Was it really only 4 days ago since I had arrived in Egypt? What an exhausting battle it had been.
Today I was getting the train from Luxor down to Aswan where I would spend 2 nights and have a day at Abu Simbel.
The driver from yesterday wasn’t at the hotel by 7.40am and I was panicking, so I got another taxi. I didn’t want to miss my train. I needn’t have worried about that!
My train was due to depart at 8.15am. I was at the station before 8. At around 8.15 the sleeper train from Cairo pulled into the station. I checked to make sure it wasn’t my train and of course it wasn’t. I was told it was the next train. The next train pulled into the station at platform 2. I was told this wasn’t my train either. In actual fact it was the VIP train that I wanted to book a seat for, but wasn’t able to. That was on time. I wished I’d just got on it and paid the difference or even bought a new ticket if I had to. The one I’d bought had cost me £3, this train cost £5. Anyway I watched the train pull out of the station and the station staff, at least half a dozen of them were watching me, all blokes of course, told me it was the next train. Guess what? The next train arrived and that wasn’t my train either. I’d now watched 3 trains pull in and out of the station and I was still sitting on platform 2.
I decided that the next train that pulled into platform 2 that was going to Aswan, regardless of whether it was train 996 or not, I was getting on it! The fourth train apparently was mine, by this time it was an hour late. Wonderful!
I insisted on pulling my own suitcase along the platform, they only had to touch your suitcase and they expected a tip, but one of the station staff saw me struggling to get onto the train with my suitcase and grabbed it from me and then put it on the overhead rack. I looked in dismay. How the hell was I going to get that down. I had no change so he didn’t get a tip, but I was beyond feeling sorry for these money grubbing men. They probably made more money from tips than I made in my normal job!
This train was fairly quiet, I was in the first class carriage and had just sat in the first seat after I walked into the carriage, a single seat by the window. While the view from Giza to Luxor had been largely unremarkable, the section of train between Luxor and Aswan was very nice with lovely views of the Nile in a lot of places. The train didn’t lose any more time so I wasn’t more than an hour late to Aswan. As one bloke walked past me on the train, a while before Aswan I asked him to take my suitcase off the overhead rack for me, which he did. I stowed it safely behind my seat. I could manage it from there.
I struggled with my suitcase through the whole station and refused to let anyone touch it, even though it had killed me to drag it the length of the platform and up and down several flights of stairs. When someone tried to take it off me when I had about 2 more steps to climb I snatched it out of his reach saying “I’ve managed all this way”! I was immediately accosted by taxi drivers at the exit of the station. I don’t know whether they don’t allow the drivers onto the platform like they do in Luxor or whether none of them thought it lucrative enough to hang around on the platform for any train that wasn’t a VIP train and full of tourists.
One lad spoke good English, he asked for 100 Egyptian pounds, we settled on 80 and I asked if he had change. He said he had. “Welcome to Alaska” he said ironically referring to the heat in Aswan. If only he knew just how little this was like Alaska in just about every way imaginable. There had been plenty of times during my time in Egypt when I was being pestered in the heat that I’d wished I was somewhere else. Alaska would have done just fine. The Karnak Temple in Anchorage? Perfect. The Great Pyramid in Talkeetna? Ideal.
Anyway to give the lad credit, when I gave him 100 note because I didn’t have change he was true to his word and gave me my change and he’d also carried my suitcase all the way down the steps to the boat dock and waited until the boat was ready and put my suitcase onto the boat with me. I had to ask the young driver of the boat to help me with my suitcase so I didn’t end up falling into the Nile with it.
Decent, reasonably priced accommodation in Aswan is hard to find. The glorious Old Cataract Hotel is ridiculously expensive, the mainland hotel that had availability had poor ratings and most other stuff was booked up. It was both Easter and Ramadan, so that might have made it busier.
Instead of staying on the mainland, I had found a Nubian guesthouse on Elephantine Island, so I had to get a boat from the mainland part way across the Nile. I had no idea how the hell I was going to find the guesthouse. I asked the boat driver who didn’t know, but someone at the dock did and said he would take me there and also carried my heavy suitcase all the way. I certainly didn’t begrudge giving him the last of my change, the equivalent of a pound after he’d carried my big red case all the way to the guesthouse.
I had a welcome drink of hibiscus and the owner of the guesthouse said he had arranged for a driver for me to take me to the Philae Temple Complex, which I had requested in advance. I had to pay for the temple entrance and the boat over to the island myself. I was relieved I’d thought to ask him how much to pay for a return boat ride as the boat driver, whose name was Harris, decided to ask for stupid money which I ignored and gave him what the guesthouse owner said should be the maximum.
