We arrive in Aswan in the morning and grab our hotels before wandering through the markets and surrounding streets for a few hours. The markets are quite long with lots of vendors trying to get you into their “hassle free” shop. There are many stands with scarves, spices and statues. They all seem to be selling a bright blue spice called Indigo that really catches the eye (we find out later it’s just washing powder). I think the trick is to look straight ahead and to not stop walking. As soon as they see you look at their stand they’re all over you. We go in search of a different power adapter as ours seems too small for some of the sockets in the hotel. Eventually we find one for 10LE only to break it as soon as we try to use it in the hotel.
That afternoon we catch a boat across the river on our way to a Nubian house for dinner. We make a pit stop and a few of us walk up this giant sand-dune. Won’t need to use a Stairmaster for a month after climbing this dune! The sand is soooo soft it feels like you aren’t going anywhere at all. The view from the top is totally worth it though.
We move on to the Nubian village and have a look at their house. The family sleep in one huge room and nothing gets thrown out. I start to wonder if Dad is in fact Nubian as he’s gotta be the biggest hoarder I’ve met. We have an absolutely delicious home-cooked meal made by the ladies of the house. They then show us some of their wares (scarves, caps etc) before a party with the local children. The young girls sure have some groovin’ moves! Then we hand out some lollies to the kids. It all starts very orderly and then quickly becomes a free for all with a few of them climbing up me to get to the lollies. Seems kids all over the world have a sweet tooth.
Then back to the hotel to sleep. We’re catching a plane to Abu Simbel tomorrow.