It should be noted that the blog title I had preset for today was “A dam, a temple, and an obelisk”.

So, you can imagine the day went a little differently than I had planned since my blog title now is “Cats, falafels, and milkshakes”.

But was it differently good or differently bad?

That’s the burning question, isn’t it?

Well, I mean, the title now has 3 things I love so you can probably guess it was a pretty good day…

Blogging with a cat

After an early 3:30am start yesterday, I was sound asleep by 9pm.

I really just wanted to sleep in today but even that still meant I was up at 7:45 this morning.

I wanted to take my time today so I just sat in my bed and tackled yesterday’s blog.

Some blogs are easy to write where not much happens (ironically, like today) but then there are others that are a supreme task to write such as yesterdays.

Anyway, the door to my dorm room was open and wouldn’t you know it, a cat just walked in, waltzed up to me and sat in my lap.

I mean, c’mon, can you think of any better way to start the day?

So, with a smile on my face, I spent a little while this morning typing up the blog.

Finally, at 10:30, I was finally out the door, ready to explore more of Aswan.

The Unfinished Obelisk

My plan today was simple, or at least I thought it would be.

I would use the InDrive app (similar to Uber) to get from place to place and visit three things on the list of things to see whilst in Aswan.

I didn’t want to book a tour and I didn’t want to book a driver for the day.

I just wanted to go somewhere, spend as little or as much time as I wanted there, and then book another driver and do it all over again.

So, I booked my first ride and it went off without a hitch.

For 50EGP ($1.40), my driver, who spoke decent enough English, drove me about 10 minutes to my first stop of the day, the Unfinished Obelisk.

Naturally, he asked where I was going next and basically suggested he could be my driver for the day and wait for me.

That’s not what I wanted though so I told him “no, thank you”, paid him and sent him on his way.

In hindsight, that was probably a mistake and I should have taken him up on his offer.

The Obelisk is not one of those sites that is alright but it wouldn’t kill you if you missed it.

It’s literally a huge carved out rock in the ground shaped like an obelisk that is, well, unfinished.

The carving wasn’t complete and obviously it was never lifted from the ground to stand upright.

Admission on to the grounds was 220EGP ($6.25) and I was in and out in about 15 minutes.

Time to book a second driver to my next stop…

Where to next?

My next stop was the Philae Temple.

The second driver arrived and rather than taking me straight to the temple we proceeded to have a 15 minute Google Translate conversation about it.

I’m literally sitting in the back of his car parked on the side of the road waiting for him to type stuff on his phone to show me the translation.

What I was able to discern was that he was saying there was no internet in that area and that I’d have to hire him to stay there and wait for me instead of just dropping me off.

Was he lying?   I don’t know.   Honestly, though, the whole interaction was pretty annoying and I was becoming frustrated with him.

I finally just said I was going to cancel the ride and take a tour.

I figured that would end things but he insisted he take me and also take me to my next stop as well.

I eventually just slipped him 20EGP which was a third of what the ride would have been and walked out of the car.

But no…

He got out of car and insisted he drive me.

When he finally realized I didn’t want to go with him, he insisted I pay the full fare since I was the one to cancel the ride.

Whatever, take your money.   Just get out of my face!

At this point I decided I would change my plans up a little and go to where I had planned to go after the temple and that was the Aswan High Dam.

I booked the trip on the app and before I could even wait for the drivers to bid on my trip, the guy who I literally just argued with, accepted the trip.

Nope, nope, nope.

I immediately cancelled the trip and rebooked it, this time selecting a different driver.

That didn’t stop buddy from coming anyway and saying he would take me to the High Dam.

Luckily the new driver wasn’t that far away and I happily crossed the street and got into his car.

Phew, get me outta that situation please.

Friendly Ahmed

It was now 11:45 and I was finally on to my next stop, albeit a different one from what I had planned.

My new plan was to go to the High Dam and then return to the hostel where I’d ask the guys working there for advice on how to visit the Philae Temple later on in the day.

