Predictably, the train ride took longer than expected. I arrived in Aswan at around 11:30 in the morning. This was actually a blessing in disguise. The guy who owned the hostel was driving one of his guests to the train station. Since he was already there anyway, he said he could just wait for me outside and he could drive me to the hostel for free.

I actually made the booking while I was on the train the previous night. I searched for the cheapest place I could find. It was called David Hostel. A dorm bed only costs 6 USD for one night, would you believe— and it included breakfast lol. I checked the reviews and they were overwhelmingly positive. And hey, even if it sucked, for 6 bucks a night I didn’t think I’d have any right to complain.

I met up with David right outside the train station. Immediately lots of touts and taxi drivers started to hound me. It felt great that I could confidently tell them that i didn’t need their services because someone was picking me up. Most of them backed off, but some were still persistent. A couple were still following me as I went inside David’s car. I imagine it would have been suffocating if David wasn’t there to pick me up. I was incredibly patient with the touts because I understood their situation. But when it becomes too overwhelming I’d expect my patience to run out, especially after being scammed in Cairo.

On the way to the hostel David told me a little about the city and pointed to several attractions. Close to the hostel we stopped by some store and he told me to just wait for him inside the car. When he got back he gave me a small plastic bag filled with fresh sugarcane juice. He told me it was my welcome drink. It was cold and absolutely delicious. When we arrived at the hostel he told me he’d upgrade me to a private room since it won’t be occupied during the 2 nights I was staying there. Damn, my booking was getting to be a real bargain. I felt the need to pay him more.

So first order of business: I asked if he arranged tours or transportation to Abu Simbel. He said yes, but it’s too late to join a tour that day because all group tours leave early in the morning. They all depart at around 4 AM, and by 1 PM they’re all back in Aswan. I asked why the tour starts so early. For one thing, Abu Simbel isn’t exactly close. Aswan may be the jump off point, but it still takes more than 3 hours to get there. Leaving at around 4 AM also means we’ll get there before 8 in the morning. That way, everyone would be done with the tour well before noon, thus avoiding the unbearable desert heat. If I wanted to go at a later time, he told me he could arrange a private tour for me. Obviously I couldn’t afford that so I asked how much I’d have to pay for the group tour. He told me it’s gonna cost 300 EGP. That’s quite a bargain actually. That’s only about 16 USD for a round trip transfer (not including entrance tickets to Abu Simbel). However, I remembered my friend from Cairo telling me that round trip transfers to Abu Simbel from Aswan should only costs 150 EGP. Two travelers I’ve met elsewhere who have just been to Egypt told me the same information. And later that day while I was walking around, the cheapest tours to Abu Simbel that I found also costs 150 EGP. I could book my own tour, but I decided to just book with David. He has been incredibly nice and helpful, an additional 150 EGP commission is practically nothing. I just want to state this information for the benefit travelers on a really tight budget. A round trip transfer from Aswan to Abu Simbel only costs 150 EGP. If anyone’s quoting you a higher rate they’re earning some commission.

When my itinerary for the next day was set, I asked him which attractions should I see in Aswan. I asked about the Philae Temple because it seemed to be a popular attraction. He asked me if I was going to Luxor, I said yes. He then told me I’d see similar temples in Luxor, and most of the temples there would actually be much better. I appreciated his honesty, but I still wanted to go so I asked for directions. I could reach the place via public transport, but I’d have to make a transfer somewhere. Knowing that very few locals could understand English, I thought it would be risky. So I asked how much I’d have to pay for private transport. He told me he could book one for me for 20 USD, and it would only take 20-30 minutes to reach the temple. That’s not too expensive if I could split the cost with someone. But since I was alone that time I thought I’d be better off spending my money on something else. I’d have to spend a little more to get inside the temple too. I’d need to pay 100 EGP to enter, and another 50-100 EGP for a felucca ride to the island where the temple is located. The felucca ride only costs 10 EGP for locals by the way. I could make a huge fuss about it, but it’s the same in a lot of countries. Locals always pay less than visitors.

