much to indicate that a pretty B&B was nearby, apart from the small sign out the front. The lifts look and sound pretty old – both sets of doors need to close before the lift will work. It was a bit difficult to fit 2 roller suitcases, plus us, in them at the same time, so it was a bit of an adventure.

We decided to go for a wander outside, and found we were hardly hassled at all. This may have been due to the area although there was one guy that did walk up to us, and I think he was trying to convince us to cross the insanely busy road to get to a restaurant nearby. Either that or he was telling us that the footpath ended soon. Not sure exactly. We ended up turning around and heading back to the hotel. I think I was getting tired and thirsty at this stage (possibly quite dehydrated but didn’t realise it). Before we left him, he asked if he could take our picture on his camera-phone. Um, sure – that was awkward…

We bought some drinks and snacks from a convenience store (trying to read the arabic numbers on the shelves beforehand so we wouldn’t get ripped off!), and then we went back to the hotel for another cup of tea. I don’t think I’ve ever drunk so much tea before in my life!

There seemed to be a lot of students around Zamalek – it somehow makes it feel kinda safer. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, western style. I would have liked to have had more koshari but I’m not sure about which nearby restaurants might have been safe. We had such a good run of things so far, that I didn’t want to risk it with unknown local shops. We had a fairly early night but I couldn’t sleep. I could hear lots of beeping horns on the road below, and maybe I had too much tea during the day too!

Once in the airport, the bag tags were haphazardly thrown out amongst us so we were a little nervous about whether they would reach the right destination or not! Onboard, the seats were actually quite comfy. I was sitting with some of the girls, and I think we got a little hyper with the lack of sleep etc cause we were giggling about silly things all the way back to Cairo.. well, almost

Once we got to the airport, we hopped into another minibus and headed for Sakkara to see the step pyramid, the tomb of Mereruka and Titi’s pyramid. The pyramid didn’t actually look like much from the outside – just a pile of rocks, but there was a lot of writing on the walls inside (funerary writings apparently) and there was a guy inside who was following us around, trying to helpfully point out obvious things, like the huge sarcophagus in the middle of the room. Ha! Walid had told us that no guides are allowed inside so we all avoided him where possible.

Near the step pyramid there were a few dogs lazing about. Every now and then one of them would perk up and start barking for no apparent reason. This set them all off at the same time, before they settled down again. It seemed a little spooky – what ghosts of Egypt-past were awake and wandering the sand?

We then stopped by a carpet ‘factory’ briefly while we looked around. They had little kids weaving huge carpets (school holidays apparently and NOT child labour), and the silk carpets were very pretty. They changed colour depending on the direction they were facing, but the prices were way too high for us. We were then taken to the Khan-al-khalili markets. We had lunch at the Egyptian pancake place, where the pancakes were more like enclosed pizzas. Very yummy! The pastry was slightly doughy like Chinese pancakes.

Then it was time to shop. We had this tall Egyptian guy, complete with dark suit and shoulder holster, chaperone us around the markets – making sure we kept together and that there was no trouble. I think this was due to the bombings that occurred there in February earlier this year. If some of us drifted apart, he would get the others to wait while he gathered us up again. I found the markets to be quite a shock – the ‘entry’ section was crowded and shopkeepers were quite insistent. Not the best scenario after having an early morning start! At one point I was separated from the others because it was a narrow spot so I got a bit panicky and assertive with my behaviour with the other tourists around. It was not a place for the meek!!