Anyway, my new driver Ahmed, was very friendly and was showing me things as we passed them on our way to the High Dam which was about 30 minutes away.

He kept calling me Mr. Todd and spoke really good English.

Basically, a nice, friendly man and the polar opposite of what I just went through.

At 12:15 we had arrived at the High Dam.

Aswan High Dam

Because of the earlier debacle with the driver, I actually asked Ahmed if he could wait for me while I toured the site and then drive me back to my hostel.

He happily agreed and waited for me as I visited the dam.

Holy tourist central.

A handful of tour buses were there and, like yesterday, I was surrounded by tourists.

I mean, the dam isn’t even anything that special.

There is a cool monument to Russia and Egypt’s friendship down the road because Russia had helped build the dam.

That was probably the best part of the visit there.

Entry to the dam was 200EGP ($5.70) while the taxi ride there and back cost me double that.

Okey doke then, back to the hostel and reset.

Nothing like the ‘ol reset to get you grounded and refocused on things.

Falafels

I actually asked Ahmed to drop me off in front of the falafel stand on the street leading to the hostel instead.

I’ve been here a couple of times and the man only charges 10EGP (28cents) for a falafel sandwich in pita bread.

I usually pick the ingredients out of the pita but this time I went there with a plan.

I had pretyped this in my Google Translate:

“Can I have 10 piece of falafel with french fries.   No bread please.   Can you put it all in a bag?”

He read my Arabic translation and quickly went to work molding out the falafels and putting them and the fries into his big bowl of fry oil he has setup on his cart.

Now, I kind of guesstimated what the price would be and I figured, well, if you get 2 falafels per sandwich then it’s the equivalent to 5 sandwiches so 50EGP.

Plus the fries, so maybe 100EGP.

After the food was all packaged up he told me the price was 10 10.

So, 10 x 10?   So, 100EGP?

Nope, it was 10 + 10.   Yup, all that food only cost me 20EGP (57cents).

Man, have I been overpaying for food here in Egypt!

I actually felt kind of guilty getting all that food for such a low cost but I paid my money and left for the hostel.

Milkshakes

Once I was at the hostel, I ordered not one, but two, milkshakes.

One caramel (of course), and one peach.

And they were marvelous.

I spent the afternoon just lounging on the patio relaxing.

Johannes and some others were hanging out there and apparently they had actually gone to the Philae Temple today.

Oh, great!   I can ask them all of the logistics!

Well, it turns out that, for whatever reason, there were no boats going to the island today and there was no way to see the Philae Temple.

Oh, well, guess that solves that problem then.

I guess that’s it for the day.

Honestly, I’m kind of okay with it.

It’s nice to have easy days sprinkled in amongst all those go, go, go days.

Dinner with Peter

Around 6:00 I saw Emily, the Australian girl I met yesterday, sitting on the opposite side of the patio.

I joined her and a man named Peter, a brit from Manchester also staying at the hostel.

We chatted for awhile as the sun set and then I mentioned I was going to go get dinner at the souk I found out about last night.

Peter joined me and we walked 30 minutes into town to get some dinner.

It’s funny, the story of the souk is getting passed down from hostel to hostel guest every day.

Two days ago Johannes was introduced to it, yesterday he introduced it to me, and today I introduced it to Peter.

Hopefully Peter carries on the tradition and finds someone to bring tomorrow night.

Anyway, the meal was once again amazing.

So much food and they keep asking if you want more of the complimentary dishes like rice, veggies, or salad.

Peter is another fascinating backpacker who has a similar country count to me.

The difference is that he’s traveled for about 6 years off and on while I’ve traveled for about 2 years.

What that means is that he’s taking his time in each destination.

He talked about his month in India and 6 weeks in Indonesia and I could only think how nice it would be to travel at that pace.

I feel like I’ve definately slowed down the pace with my travels from the frantic pace I used to go on but there’s always room for improvement.

I love hearing other backpackers talk about how they travel and places they’ve been because it inspires me to do more traveling.

I also learn new ways to travel and remind myself that it’s not always the destination but more about the journey.