Day 17 - Aswan - Meet the Nubians

We explored Aswan yesterday as planned, except we didn't get to do any filming at the dam because of time constraints. First stop was Philae Temple, an ancient temple found submerged in water and moved piece by piece onto dry land. We reached it by boat.

Temple on the water

Again, not much time to get photos of the interesting details

Back on the boat

After the temple we sailed up the Nile on a boat with a Nubian crew. The Nubians originally came from Sudan but have resided in Egypt for a long time, and nowadays consider themselves Egyptian but still maintain their own cultural traditions. These include music, food and language, so we got a great sound recording of some of their songs.

Nubian folk music on the boat

We sailed to a really high mountain with a panoramic view of Aswan and the Nile, complete with a crazy old geezer at the top who yelled at us and tried to prod our guide off the edge with a fence post.

I think he was annoyed he didn't get to show us around

That's the Nile, that is

Blue turning to green turning to yellow

Landscape with geek

We spent a lot of time on the mountain filming and talking to a couple of Dutch travellers, then got back on the boat and sailed on to the Aswan Botanical Gardens, which looked like this:

Totally botanical

From there we took the boat to a traditional Nubian restaurant and had bread, rice and chicken in a really tasty sauce similar to ratatouille (thanks spellcheck).

The restaurant was also a museum

The Nile was very calm that night and there wasn't much wind, so it took us quite a while to sail back to the Isis Hotel in almost complete darkness. It made me feel like an ancient Egyptian returning home after a hard day's work. Except I was going back to a hotel room with running water and electric lights.

It was about 10:30pm when we got back. We got up at 3:30 to get a plane to Cairo (feels like home now) which turned out to be delayed by 3 hours. I've had this afternoon off and tomorrow morning at 6 we're leaving in the car for Sharm El-Sheikh. After that it's Mount Sinai then back to Cairo for 8 days to interview people and visit the Pyramids, then that's it. We're just over half way through the trip now...

Day 15 - Luxor & Aswan - Temples, Tourists

It's me again. Since I last wrote, my "traveller's sickness" came back for a day but I fought it off again. We went to Luxor for a couple of days, a city with a lot of ancient ruins. We visited Hatshepsut's temple (She was a queen who dressed as a man to command respect), the temple of Rameses III, and the city's main temple. They were all pretty amazing, but as I was there looking for unique, interesting images for the film rather than to explore them as a tourist I got bored quite quickly.

Hatshepsut's Temple, carved from the cliff face

I didn't take many photos at the temples as I spent most of the afternoons rushing around trying to get some good shots before the sun went down. The thing about Luxor is it revolves around tourists so much that everyone tries to sell you something or just asks you for money. They also assume I've just stepped off a plane (due to my blond hair and pasty white skin), and can easily be ripped off. The countryside outside the city was a welcome break from all this:

Green Egypt

One other thing that happened while we were in Luxor was that Egypt won the Africa Cup final against Ghana (1-0). We were watching it in a cafe. They scored in about the last 3 minutes, then they won, then the world went mad (in a good way). We spent the rest of the night driving really slowly through packed streets, pointing a camera at ecstatic crowds who waved flags and sprayed burning aerosol cans high into the air. This is the only photo I managed to get that night.

One nil

I'm not into football but it was a really amazing atmosphere, no one had been drinking (no one does in Egypt) so there was no violence or anything, and everyone joined in. So, after a cancelled hot air balloon ride - we waited in the basket for half an hour while the weather changed - we left for Aswan. Cue lots of lush green farmland followed by the kind of rocky landscape you could imagine Captain Kirk and Spock beaming down onto. Some farmers gave us sugarcane to eat, it was quite nice. Quite sugary.

Lush

These hills quite possibly have eyes

So, once we got to Aswan this evening we got a boat to the Isis Island Hotel on the Nile, it's five star and does a great buffet. We'll explore Aswan tomorrow, then it's on to Sharm El-Sheikh, party capital of Egypt!

Night boat to Aswan

Day 11 - Siwa & Western Desert - Sun, Sand and Sand

Hello! Soon after my last post I got really ill for two days, then we went to Alexandria and Siwa where I didn't have internet access. Alexandria was quite cold and rainy, and we had one day to go to several locations so I didn't get much time for taking photos. We've just spent two days in the Sahara desert, specifically a small town called Siwa, built around an oasis. The desert was amazing to behold and quite moving, and it was a lot of fun going up and down huge sand dunes in a jeep.

We call this ritual "Crossing the Desert"

The Western Desert, yesterday.