I bought a few little souveniers, some of them from a guy that was not harrassing me. He said that I was his first customer of the day (and it was the arvo), but he thanked Allah for that. I felt kinda bad for him, but glad that he didn’t try that line with me before I purchased anything. Good karma for him! Anyway, I’m sure I paid too much for what I bought, however it was still a good deal in AUD, so I guess that’s the main thing. I think we were all quite tired so we didn’t end up staying very long at all. We had arranged to meet up with Walid at a certain time, and we were worried we were going to miss it. It felt like we were far away from the main market area however we were only just around the corner and down the street a bit. Thanks to our ‘guard’ and yes, we are gumbies! Walid said that we didn’t need to give the ‘CIA man’ any baksheesh cause he was just doing his job (which is always such a fine line in Egypt), so we gave him a little koala keyring to say thanks. We then had a quick drink at the cafe while we waited for the minibus. Meanwhile we snuck glances at the guard who was standing nearby, and we could see that he was sneaking these cute little glances at his gift, while trying to look like he wasn’t looking at it. LOL! I hope it made his day

We were then driven back to the Amarante hotel via the Gharawat hotel. Someone said that the Amarante used to be a palace or something. It was a nice hotel tucked away in a back street in Giza. It was a very welcome oasis of calm! It was time to say goodbye ‘Intrepid’ (as Mohammed called us) and goodbye to our new friend Walid – who really made our holiday a wonderful experience.

Caught up on some emails and then we hit the gift shops downstairs, buying some papyrus and keyrings etc. We then decided to meet up with the other members of the tour group for our last dinner together, and we chose the Japanese teppanyaki restaurant. The servings were huge compared to our usual experience with Japanese cuisine. We had our strawberry juices too (new addiction, and such a shame we didn’t know about it sooner in our trip!). We were the only people in the restaurant (it was late), and at the end the staff wanted their photo taken with us. It was a very sad moment to say goodbye to everyone, but it was also nice to look forward to getting a long sleep in!

We passed an overturned truck, tractors pulling sugar cane trailers, many mudbrick houses (with the obligatory satellite dish perched precariously on a flat surface), some with colourful window frames.. lots of donkeys carrying around galibeyya-clad men, women washing clothing in the canals, men selling vegies, fresh (or not so fresh) fish and drinks at roadside stalls, trucks overloaded with boxes and goods (ie double the height of the truck itself, barely spilling over the edges), camels overladen with goods walking into town, camels and donkeys helping with the farming, petrol pumps pulling water from the canals to take to the fields, people sweeping the streets, cows on the backs of utes..

We got to Abydos first, and at first it was almost a relief not to have so many other tourists there. But that changed when we had 2 touts trying to sell us postcards, and no one else to distract them! Once we were inside the temple, we had the ‘tourist police’ helpers (guys that just hang around there in their galibeyyas) want to show us things even though our guide Meeno had already shown us those things. They would point at the obvious pictures to show us where we could take pictures (another relief to be able to take pictures inside somewhere again!). The pictures and carvings were just amazing – they were embossed outwards, and some had the paint/colourings still on them. After seeing so many temples with the pictures carved into the rock, it was awesome to see them protrude gracefully out of the walls. We wandered around the chambers on our own after Meemo had finished his guiding, glad to have some time to wander ourselves. In one of the chambers I saw a lady in a robe, splashing water on the ground as she walked around a stick of burning incense she had stuck into the ground. Looked like a ritual of some kind.

At the top of some columns inside the temple, some of the hieroglyphics had been altered (early graffiti) to look like helicopters and other ‘futuristic’ images. Comedy! It actually looked pretty well done. The temple was a ‘Temple of Osiris’, complete with the Osirieon (tomb of Osiris) which had been under a pool of water. Today it was all dried up. As we walked out of the temple, some Arabic speaking tourists stopped Nathan and motioned to have their picture taken with him outside the temple. Ok…He’s a tourist attraction now? Hehe! We bought some postcards from the guys standing out by the front of the complex, and then we drove to Dendara, to the temple of Hathor.

On the way we ate a packed lunch from the hotel, with some cheese rolls and some chicken rolls. I wasn’t too convinced that they were ok to eat after sitting in the hot van for nearly half the day, but luckily we didn’t get sick. We passed a few more checkpoints as well as some large tour buses, hurtling along little roads and through little towns. I think they were on the same tour route as we had been.

