A ride on a Felucca

Well, today is going to be a nice and relaxing day.  We are going to get on a felucca and take it up the Nile River.  I get to spend the night on it too.  You know what's weird though?  There is no power on the boat, no food on the boat and no bathroom on the boat.  No worries though, there is a support boat that follows along on our trip.  We tie up to it a few times during the day and go over and eat and get drinks.  We can use the bathroom here too.

A felucca needs the wind to make it go.  It's like a giant sailing mattress.  It's really relaxing.

Here I was laying out in the sun.  Don't worry I put sunscreen on so I wouldn't get a bad sunburn.  I took a little nap.

Look at how tall the felucca sail is.

There's a lot of pretty scenery along the Nile.  The boat stopped at the river bank so I could swim in the river.  It was so cold!  You wouldn't think the river would be freezing, but I didn't stay in very long.

I saw lots of cows and horses hanging out even getting washed by their owners along the river.

See the mosque in the background?

The bridge was built too low so when a sailboat has to cross under, they have to lower their sail to fit underneath.  It's the only bridge for a long way.

This was the support boat that has all the stuff we need.  

I got a little tangled up.

The sun is starting to set and pretty soon we will have to stop for the night.

The sailboats cannot sail in the dark because they don't have any lights and it's really really dark out.

We are going to eat dinner and go to sleep.  In the morning we will finish sailing, get off the boat and head up towards Luxor to see more sights!  Nighty Night!

Flat Stanley's trip to Abu Simbel

I was so sleepy when I woke up so early to head down to Abu Simbel.  Thankfully, I could sleep in the van on the way down and they packed a breakfast for me when I woke up.  There wasn't much to see on the way down because we are traveling through the desert.  It would be so hot if we were stuck out there.  There are actually two temples in Abu Simbel.  One temple is for Ramses II and across the way, one is for his wife Queen Nefertari.

Look how much I have traveled around Egypt already.   Abu Simbel is the very southern city before you go into Sudan.

Abu Simbel and Lake Nassar.  It's one of the worlds largest lakes.

This is the temple for King Ramses II

                         

Queen Nefertari's temple

Gosh,  I feel so small!  Wait, I am small!

All the writing and pictures tell stories

Can you tell which one is the queen?  The thing in their hands is an ankh which is known as the key of life.

The King is big!

These are the Falcons that guard the entrance to the King's temple.

Two times a year, the sun rises just right and it shines deep inside the temple right on King Ramses II.  Many people come to witness this event that has happened for over 3,000 years.

I don't think I'd want to get lost in the desert!  I actually saw a sandstorm too.

I have to drive back to Aswan today.  Tomorrow I am taking another felucca ride but this time I get to sleep on the boat.

Stanley sails on his first felucca and visit to a Nubian villiage

I'm taking my first ever felucca ride down the Nile River. I am so excited! Tonight I get to visit a Nubian Village. Nubians have been around for a very long time.  Their name is from the word Nub which means gold because there was a lot of gold mines.  They speak their own language.  We could only get there by boat and then hop in the back of a pickup truck to take us to the village which is at the edge of the Sahara desert and the Nile River.

My first felucca ride.  I had a life vest but I took it off for my picture.  I swear I put it right back on.

Pretty sunset sailing on the Nile

The hotel below was built in 1899.  A lot of famous people have stayed here and a famous author, Agatha Christie also wrote her book here.

The Cataract Hotel

Across the way is Elephantine Island.  They told me that one of the reasons it is called this is because the big round rocks look like elephants.

This is Elephantine Island

Old Hieroglyphics on Elephantine Island 

An awesome view of the Nile River from the Nubian Village.

Nubian women walking along the road

This little boy was not too sure about seeing us.  Finally, someone my size!

The food was prepared inside someone's home.  It was so good.  I loved the bread and the soup the best.

Chow down!

  Below is what the inside of a local Nubian home looks like.  It was really neat to be able to visit and have dinner at their home.  It doesn't look like the inside of our houses.  It would be fun having a giant sandbox as my family room.  Three families live here and they have their rooms off to the side.  

This was Lydia eating inside the Nubian home.  She didn't like me taking her picture when she was eating.

Lydia was getting a henna tattoo by one of the women.  Boys do not get them but I still thought it would have been fun.

I met some nice friends here.

This was one of the dad's and even though his face was serious, he was so excited to take his picture with me.  I was excited too.

This was on our boat ride back to our hotel.  They are tombs that are lit up at night on a hill next to the Nile.  It was a nice relaxing dinner and evening.



Tomorrow I have to wake up REALLY early for a long car ride down to the southern edge of Egypt. I have to be up and going by 430am. to see two temples at Abu Simbel.  You are only allowed to travel on that road during certain hours.  At least I can sleep on the way down.

Stanley gets up close and personal with Egyptian Presidential Elections

Aswan is a pretty laid back town.  It's not like in Cairo.  Even though there's close to 300,000 people, it doesn't feel that way.  Just before I flew into Egypt, they had their presidential elections.  I was a little scared what that meant since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was re-elected for his second and final term.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Source: Africareview.com/File) 

Voting in the presidential elections (Source: Egypt Today/File)

Can you see how many of the people are holding their pinky finger up?  Well, when you cast or make your vote during an election, you dip your finger in red ink.  This way the people who are in charge of the voting and election procedures, can tell that you already visited.  The ink stays on for about a week so it just has to wear off.  When I first saw people with the ink on their finger, I was wondering why someone would only have nail polish on one finger and why men would do this too.  Now I know why.  Sometimes when you are not sure about something you should ask instead of guessing about it.

Everything was just fine and it ended up we got to see a big parade and celebration that was going on all over the country.  There were fireworks, music, horses dancing in the streets, flags flying all over.  It was pretty neat because we don't do that in the United States.  Everyone was excited. Tomorrow we are taking a sailboat called a felucca down the Nile River and we are going to go eat dinner at a Nubian village home.

Flat Stanley's ride on the crazy train

 Today I took an overnight train from the big city of Cairo which has almost 20 million people south to Aswan which has a little less than 300,000 people.  The train is not really like the trains here.  There are areas that you can smoke it is like being in the fog.  I hated it!  Many people in Egypt smoke though, it is part of their culture but they do not drink alcohol.

This is the train station and everyone is waiting for different trains to take them somewhere.  Ours was running about an hour or so late which is pretty common here.

All Aboard!  The police officer with his back to us called ahead and told the train conductor to come in front of the other trains that were running behind.  I don't think the other people waiting were happy about that.

This is the hallway on the train.

Finally I can relax with a Coke!

I won't say much about the food.  It's like what they give you on an airplane.  Remember, EAT YOUR VEGGIES!

I had the upper bunk.  It was just right for me.

Ewwwww!  The bathroom!  Who invented rectangular toilets?  You push your foot on the bar on the bottom and a little trap door opens up in the toilet.

The view from the train of the Nile

I was so happy to get off the train and get walking!

This is how a lot of people ride on the train.  They can just hang out at the door.  Can you believe that?  I even saw little kids just standing there.  Do you think you could do that here?  Would your parents let you?


So, later on, I will share with you my visit to Aswan and a trip to Abu Simbel.  Today it was about 106 degrees out.  It really didn't feel that hot though.