day 3 in the land of no trash cans
me: shit. i forgot to pay my rent.
this day we had to be up packed, checked out, and ready for a 3 hour bus ride to Abu Simbel (pictured above)...by 3:30 am.
we were not happy campers.
on the plus side, we did get to see the sunrise over the desert...which was freakin' amazing (to say the least). nothing like being surrounded by nothing to really enjoy a sun rise.
to get to Abu Simbel, one has to travel in a security convoy with a lot of other buses filled with tourists from the hotels. the convoy usually sets off each day at about 4:30 am (i was told 4 am). we get to the site, and all the drivers are outside smoking, waiting for the signal to start. so everyone inside our minibus offloads to have a smoke break. suddenly, without any warning, all the drivers are racing back to their vehicles yelling at everyone to get in. it's like the Amazing Race. Everyone is driving at reckless speeds, passing everyone they possibly can. our driver seem to take personal offense when anyone passed him.
and yes, there were roadblocks.
eventually, we make to Abu Simbel...one of the first 10 buses to make it there.
we are told we have 2 hours at the site and then we have to leave.
and that's it.
no direction on which way is the entrance or anything.
freshmeat and i trudged along hoping that a large group would know where they are going. eventually we just guessed and off we went.
luckily we choose correctly.
freshmeat had us race to the site. i'm glad she did. there was basically no one there. one of the few times on this trip we actually got a photo of something without 10 million tourists in it.
this site was something i had really been looking forward to...and it did not disappoint. it was just amazing. truly and utterly amazing. i really recommend anyone who goes to egypt to put in the extra time to come see it (there's an airport there if you don't want to take the bus).
the only problem is, we didn't have a guide...so we were basically done in about 30 minutes. and now we had to kill another 90 minutes before the bus would leave.
yeah...not pretty.
another 3 hour drive back...and we were immediately picked up by the tour company and transferred to the our "5-star" cruise ship. this is where we learned that all the drinks were not included in our meals and they were ridiculously overpriced.
luckily the british couple we were traveling with had just bought take-away beers from a local restaurant. so we set off there to buy beer and water (we had our priorities).
the boat set sailed that afternoon...and i was officially sailing down the nile.
this day we had to be up packed, checked out, and ready for a 3 hour bus ride to Abu Simbel (pictured above)...by 3:30 am.
we were not happy campers.
on the plus side, we did get to see the sunrise over the desert...which was freakin' amazing (to say the least). nothing like being surrounded by nothing to really enjoy a sun rise.
to get to Abu Simbel, one has to travel in a security convoy with a lot of other buses filled with tourists from the hotels. the convoy usually sets off each day at about 4:30 am (i was told 4 am). we get to the site, and all the drivers are outside smoking, waiting for the signal to start. so everyone inside our minibus offloads to have a smoke break. suddenly, without any warning, all the drivers are racing back to their vehicles yelling at everyone to get in. it's like the Amazing Race. Everyone is driving at reckless speeds, passing everyone they possibly can. our driver seem to take personal offense when anyone passed him.
and yes, there were roadblocks.
eventually, we make to Abu Simbel...one of the first 10 buses to make it there.
we are told we have 2 hours at the site and then we have to leave.
and that's it.
no direction on which way is the entrance or anything.
freshmeat and i trudged along hoping that a large group would know where they are going. eventually we just guessed and off we went.
luckily we choose correctly.
freshmeat had us race to the site. i'm glad she did. there was basically no one there. one of the few times on this trip we actually got a photo of something without 10 million tourists in it.
this site was something i had really been looking forward to...and it did not disappoint. it was just amazing. truly and utterly amazing. i really recommend anyone who goes to egypt to put in the extra time to come see it (there's an airport there if you don't want to take the bus).
the only problem is, we didn't have a guide...so we were basically done in about 30 minutes. and now we had to kill another 90 minutes before the bus would leave.
yeah...not pretty.
another 3 hour drive back...and we were immediately picked up by the tour company and transferred to the our "5-star" cruise ship. this is where we learned that all the drinks were not included in our meals and they were ridiculously overpriced.
luckily the british couple we were traveling with had just bought take-away beers from a local restaurant. so we set off there to buy beer and water (we had our priorities).
the boat set sailed that afternoon...and i was officially sailing down the nile.
Labels: i didn't sign up for the amazing race when i wasn't looking did i?
posted by vixen @ 2:34 PM
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