Once we got to Dendara, I noticed that the place seemed even more quiet and isolated than Abydos had been. I think it was the more interesting temple, and not just because it was for Hathor, the goddess of love, pleasure and beauty, but because of the mummification room; the original ‘astrological calendar’, the spiraling/ramp stairs and the crypt. Outside the temple there was a relief of the god of childbirth, Bes, who looked like a dwarven court jester. The mummification room was quite dark and the walls seemed to be either originally dark, or else covered with a smoke residue or something. They had a skylight to allow in some natural light too. The walls and ceilings were covered with instructions for the mummification process I believe (cause we couldn’t see much with my tiny torch and the lights weren’t working in that room). We also went into a room that had had the original Egyptian ‘calendar’ in the ceiling, but the original had been removed to France I think, and a replica was put in its place. It was all black too.

We then walked up to the upper level of the temple, going around in a large square spiral, mimicking the ascension of a bird, passing more skylights in the walls, which allowed light into the corridors that were covered with carvings. We made it up to the upper level and then walked down the other staircase, this one heading on a straight decline. This was said to mimic a birds descent. Once we were back on the lower level, we were shown the small crypt underground where the royal family would have been hidden in times of trouble etc. It was very small, and covered with more pictures. It was interesting to see how the different textures of the rock made the pictures look. The crypt contained some interesting pics showing a snake in a jar or something. Some people believe it represents an early power source. Just as we were about to leave, the lights were turned off and we were left in pitch darkness in an ancient crypt in the middle of nowhere! I had my little LED torch so I just said ‘Uh, excuse me! We are still down here…’ I figured it was a bit of a joke with the locals. Not sure. It didn’t take long for the lights to come back on again, so we climbed out soon after. There was a galibeyya-ed man there to try and help us out. I didn’t really need his help but he seemed to think I did cause later on he came up to us and asked if I had a pen. We hadn’t given him any baksheesh (cause I was annoyed at the lights being turned out), but I gave him a pen anyway. He walked away without a word, inspecting his new pen. LOL!

After a long day out, it was good to head back to the hotel to have some tea and coffee while sitting outside near the gardens overlooking the Nile. The hotel had a floating pool that sat on the Nile but we didn’t feel like swimming. We then met up with the rest of the tour group and we walked down the Corniche to Luxor temple where we took many, many more pictures in the dying afternoon light. On the way there we had some little kids follow us, asking for money by motioning to their mouths (to buy food).

The temple was pretty awesome, especially seeing it around sunset. They had some pics of the fertility God that was rather explicit too LOL! The temple is known as the temple of the 3 religions since it has the Egyptian temple, some Christian symbols on some of the columns (I think), and a mosque had been built on top of the ruins, before they had realised that the temple had been there. We also saw the other line of sphinxs out the front, heading towards Karnak temple.

Once we had finished our photography, we walked back towards the hotel, stopping by the ‘Metropolitan’ to have dinner. I tried some beef fattah (stewed beef and tomato with some bread bits), and we were all introduced to ‘farowla’, the strawberry puree drink that Renate had discovered last time she was at the restaurant. We finished off a yummy dinner with some ice cream and sheesha.  Then it was back to the hotel to pack and prepare for our early morning wake up call

The minibus took us to the Valley of the Kings first, and we had to take a buggy ride to get to the entrance. On the way we passed some tourists who were riding donkeys up the hill. Poor donkeys! Our tickets allowed us to enter into 3 tombs, but not including Tutankhamen’s. We didn’t have any pounds on us at the time, plus it apparently doesn’t have much to look at so we decided to give it a miss. What was interesting is that his tomb is actually underneath another tomb, which is why it wasn’t discovered earlier.

I think it was the hottest day we had in Egypt – but it could just be the fact that we really felt like we were in the desert. When we were in the shade, it was quite alright. But when we were walking in the sun, I could feel the sweat running down my back. I’m so glad I had a wide brimmed hat and sunnies, as well as the ‘cool’ (loose and covered) clothing. It was quite interesting to view the other tourists visiting, and what they were wearing. A couple of guys were topless, and some girls seemed quite inappropriately dressed. I think our group were super-responsible and super-conservative maybe? I also found the other tourists to be quite rude. They would not make eye contact with anyone else, and if I thanked them (for letting me pass, or letting me climb a ladder first etc), they would act as if they didn’t even hear me. It happened consistently too. Towards the end, I decided to try saying it in their languages. The next couple I thanked were German. I think my ‘danke schon’ surprised them so much that they instinctively said the response -’bitte’.

