Egypte / Egypt 2002

July 5, 2002 – Aswan

Today, I leave the Nubian Oasis Hotel to reach the Hathor Hotel on the Corniche. I really fell in love with the swimming pool at the top. I have a double room for me with air conditioning and a great view on the Nile (room 403) for only 30 EGP. But, of course, the view is better from the roof. After checking in I go to the Keylany Hotel whee it’s possible to have a high speed access to internet.

After this surfing moment, I just go back to the hotel and with Salim we will spend the entire afternoon on the roof, next to the pool, enjoying the view and getting “some sun”, all of this while listening to reggae music, a little bit special in Egypt.

View on the Nile from the Hathor Hotel

Around 5pm, a band of new Zealanders is coming on the roof so the swimming pool shortens very quickly. They might come back from the Abu Simbel trip. So I take advantage of the situation to do a little washing there, it will be too bad not to benefit from the natural dryer. But the group doesn’t stay a long time there and we are rapidly alone again.

At 6pm, I go back to Elephantine Island, to give a copy of my passport and 30 EGP for the trip of tomorrow. Salim just comes back from a “little excursion” on the island and we meet at the Jamaican Family complex. He negotiated with them to spend the night there on the roof of their houses.

Tonight, we will eat at a restaurant near the hotel, as a menu we have: eggplants, tomatoes, foul and shish Kebab. The meal is followed by a felucca trip on the Nile at sunset.

Back on the ground, I wander in the souqs area in order to find some things to bring back home.

An Egyptian is calling me in the street but it is in a gentle way, no aggressiveness and desperate hassle, so I decide to talk a little bit with him. He is an English teacher and selling things at this shop is a kind of second work for him. After some time, he invites me inside the shop just to look at the objects and he asks me to try to find the right price of these objects. The real prices are less high than the ones I expected so I am surprised even if I am sure that he will have a good margin. It is the first time that a seller doesn’t want to cheat on me. So we start doing business and after a long time of negotiation, I finally buy some statues and 3 pieces of papyrus. He offers me a lot of tea and we talk a lot. While drinking tea, Jack and Cathy pass by so they join me and we drink all together in front of the shop.

We will finish the evening in a café near the hotel, drinking a coke or a tea.

Jack & Cathy

It is 1am and I completely forgot to call France. So I go and buy a phone card at the guy in the street next to the hotel. My parents will call me back at the reception in a few minutes.