It was a super early start this morning.

I had an early morning flight to Aswan which meant I had to set my alarm for the ungodly hour of 3:45am.

Who the hell gets up at 3:45?

Apparently this guy.

An early start

While the room was empty when I went to bed at 9:00 last night, someone had checked in in the middle of the night.

So, with absolute stealth, I packed up everything and skulked out of the dark dorm room.

By 4:15 I was out on the street booking my Uber to the airport.

Remember when I arrived a few days ago and that taxi guy told me that Uber didn’t go to the airport?

Yeah, well, what do you know, turns out that they do.

I know, shocker right?   A taxi driver lied to me!

While the taxi cost me 700EGP ($20), this Uber back to the airport only cost me 160EGP ($4.50).

Thankfully the Uber app gives you a description of the car picking you up so I knew to expect a black car.

As I was standing on the corner waiting for my Uber, a guy in a white car pulled up and yelled out “Uber?”

That sneaky sonofabitch!

Trying to steal a ride and probably overcharge me for it.

My car driver spoke excellent English and it turns out he lived in Sydney, Australia for 7 years.   He recently moved back to Egypt to take care of his parents.

Every day he drives Uber from midnight to 6am and then goes to his accounting job at 7am.

Guy literally only sleeps 5 hours a day.

Because it was the wee hours of the morning, it only took a half hour to get to the airport.

At Cairo Airport

For whatever reason, NileAir doesn’t allow you to checkin online for domestic flights which meant I had to line up at the checkin counter when I arrived.

My flight wasn’t until 7am and I was standing in line at 4:45 with only a smattering of people.

I was pretty happy when the guy at the counter asked if I wanted an aisle or window and didn’t just randomly give me a seat.

After I got checked in I was told to wait in the seated area outside of the security screening area.

Well, that’s a weird system.

An hour later, they finally allowed us to go through security.

Along with the regular screening, they also made us take off our shoes which was kind of annoying.

Here I was trying to juggle 2 bags with one hand and my laptop and liquids with my other.

They also had separate lines for women and men.

And then, finally, we were in the air.

On to Aswan…

Welcome to Aswan!

Aswan is a city along the Nile River about 700km south of Cairo and takes just over an hour to get there by plane.

Because it was a domestic flight into a small airport, the time between landing and exiting the airport was very short.

No long hallways to go down and no customs to go through.

As I exited the airport I was, once again, hounded by taxi drivers offering me a ride.

I just turned them down and walked away to where I could book my ride into town on my phone.

Unlike Cairo, the city of Aswan uses InDrive instead of Uber.

Apparently it’s a pretty big app in a bunch of countries but I had never heard of it until I started planning this trip.

Everything is pretty similar to Uber except the only option to pay is by cash.

I booked my ride and waited for my driver who was 10 minutes away.

Naturally a taxi driver just wouldn’t leave me along and kept saying that InDrive couldn’t come to the airport.

Liar!

Go away!   I don’t want to talk to you!

Eventually my driver Momen came and picked me up.

The ride took about a half hour and cost 163EGP but I rounded it up to 200EGP ($5.70).   I also had to hand over 50EGP to exit the airport.

The weather here in Aswan is significantly hotter than it is up north in Cairo.

By the time I arrived at the hostel at 9am, it was already 16C and temperatures were due to climb to 30C by mid-afternoon today.

Walking through Aswan

Checkin wasn’t actually until 1pm so I dropped off my big backpack and headed out to explore the city.

It’s very much a small city that is highly dependent on tourists and the different ships that sail up and down the Nile River.

As I navigated the small sidewalks in my neighborhood to get to the main street, I was greeted with multiple cute, little “helllooooo” from little kids I passed.

Once I hit the main street though, well, those cute little hellos where replaced with “you want a boat ride?” and “taxi, you want a taxi?”

Over and over again.

I swear I couldn’t walk 10 feet before someone else approached me.

One guy on a horse actually turned his horse around and followed me for a block even after I turned him down.

They’re nothing if not persistent, I’ll give them that.

Annoying as hell though.

My “no, thank you” soon turned to just “no” and then to a wave off of my hand.

Elephantine Island

Eventually I came upon the dock where the cheap public ferry to Elephantine Island left from.

I’m so glad I had asked at the hostel beforehand about the ferry because I’m sure I would have ended up with some random boat owner who’d charge me much more.

The ride, by the way, was only 10EGP (30cents).

For the second time today, I witnessed the separation of men and women as each were on a separate half of the boat.

Elephantine Island is a little island about 5 minutes away that stands in the middle of the Nile River between the two shores of Aswan.

The highlight of the island are some ruins located on the southern end of it.

As I walked towards where it was marked on my map, I couldn’t help but notice all the garbage strewn on the sidewalks and streets.

And the flies.

Oh my God, so many flies!

Elephantine Island ain’t that grand, let’s just say that.

As I approached the ruins a man came out of a house and told me that I had to pay 250EGP ($7) to see the ruins.

