Egypt & Jordan GAP Tour - March 15th

In the morning we joined a convoy and headed to Abu Simbel, which is the historic site for one of Egypt’s greatest temples. I want to add a little explanation from my GAP itinerary to explain:

Not only are the two temples located at Abu Simbel among the most magnificent monuments in the world but their removal and reconstruction was an historic event in itself. When the temples (280 km from Aswan) were threatened by submersion in Lake Nasser, due to the construction of the High Dam, the Egyptian Government secured the support of UNESCO and launched a world wide appeal. During the salvage operation which began in1964 and continued until 1968, the two temples were dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more than 3,000 years before. Here they were reassembled, in the exact same relationship to each other and the sun, and covered with an artificial mountain.

It was quite a site. One temple is that of Ramesses II and the other Nefertari, his wife. It was discovered in 1813. You weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but I will never forget how grand the interior was, with its many columns and carvings.

On the way back through the Lybian desert our bus broke down. It was funny to think we could have been stuck in the desert for quite some time if we hadn’t been with a convoy. A German tour bus picked us up a little later on and we headed back to Aswan to a government run essence shop.

By then we were starving and it is Egyptian hospitality to always offer drinks and sometimes food to guests, even in a shop. So we were served their very popular Hibiscus tea and had Egyptian sandwiches filled with falafel. We were then entertained by a demonstration and explanation of how essences, perfumes, etc., are made. And of course, we had some time to shop.

We had some time to rest at the hotel before joining our guide once again for a walk through the market where he had to pick up some spices to take back home. We had a nice explanation of some of the spices there, most of which I knew already from my Zanzibar spice route tour.

For dinner we ate Egyptian pizzas which are much like calzones. We made our own way back to the hotel so that we could walk through the market some more. We had a very entertaining experience with the local vendors. One man came up to me and this is the conversation we had:

“How much?”
“How much for what?”
“For you!”
“Ha well I’m pretty expensive.”
“How about one million camels!?!”

We insisted to one man that we had no money, and his answer was: “No money, no funny, no honey!” And of course many times we would hear how they would give us money to walk through their store. Everyone always wants to know where you are from and not once was my answer, being ‘Canada’, acceptable for them. No I am ‘India’ and that’s that.

So long as you take everything in good humour it is a lot of fun to roam through the market and immerse yourself in the very well known ‘baksheesh’ culture of Egypt.