Around Africa: Part Five

In which I went Flight Hopping to Abu Simbel

15.12.2023: Tour Day 4, City 4

I woke to the painful stomach cramps and not the alarm or the wakeup call. Since this was an unplanned trip, so I knew I would have my periods but didn't want it on a long day. I had no option but to get up and get going. We checked out from the hotel and picked our breakfast packets at 3:45am. The breakfast consisted of two fruits, juice tetrapack and long bun sandwich. Know what was inside the buns, slice of brinjals!! Good that we had bought food from home. We reached the airport and went through the luggage security check, our passports were also checked. Then we queued up at the check-in counter, loaded the luggage and received all the boarding passes. We proceeded towards our gate and had the security check. Done with all this, we reached the gate by 5am and were waiting till 6am. The bus took us to the flight at 6am.

Flight 1 (Cairo to Aswan)

The Egyptair MS 82 seats were divided as ACD | HJK. My seat was 35J, my neighbor was Nanda Chaudhari. The flight took off at 6:10am and I dozed off. We landed in Aswan at 7:30am, reached the arrival terminal and had a washroom break. We picked the luggage from the belt and handed it over to the tour guide in Aswan. We proceeded to the departure at 8am and passed through the security check. We were waiting for the next flight, some ate pizzas, some were shopping, some were window shopping, etc. I was reading books on Egypt. Finally the bus took us to the flight at 9:40am.

Flight 2 (Aswan to Abu Simbel)

The Egyptair MS 147 seats were divided as ACD | HJK. My seat was 35K, my neighbor was Jayashree Prabhu. The flight took off at 9:50am and what an amazing view it was from the top, shift from the sand to the water (river Nile). 

We landed in Abu Simbel at 10:30am, reached the arrival terminal and had a washroom break. 

We got into a small bus and drove towards the Abu Simbel temple at 10:50am and reached the main gate at 11am. More on the temple in next post. Its worth a separate post, for which we have been flight hopping since the dawn. There is only one to and fro flight in a day to visit this place. Here's a glimpse of the temple:

We returned to the main gate passing through a series of souvenir shops by 12:30pm. We had a packed lunch consisting of a croissant, apple, chips, juice tetrapack and long bun sandwich with cheese cubes! 

We drove back to the Abu Simbel airport and reached at 12:45pm for the security check. Finally the bus took us to the flight at 1pm.

Flight 3 (Abu Simbel to Aswan)

The Egyptair MS 150 seats were divided as ACD | HJK. My seat was 32K, my neighbor was Gopal Dutt Sharma. The flight took off at 1:30pm and again the amazing sand and water view. 

We landed in Aswan at 2:10pm and had a washroom break. We reached the bus, luggage was already loaded, met Mohammed. We passed by the Aswan dam at 2:30pm and reached the port to board the Nile River Cruise. The cruises are parked adjacent to each other and we have to traverse through those to reach our cruise. Luggage was taken care of. Our cruise name was MS Nile Symphony, we checked in at 3pm. Only one key was given per room, it gets difficult for twin sharing. We freshened up and got ready to visit the Nubian village. We were given the cruise card which needs to be shown while re-entering the cruise. We reached the Hudda boat at 4pm. On the way to the boat, I had chat with Nanda on her travel journey. We got into the boat and sailed over the Nile to the village in an hour. 

There was a upper deck wherein many clicked candid photos. It was quite an overwhelming experience of a village. Camel riders asking for a ride. The area was smelling of the camel dung. We walked to the Rabih house (crocodile house). Here crocs are kept as pets. 

House members welcomed us with tea/coffee and bread with honey. While many enjoyed clicking photos holding the closed mouth baby crocodile, a few animal lovers were either emotional or irritated. I was surprised. We got back to the boat at 5:30pm and sailed back to the cruise at 6:15pm. We had dinner at 7pm. 

There was an entertainment arranged for us tonight. It started with the musicians testing their instruments at 8:30pm followed by an artist performance and belly dancing. 

The cruise also had guests from the American continent. The belly dancer invited a few to join her. Done with the event at 9pm, we scrolled on the cruise for a while and dozed off ending a long day. A detailed post on the Nile Cruise after I complete the Abu Simbel temple.

Read next: Around Africa: Part Six