The first tomb we went into, that of Ramses IX, had a gradual walk down into the ground, with all the walls and ceiling covered with a white background and colourful pictures. Some of the walls were covered with some perspex too, so it was nice to see the protective effort there. Outside, there were some guys working on some pottery shards they had found. They were part of an archaeological team I think.

The second tomb, Thutmes III, required us to climb a steep staircase up a couple of flights before descending down into the tomb. There was a guy handing out squares of cardboard for tourists to use as fans within the tomb, since it could get quite stuffy. Of course there was a price when you returned it afterwards. Luckily the temperature inside wasn’t too bad, and they had some fans pushing some air around. The interesting thing is that the pictures looked like Egyptian stick figures that had been drawn in permanent marker, and didn’t have as much colour as the first one had. The second, deeper, chamber was actually in the shape of a cartouche.

The third tomb, that of Siptah’s, was similar to the first one in that it had a gradually sloping entrance. The ticket collector was actually very friendly and would try and chat/banter with the tourists without asking for baksheesh. It made us actually want to give him some (unfortunately we were out). This tomb actually had one of the rooms break through to another tomb – not that we could see from where we were. At the end of the walkway, there was a massive stone sarcophagus. Nearby there were some workmen doing some restoration work on the walls with concrete.

Afterwards, some of the others went into another tomb (Ramses VI I think), while we rested in the shade. We then had to run a gauntlet of ‘markets’ which all seem to be conveniently placed outside of tourist attractions. The touts swarmed and pounced onto the tourists. I didn’t seem to be hassled too much – I would shake my head and my hand to indicate ‘no’ and then just keep on walking. Walid suggested that we just ignore them and keep on walking. I just couldn’t do it!

We then stopped by an alabaster ‘factory’ where a guy pointed out some techniques that some others were performing, regarding alabaster product creation. The pounding, the grinding etc. The last guy was carving little objects, and he held up his current work which was a little cat. He gave out this cute little meow sound which set us off completely! So he did it again. Absolute classic! Once inside, they made us tea/coffee/soft drink while we browsed. The usual spiel – special discount etc. Unfortunately I didn’t see anything I really really liked, so we left empty handed. I would have liked to have bought a little canopic jar or something, but they just looked dodgy. Plus, I knew we were travelling for another couple of weeks so I really didn’t want to be carrying heavy rock with me at the time!

The next stop was the Temple of Hatshepsut (’hot chicken soup’). She was a woman who took over as Pharaoh when her husband died, and was often portrayed wearing a fake beard. We disembarked from the bus and boarded little buggy trains to reach near the foot of the temple. We could see some areas where Hatshepsut had planted some incense trees, but which had since crumbled away with time. We wandered around the complex with Walid, looking at the pictures – some faded, some still quite clear. Some of them had been defaced, especially those of Hatshepsut herself. There was a small temple of Hathor to one side, but some of it had fallen down. There was some support structures that had been put in place. I think by this stage we were quite dehydrated since it was probably the hottest day on the entire tour! We headed back to the lone shelter/cafe nearby where Walid was waiting for us. On the way back to the hotel we stopped by the Colossi of Memnon to take a few pictures along with other tourists who had also stopped there for the same reason.