When I decided not to go, I asked David what he’d recommend for me to do that afternoon. He told me to visit the museum first. Then after that i could take a boat to Elephantine Island and just spend the afternoon chilling and relaxing. That actually sounded like a good idea. I asked him about the other attractions that came out when I did a search online: The Unfinished Obelisk and the High Dam. He told me the Unfinished Obelisk is underwhelming. To most people the place is just a bunch of nondescript rocks. He showed me pictures and I agreed with him. Then there’s the High Dam which is simply a high dam. I was actually wondering why it was considered a major attraction in Aswan. He laughed when I said that. What he’s recommending is a visit to the Nubian Village so I could experience a bit of local culture first hand. He told me I could do that the next day after my trip to Abu Simbel. He was about to head out to buy some supplies in the city center so I hitched a ride with him. He dropped me off at the main road, about a block away from the Nubian Museum.

I’m not really into museums but since I had nothing else to do and since David was recommending it, I went ahead and purchased a ticket. A ticket costs 100 EGP, and I’d have to pay an extra 150 EGP if I wanted to take pictures. Screw that. In almost all places, they charge extra for taking photographs. If it was in just a couple of famous places I would oblige. If taking photographs could damage certain artifacts then I would respect their rules. That’s clearly not the case since they allowed taking photos for a fee. It’s nothing more than a cash grab, plain and simple.

To be fair, I found the museum quite interesting. I was most especially interested on how the Abu Simbel Temples were transferred to their current location. That was a really impressive achievement. Sure I could have just searched online for information, but seeing the exhibit itself made the experience more personal. Oh yeah, though there aren’t a lot of people inside it’s still easy to take pictures because there’s barely any museum staff roaming around. And the ones that do don’t seem to care much about guests taking photographs.

After the museum, I made my way to the Nile River to catch the public ferry to Elephantine Island. David said it was easy to find. I just have to make my way to the docks and look for the largest boat. He said I should only pay 2.50 EGP, and I should make sure I had the exact amount because they rarely have change for large bills. True enough, it’s easy to spot the ferry. And as expected, as soon as I crossed the street to the riverbank, I was hounded by touts selling souvenirs and offering felucca rides. I’ve become used to them at this point so I simply ignored them. I no longer smiled at each one and I no longer tried to be polite. At this point I’ve already had enough and I’ve become totally jaded. I didn’t care anymore if I might hurt their feelings by ignoring them. The captain of the ferry was waiting for a couple more passengers so I ended up talking to this felucca guy. He asked the usual questions, then he offered a felucca ride for only 100 EGP for an hour. I asked him where would we go. He told me we can make three stops in an hour, I could pick whichever island I wanted to check out. Then he was saying I could have a really cheap and delicious meal at Nubian Beach. He pointed me to his felucca, which wasn’t even a traditional felucca— it was more of a motor boat. I would have given in if he had a traditional one, but I had no interest in riding a motorboat. But come to think of it, it’s actually not a bad deal. 100 EGP is really cheap (though felucca rides are cheaper in Luxor), and I’d get to see more of the Nile River. When I declined, he practically begged me, saying he hasn’t eaten a meal all day because he had no customers yet. I looked around and it was believable. I was the only visitor there. All the boats were docked. I didn’t see any boats on the river. I guess business was really slow.

This has always been my problem. I’m a sucker for sob stories. The minute anyone puts on a show and starts the drama, I’m inclined to give in. No matter how many times I get scammed, I would still believe that there’s a chance that the person I’m dealing with could be an honest person who’s just trying to earn a living. So yeah, since it looked like I still had to wait a while for the public ferry to head to Elephantine Island, I agreed to take the felucca/ motorboat ride for an hour. 100 EGP is practically nothing.