My room was really nice, brightly decorated and comfortable with a balcony and fully air conditioned. It was very good accommodation for a reasonable price. The owner took me over to the mainland himself in his boat and I met the driver who was going to take me to the Philae Temple Complex.
I was in a nice air conditioned car, for once, to take me on my excursion this afternoon. The driver drove me to the dock where boats going over to Agilkia Island were and got Harris to take me to his boat. I bought my ticket to go to the temple and also to climb the pylon and then we sailed across to Agilkia Island.
Due to the construction of the Aswan Dam, many places were going to be flooded and lost at the bottom of the lake, so the Egyptian authorities moved several important temples to other locations to save them from a watery grave. The ancient Egyptian temple complex of Philae, including the Temple of Isis on Philae Island were moved to nearby Agilkia Island to preserve them.
The boat ride over was quite nice. Harris had a cup and he filled it with some water out of the Nile and drank it, said it was nice clean water. I didn’t ask to try it myself. I’m already paranoid about getting dysentery when I come to hot countries without drinking dirty river water!
I said I’d be about an hour and made my way to the temple complex.
Armed with my tickets I set off to explore. The main temple of the Temple of Isis and then there are surrounding smaller temples on the island that form the entire Philae Temple Complex.
The Temple of Isis is huge. There is an outer courtyard and from there you can see the entrance to the temple with extremely tall pylons constructed from as early as 280BC. I loved the atmosphere. I took a photo for a Canadian girl who was from near Prince Rupert and was amazed when I said I’d been there. She took a photo for me.
After going through the entrance between the two pylons, you enter a second,inner courtyard. I wandered around looking at the columns and then entered the inner temple through a doorway between two more enormous pylons. In the inner temple are more columns and carvings on the walls representing the story of Isis. There was a sanctuary in a chamber at the far end of the temple where a sacred image Isis, the goddess of healing and magic had been kept. She brought divine King Osiris back to life and the gave birth to his son, Horus. The Temple of Isis has a connection with birth and midwifery and indeed, there is a birth house within the temple.
I also saw there were a lot of cats hanging around inside by the columns. I kept as far away from them as possible in case they tried to scratch me, although they didn’t move, they were content to just lay in the shade.
I took a look outside and found the Nilometer, which was a measuring device to record the water level of the River Nile so they could keep an eye out for it flooding. A very innovative thing to put into an ancient Egyptian temple!
I was looking round for the entrance to climb the pylon and there didn’t appear to be anything open that led to a staircase, so I had no choice but to ask one of the security guards about it. And unfortunately it was locked up so a bloke came along with a key to unlock the padlocked door and the security guard and his semiautomatic machine gun came with me to the roof. I wouldn’t let him have my phone, I took my own photos, it was a rule, I only let fellow tourists take my photo. Or a guide if I was with one. Certainly not a man with a machine gun! It was a total con, I asked to have access to something I’d legitimately paid for and I still had to tip the guard for letting me have access. I drew the line at giving the bloke with the padlock key anything. What did he want a tip for? Not losing the key?!
After that I went to one of the other temples of the Philae complex next to the Nile, looked around and took some photos and then as I’d had an hour there, I made my way back to the dock. Harris had gone for petrol apparently, so I had to wait and while getting petrol he’d also picked up 3 tourists. He took the boat around the other side of Agilkia Island so I got to see it all. I wasn’t amused when he told me how much he wanted for the boat trip and it just spoilt things. Although I didn’t let him get away with it, I paid him what the guesthouse owner told me. I was out of the boat and walking away by then, so there wasn’t much he could do.
I was supposed to go to the Aswan High Dam, but time was getting away from me, so I got the driver to turn back so I could be in good time for my sunset felucca ride. There was a bit of a misunderstanding and I had no idea whether I was supposed to get on the felucca here or on Elephantine Island. To be on the safe side I went back to the island and then the owner took me to the felucca. The boatman wasn’t happy when I said I had booked 2 hours, he thought it was just one hour.
We zigzagged across the Nile a few times and then sailed back, but at times we weren’t moving at all. I complained and he said there was no wind. I pointed out the other feluccas that all appeared to be moving. So I don’t know why they were moving and we weren’t. I asked him if he had dropped the anchor, as he didn’t seem to be doing much, except talking on his mobile phone. He denied dropping the anchor. Either way it wasn’t good and what should have been a lovely sunset felucca ride ended with me scowling for the most part and storming off when I only got an hour and a half, a good bit of that not moving at all. He shouted after me for money, but he didn’t get a tip. The guesthouse owner had told me to pay him rather than my afternoon driver and the felucca owner, so he was getting nothing. I probably sound harsh, but you have to be firm. I hadn’t even got what I’d paid for, so there was no way I was giving him a tip!
