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.

Flat Stanley and a day at the museum

Today my friends took me to the Egyptian museum.  There are over 100,000 artifacts in this big two story building.  They are building a new museum close to the Pyramids that is supposed to open soon. In this building, there are many different types of statues, kings, queens, and everything else in between.  King Tutankhamun or as we call him King Tut, and his big mask.  We couldn't take pictures of the mask though but I found one to show you.

                                                                The front of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

This is King Tutankhamun's tomb.  Do you see how big it is?  It's the size of an apartment.  Look at all the stuff they packed for him to take to his next life.  King Tut was a young king and a lot of people way back when did not think he was a very important person. 

King Tut's mask is made out of gold.

This is a king and queen and their two little kids.  Women always had white perfect looking skin whereas men usually had a tan.

 This is the guy who built the first pyramid.  Quite a feat right?  Do you know how big his statue is, it's about 3 inches tall.  It's really small.  I bet if he knew his statue was this little, he wouldn't be very happy about it.

                                                              

                     Another king.  You can see his paint still looks really good after all these years

 I wanted to take my new found friend home but he isn't allowed to leave. Anubis was the god of the dead and he was a jackal.  His job is to watch over the dead. 

 This was a mummified dog. Do you see the monkey off to the side?  They were often found in the tombs with their owners.  They also took other pets and farm animals with them to the afterlife

This is a mummified ram.  This way the person would have something to eat when the went to their next life.  I don't think it would taste very good.

.

                                          They even buried their cats with them.  Even the ones laying down are mummified cats.

Shhhh, she's sleeping.  Just kidding!   I'm guessing this queen wasn't too important or famous because she wasn't wrapped up like some of the other ones.  For being dead for thousands of years, she looks actually pretty good.

                                                       Now, this is what a mummy looks like! 

Papyrus which is paper made from the papyrus plant.  The writing looks great, doesn't it?  I bet you are glad you don't have this for handwriting homework.

                                                      Hey check me out, I'm a King...with a little head though.

                                                    My new little friend is waving bye!

Tommorrow I'm going to tell you about my overnight train ride down to the southern end of the country to Aswan.

The Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx

Hi guys!  I can't wait to tell you about what we did today.  Doesn't it look really hot and dry here?  Actually, it's pretty chilly and I didn't pack a jacket. It started out in the 60's and it was only about 70 degrees when we arrived.

This is the Great Pyramid.  It's over 3,000 years old!  It's almost 500 feet tall which is like a 50 story building.   
Can you believe that? 

I was standing at the opening of the pyramid looking out into the desert.  See how many people have jackets?

Sorry, my picture is so bad.  This is inside the pyramid.  You have to climb up inside to see the tomb.  It's very narrow.  How do think the Egyptians built this way back then?

Well, here they are!   The biggest one was built for Pharoah Khufu.  The other two are the Pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure.  The little ones by each of the big ones are the Pharoah's wives.  Do you know how old these pyramids are?  They are at least 3,000 years old, probably even older than that.

These are the camels I got to ride.  This is part of the Sahara Desert.

Here I am riding a camel.  They said I was too little to ride by myself.  Plus, since I am so light, I actually blew away and some person saved me from getting lost in the desert.  I was so scared!  Thankfully, my friend Lydia held on to me really tight.

I finally made it!

He was pretty ticklish under his chin.

They are not used to seeing many Americans.  My friend Lydia was so popular but eventually, she said it was tiring.  Now I know what famous people go through.

This is what I had for lunch.  Flavored beef, chicken, and veggies.  Eat your veggies kids!

Well, tomorrow is another fun day for me.  We will go visit the Egyptian Museum.  There are many statues there as well as mummies.  Have you ever seen a real mummy or only your mommy?  Do you get it?  I was making a joke.