So there were 2 guys on the boat. The guy I was talking to was some sort of guide, and the other guy was the helmsman steering the boat. It started well enough. He told me several facts about the islands around us. He offered to take my pictures, the usual tour guide stuff. He was doing a pretty good job to be honest. I had a bag of cookies with me and I gave it to them since I knew they hadn’t eaten all day. On each island that we passed he asked me if I wanted to go down and walk around. We passed by the botanical garden. He said it was so beautiful there and I should check it out. I said no. I knew what he was trying to do. If I went down on one island, it’s highly likely that the entire trip would last for more than an hour. But he wasn’t giving me a hard sell so I just brushed it off. About 20 minutes in, we docked at the west bank of the Nile. There’s some sort of fortress on top of a hill. Later on I found out that this was Qubbet- El Hawa, another ancient tomb and considered an attraction in Aswan. The entrance was 40 EGP which was fairly cheap. He asked me if I wanted to climb to the tomb, it would only take 10 minutes. There was no way I’d reach the top in 10 minutes. He was obviously bullshitting me. Obviously he was trying to get me to go over the 1 hour that we agreed upon. It was also too hot, I was in no mood to climb all the way up in that heat. I was starting to get annoyed by his delaying tactics. He said if I didn’t want to check out the tomb I could either wait on the boat or walk around a bit because he had to get something. I chose to go with him. Along the way lots of touts were offering camel rides to the top of the hill. I’ve already been on that route before so I just ignored them. Eventually we reached some sort of makeshift store and he got what he came for. He had to buy cigarettes.

What the heck. He hasn’t eaten all day and he used what little money he had to buy cigarettes instead of food.

Well that achieved two purposes. He got his nicotine fix and he made me waste a couple of minutes. I said I wanted to head back to the city. He said I should check out Nubian beach. It’s a good place to relax and the food that they sell there was really good. I was planning to spend the rest of the day just chilling at Elephantine Island, but I guess the place he was suggesting was just as good. I looked at the time. We were 40 minutes in and I still have enough time to make it back to the city without going over the 1 hour limit. I decided to just oblige and extend for another 30-60 minutes.

So we went to Nubian beach. It’s really eye catching. The buildings were colorful, and it was a good place to relax. I went to the restaurant to order something. It wasn’t too expensive, but it’s definitely a lot more than what I’d usually pay for a meal in Egypt. The cheapest meal was 100 EGP. I also ordered food for my companions. I went to the river bank and grabbed a seat, enjoying the nice view under the shade of a tree.

After 30 minutes, I decided to follow up my order. It was taking way too long to grill some chicken, even if they had to do it from scratch. The waiter said it was coming. I tried to look for the boatmen, but I couldn’t find them. They weren’t inside the restaurant. They weren’t on the riverbank. They weren’t on the boat either. I just grabbed a seat outside the restaurant to wait for my order. After 30 more minutes, I ran out of patience. I went inside and told the lone guy by the cashier to cancel my orders.

Damn. I was being scammed again. And the staff in the resort seemed to be in cahoots with those f*cking boatmen.

UNBELIEVABLE.

Even if you’ve treated these people with nothing but kindness, even if you’ve been extremely generous to them, even if you’ve treated them as friends…

THESE UNGRATEFUL ASSHOLES WILL STILL TRY TO SCAM YOU.

There was another boat docked so I approached the people on it. They couldn’t understand what I was saying. Either they really couldn’t understand English or they were also in cahoots with the scammers. I used google translate and they still shrugged. Argh. It’s definitely the latter. So I was stuck in Nubian Beach until my guides decide to reappear. They did reappear after about 40 more minutes to tell me that the food was ready. At this point I lost my appetite. I took a few bites, then basically watch them scarf down their food. They asked if I would finish mine, I told them no. They then proceeded to eat what’s left of my grilled chicken. God I wanted to punch both of them in the face. Once they were done I paid the bill, stood up and headed for the boat. I told them I wanted to go back immediately.

