Day 127: Mother’s Day in Aswan — Temple of Isis — Ride on a Felucca Sailboat
It’s Mother’s Day in the US but none of us realized it until about 2 pm when America woke up and started posting gushy odes on social media.
We had an 8 am call time with guide Romani, who was waiting for us on the mainland. By the time we wrapped breakfast, got organized and ferried over to him and the van, it was about 8:15 am.
(We were shocked that no hand-holder was waiting for us in the lobby to make sure we knew how to exit the hotel and catch the ferry!!)
We got a passive aggressive scolding for being late by Romani — said he and the driver had been waiting since 7:30 am. Ok….
Romani is Christian, but he voluntarily fasts because he doesn’t care to eat or drink in front of his colleagues like the driver, which I get.
At first we thought he’d be great. Clear accent, high-energy, has his own small kids Willa and James’s age — all signs pointed to a star guide.
But. We quickly learned that despite his good English, he was very bad at delivering information. I do a good impersonation. Tangents, choppy sentences, non-sequiturs, hand gestures for 5, 10, 15 minutes at a time — and at the end we’d all be like, “Wait, where are we? When was this temple built?”
Except we wouldn’t actually ask those clarifying questions because his answers were so meandering and incomprehensible and long-winded that it wasn’t worth it!
So we’d just Wikipedia the sites when we got back in the van.
The more we glazed over, the more irritated he seemed to get at us and at poor James, who was bored out of his freaking mind.
We didn’t let it ruin the ruins for us, though.
Our big stop today was at the Temple of Isis south of Aswan, beautiful buildings dating from as far back as 300 BC perched atop a rocky island surrounded by palm trees and the Nile. Looked fake, like a movie set.
This site is actually new — the original site was flooded during the building of the Aswan High Dam, so in the 1970s UNESCO rescued the whole complex block by block from its original location on Philae Island to Agilika Island. Go UNESCO!
Next we boarded a Felucca, a traditional Nile sailboat, for an hour-long sail.
The Nile appears to be super clean around here. Not sure how that’s possible, but the water is very clear and blue.
There wasn’t much wind, unfortunately for us, so it was a very hot, verrrrrry slow ride. That might have been fine but it was lunchtime and the kids were hungry and whining to go to lunch, which we couldn’t do. Teddy said it reminded him of his senior prom, which was on a boat — no one could get off when everyone was ready to.
Plus we had Romani with us — a bit of hand-holding we didn’t need. When guides are just sitting there with you for experiences like these, it’s kind of annoying. They feel like they need to explain things to you or you feel like you need to make small talk — instead of just sitting back in peace. Plenty of other feluccas passed us with just captains and a few riders — no guides — and we were a little envious.
(Do I sound super grumpy about this? I don’t mean to. There’s just a lot we learned on this trip that we plan to do differently when it comes to sightseeing tours in other places. Capturing it all here.)
As we neared the end of the ride, the captain and his deputies pulled out drums and started singing and pulling us up to dance with them. Oh lord.
Grownups groaning, James not having it…buuuut actually Willa loved it, so that made it okay.
Romani said we should tip extra because of all the music and dancing. More tips. Tips, tips, tips. Constant ATM trips for more tips on this leg.
We asked Romani for a restaurant recommendation in town, and he pointed us down the road to a place he said was good. Then left us to navigate on our own — Mohammed the host in Cairo would drop dead on the floor of horror if he knew! Ha!
Turns out the restaurant he rec’d was closed — not surprising considering Ramadan — so we retraced our steps back to the Nile, waited for the ferry.
Finally to the hotel’s restaurant for lunch. Food!! Kids had the Coke they earned, then went in the pool!!! And I got a Mothers Day nap!!! I stayed in the room and slept. It was lovely.
We had a FaceTime chat with Lobsy and Beepaw to say happy Mothers Day.
Around 6:30 pm each day there arises a loud din from the city — the sound of dozens of different mosque loudspeakers announcing that it’s time to break the fast — so you can just imagine the energy and excitement as a whole city celebrates with food and drinks.
That was happening as we arrived to dinner.
We went up to the 13th floor tower of the Movenpick, which has 360-degree panoramic views of the Nile and the city of Aswan.
We were one of three families eating in the tower restaurant — which Lonely Planet said had some of the best food in the city of Aswan but which it also called an “eyesore.”
We had a great time. Kids were chatty and engaged, grownups were enjoying the view and the wine.
One funny thing: Willa and James were describing their favorite show to Grammie and Beepaw — “Wild Kratts” — when next thing we knew, a little 5-year-old boy had quietly walked up to our table and was standing there.
We greeted him and he goes, “I just had to tell you. Guess what my favorite TV show is??” What, we asked. “WILD KRATTS!!!” He said it in such an exaggerated grownup showman’s way it was hilarious.
Turns out he and his two younger siblings (!!) had just moved to Aswan with their parents from Iowa. Why? To eventually reach Sudan, where they planned to convert muslims to Christianity….kept our opinions to ourselves.
But the kids went on to tell us he’d just had a Wild Kratts-themed birthday party last week (if Chris and Martin Kratt only knew the reach they have!). He also offered to sing us the Wild Kratts theme song, which we took him up on.
(As he earnestly belted it out for us, Willa had her back to him and her head bowed — when later we told her this was kind of rude behavior, she said, “But I just had this feeling like I was so embarrassed for him,” and we admitted we knew the feeling). It was adorable though.
James fell asleep at the table again.
Off to bed for more touring tomorrow!!
Misc:
It’s high fly season in Egypt right now, and the volume of flies is truly extraordinary. You can’t be outside without bug spray or a constant fanning of your face.
