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Aswan, Egypt
Saturday, Mar 14, 1998

Searching for Bondisms in Aswan

David Murray
2007-02-02 02:28:12

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We hopped on a train the following morning, quite early that is, and sat down for a couple of hours and went to Aswan. By this stage, we had picked up the last two, The Jacksons. A pair of Kiwis who were very Christian. They became known as Wacko and Jacko. We all got off and the usual Egyptian in your face hassle started. We jumped into about five cabs, all old Peugeot 404 Station Wagons. These cars ruled out here. They were the Tyrannosaurus Rex of the car world. Nothing came near them and they went everywhere as they were the true King’s of Egypt. Riding up front, I was finally living another one of my life long dreams, to be the designated horn honker !!!!! Now Aswan, is a delightful little market town, and it does not matter where you stay, either open you window or step onto a balcony, and there is a minaret with loudspeaker pointing at you. If the Egyptians are going to get up that early in the morning, i.e. 04:00, so are you !!!!!So we had breakfast and made the schoolboy error of not going to see Abu Simbel. Money was the issue. It was either Abu Simbel or Lebanon, and we chose Lebanon instead. So we went to Elanphantine island. It was ok. The museum was alright but have seen better. That evening, Lucy was hanging out with some girls, whilst I went to the markets. There were two other Aussie guys, Dave and Matt and one Aussie girl, Helen. People were being friendly, saying hello and letting us try food, it was great. We arrived at a shop where the boys wanted to buy some clothes, and I was standing outside with Helen, when a man came up and asked why there were three guys and one girl because in Egypt, the man has three women. The only way to explain this was to tell him that Australian women are strong and need three men to please them. So for the next five minutes, he sat there going, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. After five, he asked Helen, “Would you like a fourth husband” !!!!! The next morning, we went off to Phillae Temple. This had been moved because they had built the Aswan dam. A taxi took us to a boatman and then we wondered around for a while. The highlight being is that there is a Nilometre. A device for measuring the height of the Nile. Basically a set of stairs going down to the water, in the Spy Who Loved Me, James walked down them to see Q. This was a good place. After this, I took Lucy on a walk where I renewed acquaintances, Lucy, couldn’t believe the amount of people and freebies she was getting. A quick hit on the old wallet, and that was Aswan, done and dusted.