On the way back I was just silent. The guide tried talking to me but I only gave one word answers so eventually he stopped trying. As soon as we docked I handed 200 EGP to the guy. That was the amount I was going to pay them. 100 EGP for an hour on their “felucca”, and another hundred as a tip. I got off the boat and he chased after me. He told me I owed him a total of 400 EGP because the entire trip lasted for 4 hours. When he said that I completely ran out of patience.

I shouted at him. I guess my voice was so loud because a couple of bystanders started to gather around. He kept saying I owed him 200 more. I asked him whose fault was that anyway?! Who the heck disappeared for 2 hours forcing me to waste my time on that island doing nothing?! He kept following me, insisting that I should pay him more. I turned around and told him that if he wanted another 200 EGP he should pay me 200 EGP for the meal he and his friend ate, then I’d just give it back to him. That made him stop for a couple of seconds so I thought he’d finally leave me alone. That was wishful thinking on my part. He proceeded to chase after me and said he’d give me a discount— he’d just settle for another 100 EGP. I was so angry yet I couldn’t help but laugh. I told him to f*ck off. I proceeded to walk and he still kept following me. At this point he was shouting that I should give him another hundred. He went in front of me and tried to stop me from walking. That was it. I got totally pissed and pushed him real hard. He fell to the ground a couple of yards from me. I was about to head to where he fell to punch him in the face. Good thing I managed to control myself. He was lucky I only pushed him. I really wanted to beat him up. Such an ungrateful asshole. As I’ve said on my previous entry, I understood their situation that’s why I have been incredibly patient with them. However there’s no excuse for scamming people. Scammers should be treated like dirt.

Good thing the trip to Abu Simbel was amazing. Yeah it sucked that I had to wake up before 4 AM, but it was totally worth it. David packed some breakfast that I could eat on the way. I slept most of the way though, I just woke up when we were already close. An entrance ticket costs 160 EGP. One has to pay an additional 15 EGP  for taxes, so it’s 175 EGP total. If you want to take photos inside the temples, you have to pay an additional 300 EGP.

I chose not to pay, thinking I could sneak in a couple of photos here and there. I found out it wasn’t that easy. So there are two temples within the complex.The larger one is the Great Temple of Ramesses II, while the smaller one is the temple dedicated to his wife, Nefertari. You can take lots of photos outside. If you’re part of the group who arrives first then you’re lucky. Otherwise if would be hard to take pictures without people in them. We arrived at 8 in the morning and it was already full of people. Since there were so many people I thought it would be easy to take photos without attracting the attention of the guards. It’s easy to take photos once you’re inside one of the inner corridors. There are no guards there, they’re all gathered around the main hall. The very moment you set foot on the main hall you’ll understand why. My jaws literally dropped. It was mind blowing. These guards knew that it was the most beautiful part of the temple, so many people will try to take pictures. There were about 12 guards walking around checking for photo tickets every time they see someone taking pictures. It’s not a large area so it’s hard to take photos without being noticed. I only managed to take a couple of photos and they weren’t very good.

The Temple of Nefertari isn’t as mind blowing, but I’d still say it looks spectacular. Inside there was only one guard roaming around so I got pretty careless. As I was about to go out I got caught and he made me delete the pictures I took. Oh well, those pictures were quite blurry anyway.

Abu Simbel was simply breathtaking. I was in total awe that I completely forgot what happened the previous day. I’ve seen the famous attractions in Cairo and Luxor. I’d still say the most amazing monuments I’ve seen in Egypt were the temples in Abu Simbel. The sheer grandeur and attention to detail was absolutely mind blowing. As for Aswan, many visitors just use it as a jump off point to visit Abu Simbel and a lot of them don’t bother exploring the city. Aswan does have a number of notable attractions, but if you decide not to see what the city has to offer I can’t say you’ll be missing much.