2006 Egypt

2 January 2007, Tuesday; Yassien Hotel, Aswan, LE30

Back in Aswan we had a slightly frustrating day – with highlights.

We decided not to return to the Nubian Oasis Hotel with its four flights of stairs and stompies stuck into the gap between the bathroom door and wall. And moved instead into the very cheap Yassien down a narrow alley off the souq and close to the railway station. Relatively comfortable beds and an OK bathroom. And someone to do our laundry at LE1 per item.

We enquired then about hiring bicycles and were directed by the tourist office to a place across the ridiculously high railway bridge – where we found two fancy-looking, but badly-serviced bikes.

We pottered down to the Corniche in search of the ferry to Elephantine. Somehow we missed the main ferry crossing and ended up, therefore, at the southern tip of the island. Where we were approached immediately upon disembarking by galabiyya’d Hamdi. When we tried to turn down his offer to show us around, he bristled and said “I am chief here, not tour guide”. And told us he was a chosen elder of the Nubian community on the island, was mentioned on page 282 of our Lonely Planet guide, and had just recently spent a month travelling around Egypt with the publishers to assist with the latest edition (in which he is mentioned on a different page).

We had taken our bikes across to the island intending to cycle between the two villages thereon, but saw almost immediately that this would not be possible. So we wheeled them up the track with Hamdi in tow. He showed us a half-buried statue, took us into his brightly-painted (Nubian) home, and directed us to a local (Nubian) restaurant on a rooftop overlooking the Nile and the village women seated below on a bench in the sun. Here were dead stuffed crocodiles and one live littley in a glass cage – dinner, we gathered. The place was overpriced so we ordered only one meal to share – adequate anyway for two and tasty – while Hamdi hovered and later accosted two foreign women who had come up for tea. On the menu was offered Fanta Apple LE1.50!

After lunch we had a longish chat with the restaurant owner who, on learning that Charl taught entrepreneurship development, offered us lemon tea in exchange for business advice. Our first bit of advice: put up a sign advertising the restaurant – which had no name and which we would not have found had it not been for Hamdi.

We (I, actually) wanted to take a felucca on the Nile. We did not want Hamdi’s help with this, but again our reluctance to be rude made it difficult to get rid of him (on which I suppose he and others like him who press unwanted help upon you rely). We finally paid him LE10 for his “kindness” (he asked for the money – so much for being chief-not-guide) and boarded our felucca with its 30m mast and two boatmen. A similar sail was invented in around 3350BC ie before Pharaonic Egypt. To weave our way first upriver (south) past the Cataract Hotel at which Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile and then downriver (north) past the rocks that resemble elephants drinking from the river and kids in a rowboat using a hand-held scarf as a sail and the Aga Khan’s Mausoleum. To be dropped with our unused bikes on the jetty at our five star hotel of the night before last. Where we had a drink before making our way home.

Later we dined well again on local fare down a little-touristed road and then strolled the souq and surrounding streets along with locals in a holiday mood. Young women dressed in “traditional modern”. Long skirts in pale colours with low-slung belts and pretty scarves with sequins. Young couples holding hands. Babies in carrycots; one in a belly bag. Young people in groups – boys or girls, seldom mixed. People walking in the road, oblivious to hooting vehicles.

We wanted tea and baklava, but only tea was on offer in the popular open-air tea shop in which we found ourselves. Our host sent someone out for baklava, however, so our needs were met and we drank our tea while a young man on a donkey cart delivered a large gas bottle to the owner and the tide of people ebbed and flowed past the shop’s perimeter.

Charl commented that Egypt is all about tea, tourists, tobacco and ta’amiyya. And we discussed the fact that this country seems to be virtually crime-free. We are convinced there are two reasons for this: a religion that is a way of life and a virtually alcohol-free society.