The Eid Holiday

The feast celebrating the end of Ramadan is called Eid al-Fitr, or as folks around these parts say, "The Eid". Leah and I had already decided to spend the time off in Hurghada, a town off the Red Sea. However, the Muslim calendar is based on a lunar cycle, and thanks to the unpredictability of the tricky moon, we were given two additional days off of work! Armed with our extra days, and having read an article in the paper about the Abu Simbel Temples, we decided we could go down to Aswan before heading back up to Hurghada... Aswan
isn't close, about a 12 hr drive, so the overnight sleeper train sounded like just the thing: board at 9pm, arrive at 9am. However, our train had technical difficulties and we crawled along, finally arriving in Aswan 5 hrs late!!! Oh well. I was just glad to not be working. I amused myself by making fun of the breakfast (served at 11:30 instead of 8am) which was four types of bread (Egyptians sure do love their bread) and by finally starting the fantastic book "Middlesex" by Jeffery Eugenides, and by taking videos of the scenery passing outside the train window. Halfway through the novel, around noon, Leah and I began to feel like we were in a prison cell... and the train dude kept saying, "one more hour", and the WC was beginning to reek, and... well you get the point. One good thing about the extra time on the train was that we were able to gussy up our Aswan game plan. My "Lonely Planet" guide book suggested we stop into the Tourist Office next door to the train station, and since we weren't able to make any type of reservations from home before leaving, this was our plan A, B, and C. The brothers that run the office are supposedly very helpful. However, they also close shop at 2pm, so thankfully our train was only 5 hrs behind schedule, cuz we caught them just as they were walking away from the building... A very Egyptian exchange ensued: we were handed off to a friend, who took us to a driver, who suggested his hotel over the ones in the guidebook. I think Leah and I are getting used to the Egyptian mindset of going with the flow. As we loaded up into the battered old school station wagon with two strangers, we exchanged nervous, white-girl glances only half a dozen times, way less than we would have a month ago. Our "guide" took us to the main drag, a stones throw from the Nile, and for 50 LE a night, we agreed on his suggested hotel. The place was dark and a bit crusty, but there was an amazing view of the river. The Nile is gorgeous in Aswan. The water is actually blue, not brown like in Cairo or Ma'adi, and there are picturesque, bolder-sized rocks that form mini-islands here and there. After we checked into our room, we discovered that our new friend could also hook us up with alllll our traveling needs (of course!... all Egyptians wear multiple hats: taxi driver, realtor, tour guide, etc). We were able to get a 3hr bus ride to Abu Simbel, a taxi to the light show at the Philea Temple, a sunset felucca ride including a visit to the botanical gardens, and our bus tickets to Hurghada. Two days of activities, all for 277 LE each, about 50 bucks. Of course, all these tourist attractions have entry fees, etc, but still, I was so glad we stumbled upon this guy who was able to get all of the planning out of the way in one thirty minute conversation! Even though our train had been late, we had time for a quick snack before catching our sunset felucca ride, after which we'd try the famous local pizza and then head over to the Philae Temple light show at 7pm. Not bad for an unplanned evening. :) Tune in next time for photos and impressions of the stuff we were lucky to experience in Aswan.