A very slow morning, Djalma was feeling shitty – in every sense of the word, he was up several times in the night making use of the white throne in the bathroom. We went back to our bedroom after breakfast and spent all morning sleeping and watching rubbish films trying to keep his farts under the covers – the burps weren't that much better – it's a good thing I love him, the man is a wind machine of monumental and persistent stinkiness. I had lunch by myself, several people coming up to ask after him, very sweet. Back to the bedroom to continue rubbing his tummy and scratching his back, making sure he took his medicine, generally being sympathetic and a good wife to my poorly man.
We went up for afternoon tea where I indulged a little too much in some delicious fried dough things that we had last night on the Egyptian buffet, oops. Fattie! Djalma managed to wolf down a couple of plates worth of finger food and went back down to our room while I went to yet another temple of Ramses II.
 |
| From Abu Simbel, 65km North of Sudan, Lake Nasser, Egypt |
I have really wondered what this guy must have been like, he was so active and must ave thought so much of himself; the four seated figures outside the temple, cut into the mountain, are all of him from young to old showing him at different stages in his life (his cheeks are definitely fatter in the older statue), the ten standing statues in the first section are also of him, but dead – feet together and arms folded across his chest, the walls covered with engravings of him victorious in battle. He lived until he was 92 years old and in that time he declared himself a God, not just a son of the gods, which is what all the Pharaohs were. The man was his own biggest fan, even in his chief wife, Nefertari's, temple, just next door, of the six statues out the front, four of them are of him and the temple itself is about a third of the size – mind you – at least she got one.
 |
| From Abu Simbel, 65km North of Sudan, Lake Nasser, Egypt |
It was amazing to walk round his temple, the size and decoration was incredible, especially in the smaller rooms going off from the main halls which were empty and eerily quiet, it gave me goosebumps just to be in there by myself – I didn't stay long. On the way back to the ship I tried to buy some water but was told it was twenty bounds for a big bottle of water, almost ten times what it should be, outrageous – it also really pissed me off, greedy bums.
No comments:
Post a Comment