"Saying goodbye to Touristland" a Aswan Travel Page by maykal

Aswan was our main goal in Egypt...all we had to do was get ourselves to Aswan and make sure that we got tickets for the Wadi Halfa ferry. Apart from that, we didn't really care too much about Aswan.

I was expecting it to be touristy, maybe more so than Luxor. And I don't know why, but I'd always imagined Aswan to be tiny...so it came as something of a shock to find a busy highway leading past ugly modern highrisery on the Corniche. First impressions weren't great.

The morning after having arrived, we set off in search for the Shipping Line Office, and after a bit of a wild goose chase, eventually tracked down the ticket office. The boat wasn't to leave until three days later. Three days in Aswan?! Oh dear...

Back at the hotel, we asked what there was to see, and the friendly manager explained we ought to take a felucca ride, cross the Nile to Elephantine Island, visit the archaeological gardens and wander through the Nubian villages...after discovering the nicer end of the Corniche, Aswan began to work its charm on us. Instead of flat, dull, boring river banks, Aswan was seriously pretty. Felluccas with white sails lazily weaving among the many rocky islands littering the Nile, ruins popping up all over the place. We spent our days exploring the Nubian villages on the islands, and even chartered our own felucca for a couple of hours.

On the last day, we did something very un-touristy. Our hotel manager knew we worked in Sudan, and was very keen for us to meet some Sudanese friends of his. We followed him through the touristy market and crossed a railway line into another world...the world of hopeful immigrants. The area around the hospital would never be classed as picturesque...it was very rundown, but it was not without charm. People were very surprised to see two tourists in this neck of the woods, and even though it was just a mile away from one of Egypt's tourist hot-spots, this was well off the beaten path.

Abderraheem almost choked when the two white strangers were brought into his humble home. Once over the initial shock, he began chiking again when we greeted him in Sudanese dialect! Sudanese hospitality was still alive and well, and withing minutes we were being introduced to the whole family and sipping on coffee prepared in the traditional Sudanese way with ginger.

Abderraheem was Nubian, and came from the north of Sudan. He'd lived in Aswan for 15 years, but still didn't feel as if he belonged in Egypt. What brought him to Aswan? Work of course...and what was that work? Well, he was a man of many talents, working as a carpenter officially, with a sideline in making amulets containing Qur'anic inscriptions for the sick and those who want luck to come to them.

The morning of our departure, we joined the chaotic masses at the port for the 10am ferry to Wadi Halfa. In typical Sudanese fashion, things were running late, and we enjoyed a final sunset in Aswan before setting sail in the evening.

I've already spoken of coincidences (see Cairo and other Sudanese pages)...well, the ferry was no exception. Within minutes of setting sail, a Sudanese young man struck up a conversation, and as soon as he learned that we were teachers in Kassala, he said, "Ah, Mr Michael, you teach my brother!"

I will write a more comprehensive page for Aswan later, but let me get Christmas and MA applications out of the way first!