Cairo was alright, but a bit busy and annoying. The pyramids of course were nice and all, but the city did leave a little to be desired for me personally. It was too much like any other city, with a bit of Arabic flavour and far too much prayer over loudspeakers and blowhorns. I had spent 6 days in Cairo and that was plenty. Well at least the Cairo airport has excellent wifi! (unlike the hotels that claim to have it). Now Aswan on the otherhand is wonderful! I would just up and move here, but the invisibles keep insisting that I would get bored of it pretty quickly. I guess there isn’t really all that much to do here besides ride felucca boats down the nile, sit in floating restaurants on the nile, hang around the rooftop pool of the hotel, visit the local museum and a couple of temples and a few tombs.
Of course that is the nice part of Aswan, it is soooooooo relaxing here :). The pace is much slower then Cairo and the entire town just has this overly relaxed and mellow atmosphere about it. This is definitely the place to go to if you need to relax. The food is just awesome here as well! I had one of the best meals of my life here, the crab dinner, which consisted of 4 medium, a lot of bread, 2 dips, rice and a salad all for $7. I couldn’t finish it, even though I tried quite hard lol. I might splurge and get the $20 lobster dish at the same place before I leave. It is a well known fish restaurant that the locals love to eat at. It says Italian, but perhaps more Egyptian/Nubian/Italian. The souvineers cost less here then in Cairo as well, and bartering is easier... apparently all you have to do is walk away, and they chase you down the street to sell you the Egyptian cotton t-shirt with a papyri print you wanted for $2.
There is an internet cafe nearly across the street from my hotel which is very handy since the hotel’s internet access and wifi both leave a lot to be desired. There are also about 20 recommended restaurants within walking distance. If they keep serving me huge meals it might be good that the really yummy ones are about half a mile each way. It’s a nice walk though, it goes all the way through the souq, which is just full of brass, inalayed boxes, Deity statues, papyrus (well actually banana leaves), t-shirts, spices, jewellery, and so much more. The only bad part about Aswan so far are the million and one felucca captains that harass you to come take a cruise with them... 1 hour only $3. Personally I just stick with the felucca cruise that my guide has planned over to the island with the museum and temples, since I know that boat won’t sink, the captain won’t demand more money to take me back to shore, and he will also keep his hands to himself.
Another nicety of this town is the transportation, you can get anywhere in town (as it is a pretty small town) by horse drawn carriage. I don’t know the price yet, but I’m guessing about the same as taxis or less... so I’m guessing a dollar or 2 at most to get anywhere. Another mode of transportation are the various ferries that take you to the small and large islands around here. There is a ferry for each island, and even a restaurant on a very tiny island that has a free ferry to take you over to it for dinner. I hear the dinners are nothing special, but I’m sure it’s worth the $10 to go have dinner and enjoy Nubian entertainment a pretty little island.
The locals have this odd obsession with Canada dry (a type of pop), and when they ask where I’m from and I say Canada, they all say “Canada Dry”. I have told a few of them that “no one in Canada drinks that crap” LOL. They will do anything to get a conversation going in Aswan because most of them seem to either be your guide (for a fee of course), a felucca captain, or selling souvenirs. Well all of the locals can’t be in this category, but I’m thinking the ones that aren’t are the ones that don’t try to talk to you persistently. All of the guide books warn against men being rude and flirting too strongly... well I think they are too busy trying to sell their felucca trips or cheap sunglasses to worry about getting laid LOL.
I arrived at my Aswan hotel at night, and could sort of see the nile and realized I must have an amazing view of it. I awoke the next morning to the sound of horses going down the street (the horse drawn carriages, and the most awesome view of the nile! Even better is the view from the rooftop garden. The hotel isn’t the fanciest, but the views more then make up for it. It is sort of neat, here in Egypt, even the 3 star hotels have all marble flooring and granite countertops! That would be like walking into a motel 6 to find marble and granite everywhere. There marble staircases in all of the hotels are a nice touch as well. Any place that uses marble and granite more then wood just has to rock. The walls seem to be made of concrete I think? It is very nicely and tastefully done though. It looks perfect for carving hieroglyphics into *g*.
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