Day 42

We enjoyed our sleep in and then headed down to breakfast. I think the other members of the group also appreciated the sleep in. During the night the ship had docked at Edfu so we all gathered in the reception at 7:30 am and ventured off the ship. This time we were five ships in so we had to go in and out of their ships before we made it to the dock which was fun!

Our mode of transport to the temple was horse carriage! It was four to a carriage so Steve rode up front with the driver and his parents and I rode in the back. It took about 10 minutes to get to the temple but it was an amusing way of arriving there. We unfortunately had to fight our way through the hawkers to make it to the temple this time. We definitely weren't looking forward to coming back through that. The temple itself was amazing. It was dedicated to Horus by the Greek/Roman Pharoahs at the time. This is where they found the first depiction of an ancient Egyptian story regarding the battle between Horus and his Uncle Seth to avenge the death of his father Osiris.

Afterwards, Ibrahim surprised us with a video in an air conditioned room next to the temple. It showed the discovery of the temple, the restoration of the temple to its current state and gave a tour through the temple which was good because some of our group had not come in due to not feeling well.

We fought our way back through the hawkers and found our ride back to the ship. Wim rode up front this time so we hung out in the back and enjoyed the ride. Unfortunately it got spoilt a bit when we tipped the guy
(more than we'd been told already because he'd been cool and we'd taken some photos) and he asked for more (for his horse apparently). We crossed the other ships to ours and arrived in the reception to another awesome hot towel and drink.

The ship set sail at 10:00 am so with nothing else to do we figured we'd go in for a swim! We got changed, jumped in and jumped back out again because it was freezing! Surprising what 4 hours of sun shine on the water can do. So, found somewhere comfy to sit down and read our books instead. We ended up getting really hot so jumped in again for a bit before lunch.

We reconvened at 3:30 in the reception to visit the Temple of Kom Ombo. The ship had docked really close to the temple so we could walk from the dock. We still had to walk through three ships to make it to the dock though.

Kom Ombo was lovely. It was a fantastic time of day to be out, there was the slightest breeze which cooled everything down and we were all relaxed and refreshed from the break in between. The temple had been dedicated to two gods, Sobek and Horus, so was split into two identical halves apart from the carvings. The sun had started to set by the time we started to go back so it was nice to stand at the temple on the top of the hill and watch it go down. The temple also had a working Nile-o-meter which was pretty awesome - a device invented by the Greek Romans to determine how much tax to charge the people based on how much the Nile flooded. Nice.

Sandra's just gone to have a shower, so Steve is back on the blog:

On our way back to the boat, we stopped off at some local stores to get some galabeyas (the long Egyptian robe things), because tonight was the Egyptian party! By local stores, we mean dudes setup market style along the water.

Ok, now the locals are annoying enough while trying to sell you stuff you don't want. They are worse when you actually want something. I'd arranged with our guide to simply go and get the cheapest one they could find (I doubt I'm going need it to withstand years of use). The mission was simple, with minimal haggling. I got it for 30 Egyptian pounds ($6), score.

To avoid being hassled by more store folk, I kept my galabeya on so that they could all see I already had one and didn't need to buy more. But these veteran salesman then saw this as opportunity to supply me with accessories.... How many times can a man say "La Shocran" (no thank you).

While all this fun was going on, Sandra was battling the hordes with other tour group members. After getting dragged around, there was finally a galabeya worth keeping. Now comes the fun of haggling. Instantly, the guy gave her the 'good price' of 60 pounds, backing up his claim by telling Sandra "that's what she paid" pointing to a tour group member. Despite this being true, Sandra then asked another tour group member next to her how much hers was. 40 pounds you say. Ok, 40 pounds, no less. Seeing defeat, the salesman relented and accepted her price. Despite this feeling like a victory, I'm still sure the guy made an awesome profit on it anyway.

Sadly, I was not the only one who attracted the 'accessory' sellers. Sandra, too, had to brush off wave after wave of locals putting scarves and crap on her.

After our successful shopping trip, it was time to get back on the boat. Our lovely room cleaning crew had created another piece 'towel art'. This one was a towel man sitting on a chair wearing my t-shirt, shorts, hat and glasses. He was right near the door, giving Sandra a bit of a fright when she entered our room.

We all dressed up ready for the Egyptian night. Like most people, we did it before we went to dinner as well. The food that night was traditional Egyptian food as well. It was awesome.

After dinner we went upstairs to the bar where the Egypt night was supposed to occur. It was a fun night, involving things like Egyptian dancing, regular dancing and much laughing. Dad got up as well which was awesome! Mum decided not to, but we did get her up once.