A 3am wake-up call for Abu Simbel
Continued from Day 4: 4,000 year-old crocodiles and a con job
DAY 5: ABU SIMBEL
Abu Simbel is some distance away from the River Nile, so we have to set off in the bus at 3.30am in order to reach there at around 7am. This is one of only two long bus rides we have on the tour, unlike most other tours where it’s a 5 or 6am morning call almost every morning and half day bus rides are the norm. We don’t even have time for breakfast. Anyhow, who eats breakfast at 3am. We are given a breakfast pack which contains enough food for 3 persons.
It is quite overwhelming to finally see the temples in real life - what joy! What awe I feel at the sight of these majestic monuments. It is certainly the highlight of the tour, the yet-to-be-seen Giza Pyramids notwithstanding. 
The larger and grander temple is built for Ramses II while the smaller temple is for his favourite wife, Neferteri. These temples are built near the entrance river banks to scare off likely invaders.
The temples have been buried under sand for a long time until they are discovered in the 1800s. You can see grafitti carvings from the 1870s on the leg of one of the statues. Since photos are not allowed inside the temples, we can only take our photos outside.
This scene from 007-The Spy Who Loved Me is in fact filmed inside the bigger temple of Ramses II. The area is cordoned off and you can only stand about 4 metres away from the statues which represent 3 gods and Ramses II himself in an effort to position himself as one of the gods. Once you go to the film location do you realise how ridiculous these films are as far as setting up your communications centre inside a 4,000 year old monument really is.
ON THE BOAT AGAIN
After returning to the cruise ship for lunch, we have some free time before we going for our felucca boat ride which is mostly a waste of time. We have 2 cabins for our use; to shower before our overnight train ride to Cairo as we have officially checked out of the cruise ship and no longer have our rooms to go to.
The felucca ride is just for the experience of sitting in an open top sailboat which is commonly used by the Nubans for fishing and transport. We sail around what I presume are The Elephantine Islands which in fact we already did the day before when we went to the Nuban Village. This time though, we just made a circle around here and there and then returned to port. Even on the felucca, we are sold souvenirs and stuff. We also order some hieroglyphic pendants from our local guide, Hazeem.
Our overnight train to Cairo is, according to our guide, “the best overnight train in Egypt”. Woah…Houston, we have a problem. It is grubby, musty and has braking problems. It jerks ever so often, so forget about getting any decent amount of sleep. We are served a tray of cold, hard and grey food that I leave mostly untouched. The cabin is not terribly spacious as expected but magically transforms into a double bed bunk by our train steward after the dinner trays are collected. The toilet is best unused unless it comes down to life and death situations.
Continue Day 6: Crawlspaces, pyramids and sphinxes
Click small images to enlarge. Copyright ©emigrestudio.com except “The Spy Who Loved Me” movie still.
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A 3am wake-up call for Abu Simbel
Crawlspaces, pyramids and sphinxes
The spectacular pyramid sound and light show - NOT!
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Back to life, back to reality
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