It was quite tricky to find my way back to the guesthouse, all the roads are dirt roads, no real street names, everyone just knows their way around this Nubian community. I thought I must be in the vicinity, but I was a bit concerned I couldn’t find the guesthouse. I saw something I thought I recognised, turned the corner and there it was.
I didn’t see the guesthouse owner when I first got back, but I caught up with him and complained to him later about the felucca ride. He also said there was no wind, but I wasn’t having it and he offered to take me round the island in his boat at sunset the next day as compensation. I’m an absolute nightmare to have as a guest! To placate me, he gave me a drink of something made from plants in the garden, I couldn’t pinpoint the taste, but I’m sure it had hallucinogenic qualities as I had the craziest dreams all night!
I retreated to my room and took advantage of the fact that I had a balcony and sat on that in the warm night air drinking this purple concoction until I decided I would have an early night as it was going to be a long day tomorrow.
The following evening, after my day out at Abu Simbel, which I will detail in a separate post, I arrived back at the guesthouse and the owner had promised me a free ride around Elephantine Island this evening to make up for the disastrous felucca ride the day before.
The ride around Elephantine Island in a small boat was one of the most enjoyable things I did. It was a lovely ride around the island which is a lot bigger than you might think from looking at it from the mainland. One of the first things we saw as we sailed was the Aga Khan Mausoleum on the hillside, built in 1959 for Aga Khan III who had liked to spend his winters in Aswan for health reasons.
The Nubian villages were all lit up as we sailed around. There were a lot of locals out in boats and enjoying their evening on the shoreline. I was here during Ramadan, so everything came to life at night. We passed the Movenpick Hotel which is in the middle of Elephantine Island and then further along were the Nubian villages and accommodation there.
It all looked very pretty lit up at night, but I was pleased I wasn’t staying this far along the island. The great thing about my guesthouse was it on the part of the island directly across from the main city, so it was easy to get to. As lovely as these hotels in the Nubian villages looked, they were too far away to be particularly practical as a base for exploring Aswan.
We went through a small cataract, basically some rapids in the river and down the Nile as far as the Old Cataract Hotel. This is where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile and I decided not to splash out on a room there, it did seem a bit overpriced. It undoubtedly looked beautiful from the Nile and I had wondered where it was as I hadn’t spotted it on any of the drives through Aswan.
However, I had not really spent much time in Aswan city itself as I wasn’t staying on the mainland, I tended to stay on the island when it came to the evening. Therefore, I hadn’t really had the opportunity to go to the Old Cataract Hotel and have afternoon tea. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do everything during my 8 days in Egypt.
The Spanish couple I was sharing the boat with got off at the mainland, I couldn’t be bothered. As lovely as Elephantine Island was, it was a bit of a nuisance staying on the island and having to keep getting boats across the river and then try to find my guesthouse yet again, especially in the dark!
When we sailed back across the Nile, we docked at the restaurant that did takeaway pizzas, so I ordered a margherita to eat at the hotel. When it arrived I sat on my balcony and ate it, just enjoying the view and the peace and quiet. It was a nice way to spend my last night in Aswan. Not long afterwards I went to bed as I had an early start in the morning to catch my train back to Luxor.
I travelled to Egypt in April 2022.
I travelled from Luxor to Aswan by train. You can buy train tickets online. Tickets are only available 2 weeks in advance and the website can be temperamental. The website address is enr.gov.eg It is very slow to load. My first class ticket cost £60 Egyptian pounds, approximately £3 sterling. Since December 2022, non-Egyptians have had to pay foreigner fares. A first class ticket between Luxor and Aswan now costs $25 USD for tourists. You can also buy tickets at the station.
I stayed at Mango Guesthouse on Elephantine Island. I booked my room on booking.com My air conditioned room with balcony cost $35 USD per night. The guesthouse owner has a boat and can take you to the mainland on request. Alternatively there are public boats from the mainland to Elephantine Island that cost £5 Egyptian pounds, which is about 20p.
I visited the Temple of Isis at the Philae Complex on Agilkia Island on a trip arranged by the guesthouse owner for around £300 Egyptian pounds, approximately £13 sterling. Entrance to the Philae Temple and Pylon Panorama Ticket costs £300 Egyptian pounds, approximately £13 sterling. You pay for the ticket on arrival at the complex.
I booked my felucca cruise with the guesthouse owner for £400 Egyptian pounds, approximately £17 sterling.
I flew to Cairo with British Airways from Manchester via Heathrow. A one way flight from Manchester to Cairo via Heathrow takes approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes and cost £237.
You will need a visa to visit Egypt. I applied for my visa online through the Egyptian government e-Visa portal website. A single entry tourist visa costs $25 USD and is valid for 3 months.
Read my other posts about my time in Egypt
First Day and First Impressions of Egypt