Travel Talk Egypt Days 3 through 5 Review -

If you haven’t already done so, please read my Travel Talk Day 1 and 2 Review.

Day 3:

We arrived at the hotel around 3am so they switched around our itinerary a little to allow us to have a 10am start time.

Karnak Temple: Karnak Temple was more of what I envisioned Egyptian temples to be. There are two long rows of giant rams lining up the entrance to Karnak Temple.

One of the giant lines of Ram headed statues

It’s so hot outside that the dogs need the little shade they can get under the statues!

Once inside, you see rows upon rows of giant columns all adorned with Egyptian hieroglyphics. If you look towards the tops of some of the columns, you can see some bits of color here and there.

Just a small glimpse of the color that was once in the temple

I would have loved to seen what the temples looked like with the colorful hieroglyphics back in the day. It is still beautiful and breathtaking today but it would have been even more amazing then.

Meghan and Scott with the giant columns of Karnak Temple

Also within the temple are two giant obelisks. Both obelisks are made from one giant piece of stone. Even after the guide explained the process of transporting and raising the obelisks, you can’t help but be in awe of how the Egyptian people figured out the process without the use of technology that we have today. With all the mysteries surrounding the temples and pyramids, I can’t help wondering if they were smarter then we are now

Can you believe they are made from one slab of stone??

They also had a little lake that I wanted to jump in to cool off.

Scott needing to take a break from all our picture taking for a minute

I am also amazed at the dedication they had to spend years upon years building the temples and pyramids and all the hard work that went into it.

Papyrus Gallery Visit: At the gallery, gave us a short demonstration of how papyrus paper was made and let us stroll through the gallery looking at the works of art. They had some beautiful pieces of art work but I am refraining from buying souvenirs on the trip so it wasn’t very interesting to me.

Observations of Luxor:

I liked the city of Luxor much more then what I saw in Cairo. The streets were clean, it wasn’t nearly as busy, and it had more of a laid back vibe. I could see spending a few days just relaxing around Luxor. The Nile runs through Luxor and with the palm trees and some mountains in the background, it is beautiful!

Day 4 in Aswan:

Philae Temple: We started out our day with a visit to Philae Temple which can only be reached with a short scenic boat ride along the Nile. The backdrop of Philae temple surrounded by water made it the prettiest temple of the trip so far.

Marveling at the sheer size of the building

Scott and Meghan admiring the Nile River

Scott’s version of posing for the camera

Playing professional photographer for Meghan and Scott

I wasn’t supposed to sit on the wall but instead of telling me to get off the guard just told me to hurry

The temple was pretty well preserved and there were lots of interesting of drawings to look at.

A baby is depicted with a thumb in its’ mouth or by the small braid.

Check-in for Nile Cruise: I had very low expectations for our 3 day, 2 night Nile Cruise boat but I was pleasantly surprised. The rooms were actually bigger then most of the cruises I have taken in the past on Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL. The boat was a little dated but had a lounge and one restaurant where we ate from a buffet for every meal. The food was actually pretty good and they had plenty of options even for vegetarians. I would guess the boat holds about 200 passengers. The top deck had a small pool that could only hold like 10 people at a time but they were plenty of chairs to lounge on and a bar to get drinks. Plus we never had a problem fighting over the chairs or pool.

The entertainment on night 1 was very strange and mainly consisted of them pulling us up on stage to make us repeat random weird movements, dances, and phrases. You had to just have a little fun with it and make fun of each other. A few drinks helped make it more entertaining as well. The entertainment on night 2 was slightly better with games similar to musical chairs and hot potato on the top deck. I didn’t even see the entertainment for night 3.

Aswan Market:

Upon walking to the market from our boat, we were approached by the Chef from our boat who asked if we remembered him. He told us that he was walking to the market to buy spices for the boat. He said we should walk with him and he would show us the way. Normally I am rude to the people that approach me on the street but my guard went down when he said he worked on our boat. He took us to a spice shop where they had us smell all sorts of spices. They then began to package up a 6 spice combination that we hadn’t asked for. Meghan had just wanted a little of the lemon spice to bring back. Of course once they had packaged them, the price they asked for was way more then what you should have to pay for spices in Egypt. We will call this the Chef Scam. The same man also tricked a group of 6 from our boat as well. Let’s just say we never saw Mohammad the Chef again.

Once we left the Chef, we were constantly being approached with “ I don’t know what you need but I got it”, “Where are you from”, “Please take a look”, “Lucky Man, 2 woman one man”. At least no one was offering Scott a camel in exchange for me today. It was overwhelming to walk through the market and constantly be approached. I made up that I was Sara and Scott choose to be Tim from Canada. We survived about 45 minutes at the market before heading back to our Nile Cruise boat.

Day 5:

Abu Simbel – We had to leave at 430am in order to take a side trip to Abu Simbel. When you arrive at Abu Simbel, you first see the four kings and gods carved into a Mountain. Much smaller are there wives and children also carved into the mountain.

What was most amazing to me was the story of moving Abu Simbel. Due to being surrounded by water and the dams put in around the mountain, they realized that they would be drowned and ruined by the water. So they began a project to come up with a plan to save them. A few options were considered but ultimately, they decided to move the temples to safer ground. This project took over 4 years and they had to use hand saws to carve it out of the mountain to make sure damage wasn’t done and the temples were preserved. They made the decision not to make any restorations. For example, one of the four statues carved into the mountain had collapsed and the top half had fallen. Instead of restoring it, they moved it with the pieces that had fallen still laying in front. I was just in awe of how they could move these mountains and actually keep them intact.

To take photos inside of Abu Simbel, we had to purchase a photo pass. Many people on our tour just snuck photos anyways. But I prefer paying the price and then being able to take as many as I want and not have to try and hide it. So get ready for photo overload below.