Day 3 Aswan

At Giza Train station waiting for our overnight train; Julee's really sick and already napping. Laura sits on her backpack, Daniel, Bridget, and Alex sit near the column; Zdina is standing by Julee; Sandy is chatting with Daniel, our tour leader.

We took an overnight train from Cairo to Aswan,leaving last night at 8:30, arriving about 9 AM. Julee's having a fever. She's back in the hotel room. I am not even checked in yet so I will stop now and go back for a shower.

This afternoon, we will visit the Nubian people, have a cruise on the Nile to the Elephantine Island, ride a camel pas St Simone Monastery. Ciao for now.

Photo left: our train; Julee's sick

-- More on Aswan

We took the boat cruise out on Nile to Elephantine Island and had a Nubian lunch on board. The potato stew over rice was delicious so was the fried fish. The Nubians believe that the Elephantine Island is where God created every living being. The boat also went around Kitchener Island. This area is full of various plants and has multiple botanical gardens. We saw so many different birds. It must be a heaven for them here.

Once we set foot on the Elephantine Island, we saw our ride to St Simone Monastery. The difference was the handle on my camel's back was short and round and made out of wood instead of steal. It was very difficult to have a tight grip. I also had to hold the rein myself so it was a little scary at the beginning to control my camel to go whichever way I wanted and meantime taking pictures up there with the other hand.

Photo left: Daniel playing with JJ's Niece.

The last activity was visiting our local Nubian guide JJ's house. We toured the little village and arrived at JJ's house. JJ shared his wedding photos and video with us. He said he had a two day wedding celebration, feeding the entire village (cooking for two thousand people). We learned that it was traditional obligation for the man to make a woman smile on the wedding night. JJ said if the wife would not smile then the husband could give her money to bribe her. He exhausted all his cash and two gold rings before his new wife finally smiled. JJ Jamaican's family are felucca captains on the Nile. Several of his brothers married Western women and now are living elsewhere in the world. Daniel joked that if any other handsome Jamaicans are "picked up as souvenirs" by visiting women, Intrepid would run out on felucca captains.

Photo left: Handprints (for protection) on the wall were from blood after sacrifice; Photo above: Mecca drawing on the village wall