The word "awesome" springs to mind

Look sir, cameramen!

He was too fast to film, but I did get this photo

"Fuji" means mountain in Japanese. Similarly, "Sahara" means desert in Arabic

Siwa is an extremely ancient town and it shows. The first modern road into town wasn't built until about 1994, and in the centre is Shali, an old fortress surrounded by crumbling houses and tombs.

Shali

The tombs, or "death holes" are quite weird. They've been there for centuries but they look like they're about to collapse at any moment.

Death holes

Watch your step

Siwa, with Shali on the right

So we've had a busy few days. We drove back to Cairo today, past unexploded World War 2 minefields, German and Italian war graves, and a compound owned by the Bin Laden family. It took eight hours to reach the city then about two and a half to make our way through the traffic to the hotel.

We're staying here tonight then getting a plane to Luxor, and from there to either Sharm El Sheikh or Aswan. Next time I update this I should have some photos of ancient Egyptian temples for you. We've delayed the Pyramids until after we meet with Dr Zawi Hawass, the (real-life) Egyptian Indiana Jones as he knows them inside out and should have some good tips.

"You look like an eighties hitman!" - My boss

Ramy, Sobei, Thomas, Tom

Day 4 - Cairo - Smart Village

On day 4 (which was yesterday as I write this) we spent the day at Smart Village, Cairo. It's a recently built ICT/business park with about 28,000 people working there which will increase to 100,000 in the next few years. This might sound like a boring location but we got a lot of nice shots of metal and glass structures, distorted reflections in plate glass windows etc.

Smart

We spent a lot of time looking for a good spot to film the sunset here, but couldn't find one in time. Luckily the next day we got some really nice shots of the sun setting over Cairo, though you'll have to take my word for it as I forgot to take any still photos of it.

On the way to Smart Village we drove down a motorway that ran alongside a big area of farmland with the pyramids in the distance. If it wasn't for the road and cars speeding along, the view was probably exactly the same as it was 3000 years ago.

Enjoying the view

While we're on the subject of cars, the traffic in Cairo is unlike anywhere in the UK. The only rule in the highway code is "Upon seeing another vehicle, beep your horn angrily at them again and again, then try and ram them". Although they're extremely friendly to foreigners and each other, Egyptians are pretty aggressive drivers, and all 13 million Cairo residents seem to be in their cars every day trying to cram onto the same roads.

This morning (which was day 5) the blue-grey haze and industrial smell from the pollution was so bad it gave me a sore throat, but going to Al Azhar park in the afternoon was much better. I'll try and take some photos tomorrow, we're going to Khan El Khalili, the big market.

One more thing - It looks like I'll be in Egypt until February 18th now, not the 14th. To be honest, I'd happily stay for another four weeks, let alone four days.

Day 3 - Cairo - Old Cairo New Cairo

Yesterday we went to the Citadel and Sultan Hassan Mosque. The Citadel is a huge fortress built a thousand years ago and later fortified by Saladin to protect Cairo during the Crusades, while Sultan Hassan Mosque is a major Islamic monument. Didn't get any good photos here, but you can see the Citadel in a photo in the previous post.

New Cairo, spreading into the desert

Today we spent a few hours travelling around New Cairo, an area of the city built out in the desert, or more accurately, being built. For the last five years they've been busy putting up apartment buildings, office blocks and houses which are quickly being bought up.

We got some interesting footage here as it was so desolate, and then went to see the house of one of our two guides, Rami. We were introduced to two crazy but friendly dogs, shown around the ornately decorated and tidy house (which we used as a filming location) and had a really nice meal. Then we went back out and worked until 10:30 tonight. I'm looking forward to the White Desert now.

Hermit

Desolation

Day 1 - Cairo - Dust and Laundry

I finally managed to start my Egypt photoblog tonight. It's not going to be very detailed in terms of text as I barely have time to do anything other than work, but hopefully I can give you some interesting pictures to look at. Let's start from the beginning, and I'll make each day a separate post.


On Sunday I went to Egypt on a freelance job assisting a film maker who's creating a film to promote Egypt as part of an exhibition. I'm here until Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year/14th of February, and what we're doing is going out each day to shoot as many locations as possible then coming back and backing up our video.


So, on Day 1 we went to Ibn Tulun Mosque, an extremely old mosque with amazing views of Cairo from the unique minaret with its distinctive spiral staircase. No photos of that, but quite a few of people's washing blowing in the breeze over a busy, dusty city.

Dust and laundry

The Citadel (See Day 2)

Mosque Courtyard

Cairo from the minaret

Shadow of the minaret