We were staying at the Iberotel while in Luxor, which was quite nice. We had a view of the crazy roundabout at the front (lanes? What lanes?), and roofs of flowering satellite dishes, all facing into the same direction in the sky. By this time I was starving so we wandered around the hotel trying to find a place that was still serving lunch. We walked past a gardener who was sitting on the ground doing some work. I smiled and said hello before continuing on my quest for food. We then turned around and went back (cause the place we were looking at was closed), and on passing the gardener, he shyly smiled at me and handed me a bunch of flowers from the garden. At first I was a little hesitant to take them (waiting for him to ask for baksheesh, or to marry him LOL), but he insisted so I took them. It was so sweet of him, and I spent the rest of the time trying to find him again so I could give him a little koala or something, but no luck. Nathan had been walking with me at the time so I’m not really sure how to interpret the situation, so I will just believe that he was being really nice, and take it at face value. I was really touched by this gesture, after becoming so on-guard with everyone while in Egypt.

Headed back to our room for a mini nap before going back out again, this time to the awesome temple of Karnak. It was such a massive complex with very impressive columns. Nath and I took so many photos while we were there because we had some gorgeous afternoon light filtering through the temple itself. The columns were massive and awe-inspiring – something we don’t really see much at all these days. It was packed with other tourists, some of which were quite unfriendly unfortunately. What a shame. One of the other tour guides started yelling at some foreign tourists nearby to where we were, since one of them had climbed the base of a column to take photos. Naturally they pretended to ignore him, or pretended they didn’t speak English (or maybe both).

There’s an avenue of sphinxes between Karnak and Luxor temples, although some of them are now covered with buildings and roads, there are still some sections you can see in between the two. At Karnak temple there was also a special column topped by a large scarab beetle, which women were to walk around 7 time if they wanted to get married, or else men could walk around 14 times if they wanted more sexual prowess. Some of the girls on our tour went for the walk around, but the men stayed away claiming they didn’t need the assistance. Hehe!

After our big day out, Nath and I decided not to go exploring the city of Luxor and instead rested in our room, opting for room service. Our throats were starting to get a little sore so some rest and garlic/horseradish was in order. I was also starting to get a little sad at the thought of the tour ending, and all of us going our separate ways. We really had a very special group and we probably won’t experience that again.

The cruise boat people had put out our photos from the party the night before, so we could buy the ones we wanted. Their  pics had actually turned out quite nicely! I bought one to remember the night with

After Edfu, we relaxed on the sundeck, writing postcards, drinking tea, enjoying the sun and breeze, while watching the banks of the Nile pass us by. I felt I was almost in an Agatha Christie book!  ‘I say, old chap..’

We had a prime position to see the boat pass through the Esna lock, going down to a lower level of the Nile. I couldn’t really feel the boat descending though. It was funny to see the boat behind us come through since there seemed to be quite a few passengers on board, and they were all crowded at the front to watch the proceedings (compared to us 11 plus staff). All in all, it was good to have a cruisey day and we got to Luxor just as the sun was setting.  After the festivities last night, we had a relatively early night, although since dinner didn’t usually finish until 9pm or so, I guess it wasn’t that early after all.

Before bed, we settled our bills in the ‘lobby’ downstairs, and then headed up to our rooms. The house-keeping guys were lurking in the central area near the staircase, cleaning the ceiling etc. It was unusual for us to see them at that hour… when we got to our room, I understood why – the guys had outdone themselves in their towel art! They had made an elephant out of some pillows, the towel, our headphones and a water bottle. It was awesome! We then ran around, checking each others rooms since we all had different sculptures. It was a good way to end the cruise actually.  Afterwards we did have a bit of a concern regarding where they had gotten their props from. One of the tour guys told us that the dress they used to decorate her crocodile, had been in her suitcase. Hmmm…

We then headed back to the cruise ship where we were to set sail for Kom Ombo. Once we walked through the metal detector (not sure if it was even on!), we were given cold towels to refresh ourselves, and some hot, sweetened aniseed tea. It was really nice! We then all went to sit on the top deck to watch the Nile pass us by, and to take many photos. It felt so civilised, sitting there drinking tea (and Coke) on wicker furniture, writing in our journals. Before we were underway, it wasn’t so pleasant since the petrol fumes of the other boats would waft over to where we were. The boats were generally lined up nose to tail up the riverbank. Up on the road we could see caleches (horse and carriages), beeping cars, people at bus stops. The staff on the boat have been so friendly and attentive. I’ve even been practising my Egyptian Arabic on them. Not too many phrases though! It’s also been kinda nice to absorb the culture and scenery from the buffer of our boat.

