The Convoy to Abu Simbel

We are truly convinced that the Egyptian military has chosen to play a cruel joke on the tourists that arrive in Aswan with the intention of visiting Abu Simbel. The small town 240 km south of Aswan and 40 km north of the Sudanese border is home to two magnificent temples built by Ramses II along the banks of the Nile (now Lake Nasser). The only way to reach the town is by tour bus in a armed convoy that leaves at 4:30 a.m. from Aswan. We were up at 3:30 a.m. to be picked up by our driver and luckily slept through most of the drive, which entails 3 hours of driving through the barren desert as drivers of minibuses and large charter buses jockey back and forth for prime position....again, the rules of driving seem to be non-existent in most of Egypt. Ramses II built the temple as a gateway for foreigners traveling from the south with four larger than life statues of himself (of course), which were meant to signify his power throughout Egypt. He also built the smaller Temple of Hathor for his wife, Nefertari (not to be confused with Nefertiti). After returning from Abu Simbel, we picked up our tickets for our Nile cruise that departs tomorrow. Since arriving in Egypt, and with our trip quickly coming to a close (we moved our return flights up to Friday, March 21st), we have decided to finally treat ourselves! We've stayed in so many cheap hotels (in fact our current residence, the Hathor Hotel, costs $18US/night and has a bathroom smaller than my old studio in the East Village), we opted for the 5-star Semiramis II for our 2-day cruise down the Nile to Luxor. The other option would have been to hire a felucca, the traditional Egyptian sailboat for a 4-day trip down the Nile, but we decided that we weren't as open to that adventure which could have entailed a lot of negotiating and baksheesh (tipping) to find a reliable captain. Bon voyage!