Before leaving the boat at midday we had our final tour with the turd Nabil, hmmmkay? On Philae Island, a misnomer seeing as the only thing left were some big sticks poking out the water marking the, now underwater, site of the original island. The temple on it had been relocated to a landscaped island a short distance from the original location.
We had to take a motorboat to the site which was beautiful, well the view on the water anyway the smell of petrol was not so sweet. While Nabil delivered a dry uninspiring monologuee about thehistory of the site, a worn out old cat creaked up and tried to be friendly, easing itself down in the middle of our group its meowing providing a welcome distraction from Nabil's annoying Egyptian and American accent. We wandered round the site, the most enjoyable part being at the end when we sat down on a stone wall looking out over the water, the morning shine glinting on the ripples.
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| From Philae Island, High Dam and Elephantine Island - Aswan, The Nile, Eygpt |
We got back on the boat and hurried to pack our bags and take a last hot/cold shower before saying goodbye to Katherine and Co. Instead of leaving tips, which we had been badgered to do our whole trip, we left our passports. We got an email while in an internet café and D hurried back to the boat to get them. We had falafel for lunch, the usual business over price, we were overcharged even when given a special price, which wasn't so special when Djalma read the price on the massive wall menu and confronted the guy behind the counter, who after much hassle charged us the correct price.
We met our host, Shayr an Egyptian married to a lovely Columbian woman with two little girls, at his office. His colleague gave us a lift to Shay's house where we left our bags and then headed back out with him to town to watch the game. We felt quite uneasy because it felt less like the usual couch-surfing and more like a professional service – his friend made himself so available to take us anywhere by car it felt too much.
We sat watching the game in a smoky room with an Egyptian guy who had been to Brazil and had fallen in love or lust with a young 15 year old from Rio de Janeiro, that was weird – he was probably in his late 20s and completely unable to talk with her. He asked Djalma to speak to her from his mobile as she didn't speak Arabic or English and he didn't speak Portuguese, it was all a bit weird and I was happy to leave the room. After so long in Egypt (not that long I guess) and so many unpleasant encounters, I felt uncomfortable and suspicious of people acting friendly, a really horrible position.
Djalma and I walked along the Nile, sitting and talking about Egypt and how it is beautiful and full of history but also full of lying, greedy beggars. Even people who are selling something are begging, if it isn't with body language, pointing to their mouths asking for food or water with their eyes (only healthy looking kids have ever done this!) it's their sales technique – a technique which is so counterproductive that even though I need to buy things, I haven't because the hassle is just so intense.
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| From Philae Island, High Dam and Elephantine Island - Aswan, The Nile, Eygpt |
We got another falafel and sat down and had a sheesha, feeling instantly relaxed and we sat, puffed and watched the world go by. After a good while of relaxing we headed back to Shayr's office where he spoke to us about the tours and cruises we had booked, it feeling more like a professional questioning to determine what services he could possibly offer us rather than a friendly chat about what we had planned for the next week. He took us back to his place with his colleague, thankfully they didn't have the channel for the WC so we were tucked up in bed soon enough trying to get to sleep under the fan pushing hot air round the room.
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