One of life's great pleasures is sitting in a café and puffing on an apple sheesha watching the world go by.
Another is drinking mango juice, cold and fresh on a hot day, much better than beer.
Another is watching the sun rise or set with the one you love.
Within the last hour we have managed to do all three. Today has been long, hot and good.
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| From Philae Island, High Dam and Elephantine Island - Aswan, The Nile, Eygpt |
The sun tried for a long time to wake us up and succeeded around 8.30am. We got up quietly, our host still sound asleep in his children's bedroom. The two French couch-surfers were up and trying to get out the front door of the building which was locked, the Canadian couple were still asleep and we decided to have our breakfast of melon and dry bread with triangle cheese while the house woke up.
Alicia and Ricardo, he Canadian couple, woke up and we all sat and chatted with our host Shayr who offered to take us to a Nubian village in Aswan. We all bundled in his small red car and set off to this village, Alicia talking about the time her mother travelled with them in Indonesia for just over five weeks, the different stories had me laughing, cringing and sympathising. We walked round the village and paid to visit a “real” Nubian house, have some tea and hold baby crocodiles inside, needless to say I kept on the safe side of the camera, behind it, happy to take pictures of the baby crocodile and not have my picture taken with it. Most baby animals look cute, alligators are a scary exception, but I did touch it – I'm not THAT much of a sissy.
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| From Philae Island, High Dam and Elephantine Island - Aswan, The Nile, Eygpt |
We ended up spending most of the day with them after Shayr dropped us off us the ferry crossing to go across to Elephantine Island, where we aimlessly wandered round stopping often to rest and talk in the shade. It was damn hot, and although I thought I was coping admirably with the heat (I didn't pass out once) Djalma kindly informed me later that I was so red I was almost purple (and therefore should spend less time in the ships air-conditioned lounge and more time outside to build my resistance to the heat). It must have been well over 40ºC so a little colour in the face was to be expected. The Island was really pretty, lots of little rustic but colourfully decorated houses together with narrow alleys running between, we vied for the space with the locals and a group of sheep/goats (I couldn't tell what they were – they looked like a curly haired blend between the two). We stopped in a small square with a tree in the middle and rested there for a while, after a time we were joined by some Nubian women, who stared and talked about my hair for a while, and some small curious children.
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| From Philae Island, High Dam and Elephantine Island - Aswan, The Nile, Eygpt |
Our stomachs singing for some food, we slowly walked back in the direction of the landing and got the ferry back across. We all got some falafel and wandered through the quiet streets of the souq, the “no hassle” shops giving us just as much attention, and hassle, as the other shops. We ended up in McDonald's for the air-conditioning. It feels good to know that other people doing a similar thing to us have encountered the same problems, namely the two tiered pricing system. We also talked about our host and whether or not he would expect some kind of payment when we left the following day. It's been an unusual and awkward situation which has felt less like couch-surfing and more like a service, in a conversation with Djalma, Shayr said that nothing in Egypt was for free, so I'm really not sure what he will ask for but I think it will be for something rather than nothing.
I really doubt that Egyptians have fully grasped the concept of couch-surfing, the lady in Luxor used it (upfront) to get business for her hotel, and I expect that Shayr will ask for some kind of payment before we leave.
Ricardo seemed more than ready to leave, a quiet guy, I'm not sure whether he as just reserved or if he just didn't want to spend any more time with us preferring to spend it with Alicia who was very bubbly and talkative (and beautiful, I wish I sweated and travelled as well as she did), so they left us at McDonald's We left a short while after to go and check the price of a feluca ride, after worrying that we had started too early we ended up not having enough time to catch the sunset. By the time we had been passed onto the fourth and final man, been ferried across to Elephantine Island where his cute little feluca was waiting and got his boat moving (it was stuck in the mud and there was no wind), the sun was inches from the horizon and our poor little captain, Mustafah, rowed us back after we gave up. The boat needed a minimum of two people to crew it; one steer it and at least one to row – preferably two. He and Djalma rowed us back to the mainland with me steering the rudder, very cackhandedly, where we gave him five bound for his trouble mainly because he looked so disappointed and also because he never asked for anything, it was nice to give something as a small gesture of goodwill especially when so many of his countrymen are so greedy.
He was a couple of metres out before I realised that I had left my hat on board, we called him and god bless his heart he rowed back over instead of throwing it. Because he had been so down-hearted about losing the ride and so sweet about returning my hat we gave him and extra five bounds, telling he that he got it because he didn't ask for it.
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| From Philae Island, High Dam and Elephantine Island - Aswan, The Nile, Eygpt |
We walked back into the souq, got a chunky, cold, fresh mango juice and made our way to the same café we went to the previous day. While I sat writing and smoking Djalma sat smoking talking to a Nubian guy, Osama, a real, genuine person who was very friendly.
We got a lift back to our CS house where the Canadian couple were sitting and talking to Yaqualine and her little girl Shakira, we joined them in conversation – me not so mucho, not Espaniss. A lovely day but so hot and sweaty.
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