Cruising the Nile

Arriving at Cairo's Giza train station for my overnight sleeper train to Luxor I thought I had stepped back to a period when the railway system was just developing into a modern method of transportation. The small, old, station building with it's peeling paint and wooden windows felt dated apart from the metal detector at the entrance. Porters strolled the platform old with luggage sack trolleys loaded with bags whilst waiting passengers, both local and tourist, passed the time until the train arrived. The train was almost on time and as I nestled into my sleeper compartment, joined by a fellow from Manchester, I began to anticapte the much famed Nile and the delights that I could expect.

The train pulled in to Luxor station around 7 am and I was met by my tour guide. I was taken by minibus through the early sun soaked streets of the East Bank town of Luxor. The renowned site of the Greek named Thebes, the ancient Egyptians home to the impressive Karnak and Luxor temples.

HS Aton, a large Nile cruiser vessel, was to be my home for the next three nights and as I checked in I was lead to the Nile deck (the bottom deck) and shown to my room. The Nile cruises are known for their luxurious settings and accommodation and I was very pleased, as I walked into my suite, to find a king size bed, en-suite and the usual creature comforts you'd expect in a decent hotel room. Perhaps a little unsettling I noticed that my room was half below the water level with only the windows above the mirky surface.

Comprised of five decks the boat was a veritable floating hotel. With four decks of compartments, a buffet restaurant, the Cheers Bar and an upper sun deck with it's very own miniture swimming pool I was in paradise as the burning sun rose and showered the sun loungers. I took it upon myself to test the sturdiness of the reclining chairs.

The buffet cart was a reasonable fare, far better than the food I had been coming accustomed to in Cairo, and later in the day I was met in reception by Mustafa, my guide, to go to the Karnak and Luxor temples. We picked up some other tourists from other hotels on the way and soon we arrived at the monsterous site of Karnak.

Karnak is probably the largest historical site in Egypt, perhaps with the exception of Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of Luxor, and is comprised of temples, chapels, pylons and a sacred lake. Devoted to the sun god, Amun Re, the centre piece of Karnak is the Great Temple of Amen. Begun by Pharoah Ramses II nearly 3500 years ago it is a huge structure with 134 towering Lotus pillars. The centre 12 form the main corridor of the Great Hippostyle Hall. As you enter through the hierglyphic inscribed walls, guarded by numerous stone statues of lion bodies adorned with human heads and their Phaorah head pieces, you catch a glance at the back of the temple, to the east, and the towering oblelisks jutting out of the ruins.

A short distance from Egypts second most visited tourist attraction (next to the Giza Pyramids) is the Luxor Temple. Another relic of the ancient civilisation it was largely constructed by Pharoah Amenhotep and added to over time. Still being uncovered is the Avenue of Sphinxes. Now believed to link the two temples together the avenue is lined by over 700 statues of the lions with human heads, the same as those that guard Karnak. In the 13th century AD muslims added a mosque to an inner courtyard of the temple. I chose not to enter the Luxor temple as it was still very hot and I was tired but I managed to get a few pictures from outside.

Even as the sun was setting in the late afternoon the temperature was still well into the high thirties and it was time to return to the boat for dinner. The night before, waiting for the train, I had met an American fellow, Larry, heading for Luxor also. We had been in separate carriages on the train but as I entered the dining saloon I saw him at a table. On a ship that was predominently occupied by large groups of French, German and Russian groups it was nice to have someone to share a meal with, something we continued to do for the next few days.

The next day was a very early start, the boat was still moored outside the Sheraton hotel and would be until early afternoon when it was to set sail up river towards Aswan. 6.45 am and the phone in my room buzzed loudly, waking me, with my early morning wake up call. After the buffet breakfast I was again greeted by Mustafa in reception and left to do the West Bank tour. I had been told the boat would leave at 1 pm. The morning of the West Bank tour did not go so smoothly. Collecting a larger number of fellow tourists it took sometime before we were all packed into the minibus and on the way to the Valley of the Kings, the first stop of the day.

The West Bank is home to the vast valley of the dead, the Necropolis of Thebes, where the limestone hills on the Nile encase the tombs of numerous ancient Pharoahs, perhaps the most famous being Tutankhamen - discovered in 1922 by English Archeaologist Howard Carter. The vast complex houses countless resting places of dead Pharoahs who were buried with treasures and riches that were to be pillaged before the last Pharoahs were even buried. So far only Tutenkhamen's tomb has been discovered untouched. Astonishingly the tombs of these ancient rulers seemed to be unmapped as, during the construction of various other tombs, the burial chambers of other rulers were sometimes encroached upon meaning that tunnels into the new tombs had to be diverted. We weren't allowed cameras inside this complex as the flash photography degrades the coloured hieroglyphics painted on the walls.

Most of the tomb's entrances are sealed to the public either for conservation or restoration work but we did have the opportunity to enter three different shrines. Among the great rulers whose tombs these were dedicated to are the illustrious Tuthmosis I, considered one of the more important Pharoahs who pushed the borders of Egypt further than anyone before going deep into Nubia, and Ramses II, who followed around 300 years after Tuthmoses and is also known as Ozymandias in Greek. The tunnels into the chambers buried in the limestone mountains were impeccibly decorated with hieroglyphics and art work worshipping the sun god and depicting the mummification process and the boat of the dead.