When we got to Kom Ombo, our boat docked and we went to see the temple, shared between the falcon god Horus, and the crocodile god Sobek.  They temple is actually 2 temples, symmetrical to each other, and right next to each other. They had an interesting section on medical implements. There were lots of Italian tourists at the temple (different from the ones we saw at Abu Simbel). Must be tourist season for them!

Afterwards we went to a nice coffee shop where I had some mint tea and Nath had some spiced coffee (with cardamon I think). There were some men who were playing traditional instruments, who came to play by our table. A few of us bought their CD so we could relive Egyptian music at home.  On the way back to the boat we walked past a man sitting on some carpet/matting, wearing a turban and charming a cobra. Once back on the boat, we took our refresher towels and aniseed tea, before going to relax some more. After having some afternoon tea in the bar area, I went to the little jewellery shop and bought a scarab beetle bracelet that had turquoise embedded into their backs. Then I went to the other shop to get some little souveniers, as well as a galibeyya for the Egyptian party night. I bought a black one that had colourful and sparkly embroidery around the top and hem. Nath bought a plain black one and a black/white head scarf thing.

Earlier in the afternoon, the boat had docked at Edfu, ready for us to investigate tomorrow.

Dinner was more traditional this time with kebabs and dolmades etc. We then went into the bar room for the party itself. We had a group of men walk into the bar area and onto the dancefloor, singing and playing instruments. It took me a moment to realise that these were boat staff, including our friendly head restaurant man. They were wonderful! After a moment, they pulled us up onto the dancefloor to sing and dance with them too. It was a lot of fun – they were really into their singing – you could see it in their faces. I wasn’t prepared for the physical exertion, especially when wearing all black with long sleeves! They got us to play some crazy party games. They got the men of the tour group, tied a string around their waists, which was connected to a potato on the other end. This potato was draped down their back, which meant that they had to grab up their galibeyyas to make it work. The goal was to hit the loose potato on the group with the string potato (like polo). They did well and provided much entertainment. They then got the girls to play something like musical chairs, but with spoons on the ground instead. We danced around the spoons for a while, and then Walid stepped in and lead us conga style around the room. The music stopped and we all ran around the bar chairs and lounges to get to the spoons. I think I lasted about half way and only cause I was laughing so hard. Another game was hot potato with a water bottle. Nath and I were the last 2, and he won so he got a little scarab bracelet thing. Another game was where we had to be in groups of a certain number, and the odd ones out would ‘lose’.

Then came the entertainment for the boat staff – the girls were to dance.  All 7 of us were to dance for a minute each, with a scarf wrapped around our waist. I asked for half a minute. LOL! Not sure if they gave it to me or not – it didn’t feel like it! . I’m really glad that I had some wine earlier in the evening! They then turned the dancefloor into a disco. I think I danced one song and then had to call it a night. Headed back to our room to find a towel crocodile sculpture, ‘eating’ a packet of pocket tissues. Awesome!

Stomach-wise, we had been faring pretty well. Having said that, I was very glad to have some meds with us to blast away any little bugs we might have gotten along the way.

The flight was quite short, and we were given some drinks on the way. We saw some of the temple on the way in, but I wasn’t sure since my window was kinda dusty. Once we landed, the plane did front and rear disembarking. Since we were close to the middle, and the back was nearly empty by this time, we decided to head this way. The Italians didn’t want any of it though so they pushed past us to continue to go through the front entrance. The back way seemed to go down some stairs in the very middle of the back – I hadn’t seen that before.We had a bus waiting for us to take us to the terminal (something we were to get used to in Egypt). Once there, we walked out the front of the terminal to find a mini bus which took us to the Abu Simbel temple and the Temple of Hathor.

