Our World Travels...

Laura and Eric at the Kom-Ombo Temple We were dropped off from the Felluca at about 9 AM, and headed toward Luxor in a van. Along the way, we made two stops, one at Kom-Ombo Temple and one at Edfu Temple. These two temples were great, and built in the same style as the Philae Temple in Aswan. It is really neat to see and learn about each one, the gods worshiped there and to see the intricate reliefs and statues. The Kom-Ombo Temple was actually a duel temple, between Sobek, the crocodile god, and Hathor, goddess of music and love. Back in the day, they actually had sacred crocodiles lounging on the bank by the temple! This dual temple was cool, because it was symmetric down the middle to make everything even, but at the same time, everything was doubled, so there were two inner sanctums, and two doors to each courtyard, etc. Laura in front of a column at the Kom-Ombo temple. Eric besides a giant bird statue. Eric peeking out of a temple. Laura in front of a temple pylon. Eric next to ...

A Felluca is a traditional sailboat of the Nile River. We didn’t know what to expect when we booked our tour, but as soon as we got on, we knew what we were in for. With six bottles of drinking water, two rolls of toilet paper and 12 beers, we set out with our Spanish friends, and two women from Korea. The crew included the captain, an older man named Nasser, and a young boy of maybe 16, named Ahmed. Ahmed seemed to do al the work, including tending the sail, cooking, while Nasser relaxed and steered. It didn’t seem quite fair, but Ahemd was a great cook, so that was good. The Felluca consisted of a small room up front for the crew, a cooking area, and a baggage store. We sat, lounged, and slept on the deck, which was covered by a canvas roof. The sailboat had a single mast and a canvas sail. The boat ride really was fun, as well a majestic. Sailing on the Nile all day long was quite an experience that we will never forget. It was a very interesting trip, and the Nile was very b...

Through our hostel, we had booked a tour of upper (southern) Egypt for a very affordable price. Our first stop was in Aswan, after an overnight train ride. So we got to the train station about 10 minutes before our train and ran in, thinking we might be late and didn’t want to miss it. A train had just rolled up, and we thought it was ours. Turns out, it was not, and the teenagers we asked about it were laughing at us a bit. Whoops! We didn’t realize that this was Egypt, and everything is on Egyptian time here. Our next mistake was waiting in the wrong zone. When the train came in, we were at the first car. Our car was alllll the way at the back of the train, some 15-20 cars later. We had to rush to get back to our car before the train left. 14 lovely hours later, we awoke in Aswan, the most southern ancient Egyptian city, which normally demarcated the border between ancient Egypt and ancient Nubia. We were taken to our hotel, a nice three star, and dropped off...