Leaving the Valley of the Kings our next destination was the Valley of the Queens, although not before the customary stop at the tour guides friends alabasta shop. Time was pressing, it was already approaching midday and we were told that the alabasta visit would last fifteen minutes. We were given a short demonstration of the methods employed for making the fine alabasta vases and the other works they did. They told us about the granite, floated down the Nile from Aswan, used to make figurines and busts, the real, glow-in-the-dark, statues and some other statues that left little to the imagination as to what they thought of their endowments.

Nearly an hour later after several of the other members of the group had spent a long time haggling over prices for the souvenirs whilst the rest of us had to wait in the hot, arid, heat we headed off. I was not going to be late in getting back to the boat and I was now concerned for time. I was also becoming weary of temples, mausoleums, tombs and the like. Egypt is certainly bequeathed with it's fair share of them, perhaps more concentrated than any other place I have ever travelled and they are also astute in that they charge you a separate entrance fee for every single one of them. This becomes increasingly frustrating for the traveller on a budget. The Nile cruise as not cheap to begin with, certainly in travellers terms, being more than a weeks budget and the constant dipping into the pocket for entrance fees was becoming a real financial pain. I told the guide I wouldn't be going into the next temples and that I needed to return to my boat ready for departure. This caused a bit of an upset as I believe the tour guides get a cut of the entrance fees for the groups they bring in. The day before I had heard that Karnak temple brings in around 126,000 USD everyday of the year in entrance fees for the government. I was not going to worry about my lack of desire to enter this one in that case.

After some discussion, phone calls to head office and some aggressive sounding conversations I was being driven back to the boat with an American couple who, likewise, were getting a bit exhausted from all the tourist activities and the costs. It was also lunchtime on the boat and I was hungry and didn't want to miss one of the meals that was included as part of my cruise. In the afternoon I had free time. No more sites to visit and as I laid on the sundeck soaking up the sun's rays the boat left it's mooring and we began the voyage up river towards Aswan.

The following day I had yet another early wake up call for breakfast and to prepare for a visit to, you guessed it, another temple. The boat had arrived overnight at a place called Edfu. Still feeling the effects of all the tourist bashing I elected to forgo this temple and instead headed up to the sundeck. It appeared as though the entire ships compliment had gone to the historical site so I had pick of the loungers at about 7.30 am and I remained in that spot, turning myself routinely like a rotisserie chicken, until lunch. The boat had departed late morning to head to Kom Ombo, another location enroute to Aswan. The Kom Ombo temple was easily visable from the boat as we approached and again I elected to forgo entrance as I took pictures from the top deck. As the boat moored there were local children skimming stones into the Nile. They were obviously waiting for the next boat load of unsuspecting tourists as we were soon proffered braclets and other hand made sellables. As the the day drew to an end I caught my first sunset on the Nile. The boat was moored heading due south and I had a perfect panorama from our east bank position looking across the river and palm tree lined western bank.

The final part of the Nile adventure included a bus ride to the southern most region of Egypt approaching the border of Sudan. In the evening and overnight the boat set sail for Aswan, our final mooring location, and from there I would take the bus to Abu Simbel to see the much revered Great Temple of Ramses II. In the evening I was informed that my wake up call would be at 2.45 am! Buses and coaches must travel in police escorted convey across the southern desert and because of the distance and the need to return the same day for people to catch the return train to Cairo it must be an early start. I was wondering if this was going to be a worthwhile escapade.

2.45 am and the same, loud, buzzing phone woke me up and after receiving my cardboard boxed breakfast we were lead to our minibus and went to the convoy area. The bus was cramped and full and as we set off at 4 am I was waiting for the sun to rise to make things just a little more uncomfortable. It was a three and a half hour drive to Abu Simbel and we were given an hour and a bit to explore the temples before we had to undertake the return journey.

The Great Temple of Ramses II was perhaps the most exquist example of ancient Egyptian glorification. Two massive temples with imposing stone statues of Pharoahs guarded the entrance like colossal warriors. Inside the atmosphere was close, humid and sweaty but the art work on the walls were incredibly detailed and well maintained. It was worth the effort to come and see these monuments that had twice been moved after the Aswan dam had been constructed and flooded the Aswan to Abu Simbel Valley. The only downside was the no photography rule inside the monuments.

Bus ride back to Aswan and then it was time to head to the train station and catch my overnight long haul back to Cairo. Just as soon as the trip had begun it felt like it was ending. The train departed the platform at 4 pm and I was left contemplating the remarkable sights I had seen and experienced the past few days in my sleeper compartment that I had to myself. From the vast and enchanting relics of a civilisation once the pinnacle of the world to the cows that appeared stranded on small islands in the middle of the river it had been one of the those trips that is inscribed in your memory forever.

I had a few days in Cairo to pass before I headed to Dahab, on the Red Sea coast, and Sinai where I would visit St Katherines and Mount Sinai, my final stop in Egypt...