Once at the Abu Simbel complex, we walked through the usual security (metal detectors etc) and then walked around to the temples, taking the path of shortest distance (but not least resistance!) as we walked through a dirt and gravel track, leaving the concrete pathway for the other foreigners. The statues of Ramses II were huge and very impressive. Sometimes I felt that a lot of these temples and statues were just Disneyland fakes, rather than the real thing. It seemed to take a bit of time to let it sink in that I was seeing the real thing, but either way I was loving the whole experience!

We went inside the temples without Walid since guides are not allowed inside with their groups. I think it’s due to the limited space inside, so that we aren’t all crowded in. The whole temple had been moved about 210m back from and 65m above it’s original position, due to the formation of Lake Nasser. As such, the dome itself is made of concrete but made to look like real rock. It is amazing to stand inside the temple rooms, viewing the pictures on the walls and imagining the whole complex being moved even an inch!

One of the Italian tourists took a photo of one of the columns, complete with flash. No respect! I said to her that photos are not allowed and she just stared at me, while another member of her group walked past and said ‘no flash’ to her. Hmm.. someone else said that she saw other tourists taking photos too, so she told the tourist police who were at the entrance of the temples. I don’t understand why people need to do this. On the other hand, charging people to buy photos and postcards of places they can’t take photos in seems kinda entrepreneurial.

Nath and I then headed to the cafe where Walid was, and we waited for the others. Walid let me try the apple sheesha he was smoking. It wasn’t too bad since it had a bit of a sweet taste/smell. It didn’t seem to kill my lungs either but then again, I’m never sure if I’m doing it right or not. Based on what others have told me, smoking the sheesha is like smoking an entire pack of cigarettes so maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t enjoy it too much! LOL!

We then went back to the airport to catch the same plane back to Aswan (with the same Italian group – complete with naughty photo-taking lady). I’m really glad that Intrepid put the trip back on the main tour cause I definitely would have done it as an optional if required. Once back in Aswan, we were taken to our cruise ship – the Shehrezad. We later found out that we were the only group on the entire boat  – all of us on the same floor inside deluxe rooms. It seems that they merged 2 smaller rooms to make one big room, complete with a large bed, 2 small bathrooms and a sitting area. I had been expecting little cramped rooms so this was most unexpected. We had 2 huge windows looking out onto the Nile, which was just gorgeous. Lots of feluccas would sail up and down the Nile. The desert came right down to the river, near the Nubian village area. We were on the top floor for rooms (highest floor was for the bar and restaurant). I think there may have been about 40 – 50 cabins on the boat, so it was quite an experience.

When we had lunch in the dining room, we had all the wait staff wait around our long table. It was a little uncomfortable to have so many people watching us eat! For every meal, the dining room would put out the menu for the meal, with options for the mains. With soup for starters and dessert to finish off, we ate very well. Nath and I developed a taste for sweetened lemon juice, which was good since I was hoping that it would kill any bugs, and also boost our immune system.

Anyway, we had time to relax on the top deck, while we charged our electronic items in our rooms. They had some deckchairs and lounge suits undercover, as well as a little pool that would have been about 3m x 4m I think. Just like a large bathtub! I think we were all still trying to be conservative with our clothes, so no one went swimming. I noticed that since we were so concerned about our clothing standard, we really noticed when people in other tour groups flouted the rules and wore hotpants or mini skirts or boob tubes – or combinations of these. Walid had mentioned that this would be ok in touristy places but somehow that didn’t feel right or respectful.

Once it was night time, we headed back out for Philae’s temple of Isis, on Agilika Island. The temple was moved from it’s original island (Philae) after the building of the Aswan dam submerged parts of the temple. This time we were there for the sound and light show. Again, as per Walid’s advice, we headed to the front left corner so that we could see the lights the best when the show started. We were all experimenting with our DSLR’s to try and get a good shot without using the flash. The story itself was a bit gumby – I think Walid did a better job with the story telling. But it was nice to see different parts of the temple light up through the columns etc. Afterwards, we jumped back on our boat and headed for the cruise ship. We had our western style dinner and then went to bed.