See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfinished_obelisk for some details on this obelisk. Not the greatest of tourist sites, basically a large rock where it would have been extracted and then placed vertically except is has cracks in it and it was no longer used.
Well what can I say - it is a Dam - nothing more and nothing less. Not what I would call a tourist attraction.
As part of our cruise we had a number of tours arranged and one was a visit to Philae Temple.
As always someone to try to sell you something.....
We caught a tour bus from the boat to the Philae Temple port and then caught a motor boat to the template which has been moved 500 meters from its original location because the lake flooded it when they build the high dam.
These people were also on our boat and we spend a lot of time with them since they spoke English and we were all put together for tours.
The four to the left are from Bath in England (I can't remember the fathers name, Clare, Can't remember the mothers name, Brianna), and the three to the right are from Minnesota (Whitney, Jack and Carol)
ps; Let me know if I have them wrong.....
This is quite typical…
The view from the hotel Mahaba is great as well - it was about 1 km further down the Cornishe from the Philae Hotel.
We had some very good sunsets from our hotel and in the view over the Nile in Aswan is very good from most places.
We arrive from the airport to the Philae Hotel in Aswan and find it is a pretty crappy hotel, but things get worse.
The room is quite small, the bathroom is dirty and not very nice and makes you not want to use it even for a shower. And what is this metal pipe in the middle of the toilet?
The only saving grace is the view from the balcony across the Nile which is great.
Pam and I decided to have a gin on the small balcony, there was only one chair so I went and grabbed one from the dining room. The one I sat on is like a $10 plastic chair you can buy at the warehouse. Since Aswan is a hot place the chair looked quite faded. As I sat there I felt it move and then the legs broke off the chair and I was on the ground. As I went down either me or some of the chair hit Pam's foot.
I took the broken chair downstairs to the reception and throw it on the ground and complained about it.
I then went back to see how Pam was - she was OK and there was no series issue - just a bit sore...
We had to stay in this hotel for 2 nights.
We went to bed soon after and about 4 o'clock in the morning someone bangs on our door. I get up and take a look and some guy was there and then walked away when I opened the door. I re-locked the door and went back to bed.
About 10 minutes later someone tried to open our door, and then again a few minutes later.
I yelled out for them to PISS OFF, Pam was quite scared and did not want me to say anything.
I then telephoned the reception and told them about this and said we are moving out in the morning.
About 8am we get dressed and go outside to get a taxi to a nearby hotel called Hotel Mahaba.
The first taxi did not know what a map was and could not understand that we only wanted to go up the road so I exited his cab and found another.
We go to the Hotel Mahaba and they said they had a room for 100 USD and we asked to see it. It was a lot nicer than where we had came from and decided we would take it. We then had to get another taxi back to the original hotel.
When we got there the Manager came out and apologised for the problems we had. They wanted us to stay for lunch on them, but we declined and said we are moving out. She then tried to give us a free night but again we declined.
In the end we had breakfast and then left and she only charged us 1/2 price for the night we were there.
Below is the room we had at Hotel Mahaba, it had a separate lounge and bedroom.
Pam & I took a glass bottomed boat out for a one hour cruise. The boat was quite good with good viewing of the sea below but not as good as my view while snorkelling.
More to come....
Pam and I are staying at the Halnan Marina in Narma Bay, this is a large hotel with lots of rooms all facing the bay. We booked this hotel on the Internet and did not know that our price was all inclusive, which means we get the following:
The drinks are free from 10am to 11pm everyday. At this point we have not had that many, but it is a nice thing if you do want a beer.
The weather here is good, only about 29 each day so not too hot.
We were talking to a barman last night and he said that during February, March & April Sharm is mainly visited by Russians. In fact our hotel would have 98% Russians I think.
We started to talk to a young guy from Moscow last night, Vladimir, he is 25 and works as a pilot for Aeroflot, the Russian National Carrier. He was saying that he was offered the deal of flights, accommodation, all included, for $1800 USD for 9 Days. We may meet up again for a drink tonight in the bar again.
Sharm El Sheik is not like other Egyptian cities in that it is more of a party town as you will see from the photos below, but it is a nice change from Cairo and Alexandria.
There are literally hundreds of restaurants along the street, most selling seafood in cabinets. This is in stark contrast to Cairo and Alexandria where you can hardly find anywhere to eat.
I wanted to go on an introduction to diving, but the place we went to wanted to know if I was on any medication, I am for High Blood Pressure, so they phoned a doctor and he said he wanted to see me (35 Euro) before he would allow me to do the dive so I flagged it and bought some a snorkelling mask and breathing pipe and snorkelled around the bay.
I bought a camera, basically disposable, but you can refill it to take underwater. I took all the photos (27) but I do not know what the pictures are like until later today as they are on film and we dropped it off last night to get processed.
There is some lovely fish just a few meters out from the shore, with wonderful colours.
In fact I may go snorkelling in a few minutes time......
