THE RACE TO THE SUN

Aswan, Egypt - Abu Simbel, Egypt
(Friday, May 20th)

2:30 am.

Too early. Seriously. But we crawled out of bed and got ourselves ready and ventured to the lobby to meet our driver. Our hotel provided breakfast boxes, but, much like our room, they left much to be desired. A couple stale rolls, prawn flavored chips (guh-ross), an apricot that looked like it had passed through many hands…you get the picture. Luckily for us it was so early that there was no way we could really eat, so we headed out with our driver to join the convoy going to Abu Simbel.

(Prawn flavored chips. I'm excited about it.)

Abu Simbel is a temple 3.5 hours drive away from Aswan, a temple by Ramses II dedicated to Ra, the sun god. It’s carved into a mountain and is absolutely massive in size, but we’ll get to that later. Back to the convoy…

Abu Simbel is located 40km from the border of Sudan, so the Egyptian government, in an effort to keep tourists safe, requires tourists to travel in large convoys to and from the site, the first one leaving around 4am. It includes everything from private cars (like we had) to giant tour busses. Hundreds of vehicles traveling together. We were so early to the convoy that not only were we the first ones in line, but we even beat security, and Miriam made the mistake of mentioning to our driver that we like being first…

(Part of the convoy, waiting for our drive)

The convoy started and so did the racing. A toe-curling, hair-raising, jockeying-positions race between the drivers to try to be among the first to arrive. Our driver was going around 95mph the whole way in an effort to keep us in the front pack, and I was petrified. So much for relaxing, enjoying the desert, and trying to get some additional sleep in! Miriam said later that she wondered when I was going to tackle him so that she could take over the driving. So scary!!

But it paid off, I must admit. We were one of the first vehicles to arrive, and when we finally walked down to the site, the view was AMAZING, and completely devoid of people. Not many people can get a picture of Abu Simbel without a single person in it (with the exception of the guard sitting in the doorway…). It was HUGE! And it’s located right next to Lake Nasser, the world’s largest man-made lake. It was a beautiful sight.

(Abu Simbel and itty bitty Miriam...and no one else. Awesome.)

(Whispering into Ramses's ear)

The inside of the temple was really cool, too, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures. So I took some anyways. Hehehe. I like to say my belly takes really good shots, as I have the camera hanging from my neck strap, aim it upwards, and cough loudly as I click the shutter closed. Almost got caught once when I didn’t really try to cough—I didn’t realize there were people walking throughout the temple watching for people taking pictures. He came around the corner and started following me around for a while. So close!

(My illegal photos)

We then had a lot of fun with Spuddy Buddy, our couch potato (he lives on our couch), the Idaho mascot my brother sent me. Spuddy has been having adventures all over Egypt, culminating at Abu Simbel. He has also seen the Pyramids, ridden a camel, and entertained a lot of Egyptian men (they thought he was hilarious). Ever the comedian, that Spuddy Buddy.

(Hot potato)

(The crowd we missed because of our lead-foot driver)

After we had taken every type of picture you can with Abu Simbel, we ventured over to the Temple of Hathor. It was much smaller so we finished it pretty quickly, which left us with a lot of time left before the convoy headed back to Aswan…which meant walking through the souvenir market with the pushy touts. We were able to evade them pretty well and decided to grab a soda and sit in the shade (the merchant tried to double the price on the sodas—almost $4 US for one can—and we laughed in his face and left. Suddenly, the price dropped to around $1.60. Much more reasonable).

(Temple of Hathor)

(View of Abu Simbel from Temple of Hathor)

(Find Spuddy Buddy! Hint: He's in the hieroglyphics.)

(The baboon frieze on top of Abu Simbel)

(Lake Nasser, the world's largest man-made lake)

When the convoy headed back, our driver was much slower (he had been trying to get us there first, after all)—around 75mph. That I could handle, but he wanted to get around a big bus and kept tailgating it and then driving in the left lane to try to get around it until he was forced back behind the bus when a car came from the other direction. This continued for over two hours. Once again, I was petrified. Imagine being in a car that drifts into the left lane as you are taking a corner or going over a hill and can’t see the traffic coming from the other direction…nail-biting!!

But the mirages in the desert were fascinating to see, and we had great conversations with our driver, who was around our age. He even convinced Miriam to sing for him (“Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which he had never heard before!). He shared “nuts” with us that looked and tasted just like pumpkin seeds. Miriam and I ate the whole seed, including the shell, like we usually do in the States, and that made him laugh. He thought we were crazy. Then he said, “Be careful not to eat the cover (shell) because…hmm, how do you say in English? There will grow a snake in your belly,” at which point I figured out he meant parasites! Whaaaa?! But he said we should be fine as we only had a few…*ahem*

He offered to take us to a jewelry shop/souvenir bazaar whose Cairo store we had visited earlier in the week and wanted to visit again, so we were able to get a little more shopping done and it saved us having to haggle with a cab driver to take us there. Phew!

We made it back to the hotel in one piece! Exhausted from lack of sleep, sticky from the heat, but ready for the rest of our day!