He wasn’t wearing anything official and it just looked like a house he came out of and not some visitor center or ticket office.

I was pretty sure he was trying to scam me and, honestly, I didn’t really need to see any more ruins.

I had seen plenty already on this trip.

So, I just turned around and started walking the other way.

Eventually I did do a Google search and, yes, it does cost money to see the ruins.

Guess the guy was legit.

Oops.

I walked for about 20 minutes to the other shore where I found a little cafe.

Time for breakfast!

Here I was on an island overlooking the Nile River munching on an omelet.

Flies or not, I was pretty content to just sit there for awhile and take it all in.

At 11:15 I was back on the ferry heading back to main area of Aswan.

Getting hassled

Now, this was the real main area of town.

The first true sign was that there was a McDonalds smack dab in the middle of it.

Plus a bunch of docked river boats and parked tour buses.

Hell, as I was exiting the ferry, a group of seniors all wrapped in life vests were heading down to the ferry.

Yup, this was tourism central.

There were so many people offering boat rides and taxis that you just couldn’t get away from it.

Eventually I walked for about 15 minutes until I came upon another ferry dock taking me straight across the Nile to the shored on the other side.

Tombs of the Nobles

This ferry ride was again less than 10 minutes and led straight to the doorstep of the Tombs of the Nobles.

It was a tad more expensive at 50EGP ($1.40) but still really cheap.

I stopped at the ticket office to purchase my ticket to visit the tombs but had to wait as the clerk, along with 6 other people, were kneeling in mats in prayer.

After they were done, I bought my ticket (200EGP, $5.70) and started to head towards the tombs.

I had to navigate past more people this time offering me camel rides to the nearby Nubian Village.

Luckily it wasn’t too far of a walk to the long staircase leading up to where the tombs were carved out in the hills.

When I reached the top, a security guard told me to follow him and he led me on an impromptu tour.

Now, I had read about this before coming so I was ready for it.

Many of the tombs have gates that are locked and the guard will let you in.   He’ll also be kind of a guide but, not really, since he doesn’t speak English.

You just smile and nod and say “mmm, hmm, ah yes, interesting”.

Of course at the end they expect a tip so I tipped him 100EGP ($3) which was probably too much but I’d rather be on the side of overtipping than undertipping.

Back to the hostel

An hour later I was back on the ferry to the other side..

It was now 28C and, despite wearing pants, I felt alright.

The hostel was a good 40 minutes away walking but the man at the hostel had told me earlier that I could catch any bus for 4EGP (11cents) to get back.

Of course catching a “bus” here in Aswan isn’t as simple as all that.

First of all the buses are actually minivans that seat 12 people and, second, you have to hail it down by standing on the side of the road.

There were countless of things vans driving by but I wasn’t sure if I could just catch any of them or if it had to be certain ones.

I finally just walked up to a local who was also standing there waiting and showed him my map.

Using a combination of charades and Google Translate I was able to ask him which bus I should take.

He led me to the right one and soon I was climbing inside with a dozen locals.

Now, the next challenge – there’s no set stops and you have to tell the driver where to stop.

Well, how the hell am I supposed to do that?

I ended up typing in “please tell the driver to stop here” in my Google Translate and showed the translated Arabic phrase to the guy sitting next to me.

Yup, I’ve become a true, little problem solver, haven’t I.

Soon I was back on the little dirt roads heading back to my hostel and listening to the sing-songy “helloooo” from the kids as I walked back.

I stopped at a little falafel stand and grabbed a couple falafel sandwiches for just 20EGP (57cents).   Naturally I picked the good stuff out of the bread and just tossed the bread to the side.

On a little side note, by the way, I’ve definately eaten gluten along the way because I’ve broken out in a small amount of hives on my upper arms and neck.

Finally checked in

At 2pm I had returned back to the hostel and now I could officially checkin.

I got to my room and just took a moment to get sorted out, unpack a little, and set things up.

I was also pretty tired and my first temptation was to take a nap.

I fought the temptation though because I have another early start tomorrow with a tour leaving at 4am so I actually wanted to be tired later so I’d go to bed early.

And yeah, you read that right – 4am.

Chilling with a view

At 4pm I went downstairs to where the restaurant and lounge area is.

And what an area it is!

It’s a little patio that overlooks the Nile River and Elephantine Island.

I ordered some chicken and rice and a caramel milkshake and just sat down at a table watching the boats sail by.

How peaceful.

That milkshake was so damn good I actually ordered another with a plate of fries.

I know, I know – diet starts when I come back.

Soon, the sun set and another day had come to an end.

A good first day here in Aswan to be sure.

Like I said, tomorrow, I have a very early tour at 4am.   I’ll be visiting the Great Temple of Abu Simbel built by Ramesses II in the 13th century.

It’s a long 3-4 hour drive there and back so tomorrow is going to be a long day.

I’m pretty sure there will be some sleeping in the van on the way down…