Diary Travelogues - Egypt - The Nile & Pharaohs - 1996 - April 08 to 27 - Part 3

Hi Friends,

This is part 3 of my 1996 journey down the Nile in Egypt.

If you are just coming on board, you can read Part 1 here.

If you are following on from previous parts, welcome back 🔆

Thanks for reading
🚣

Monday, 15 April | 17.46 | Luxor

Waiting for sunset over the Nile and am very stoned! It's the kind of stonedness that comes after abstinence.

Had a nice experience on the way here. It is Coptic¹ Easter today and as I was walking along the Nile corniche, I came upon a group of white-gowned Egyptian Christians who were banging drums and dragging something very large. This was a figure, some 15 feet tall, with a large pot-belly and ball for a head. It was made out of strips of metal. The procession was slow and holding up the traffic. Behind it were around 20-25 horse-drawn carriages, broughams with foreign tourists sitting in the back. It took me a few minutes to realise that the carriages were not part of the festivities, just a connected picture that chance and the weed had conjured up! But quite dramatic and symbolic nonetheless.

^{Copts & carriages | source 1 source 2 source 3}
I woke up at 8.30 this morning in Qena and got the train to Luxor with Petra and Günther. We got in before noon and checked into different hotels as I really wanted to get hold of some pot and their hotel didn't have any – ie. I asked and the guy said they "didn't smoke"!

The place I went to, Moon Valley, is owned by Said. He's been to London 3 times for a month each and has big blown-up photos of himself on the walls and all over the reception area. 7 LE per night for a nice room with attached bathroom. Although Said claimed not to smoke himself, his confident promise to get me some - “but a secret between us”, tipped the scales in favour of staying here. He said the bhangu would cost 25 LE. I went for a longish walk through the tourists and the tourist-minded Egyptians. Got the tear in my jeans stitched and was back by 16.30.

Said came to my room and gave me the grass – poor deal but the quality is excellent. Washed some clothes and then went downstairs with the intention of seeing the sunset (where I now am). In my stonedness, I walked up to the reception desk with nothing to say and spoke to the man Ashraf about being stoned and the 25 LE deal – casually talked away! Realised later that Said had asked me not to speak about it, and also that when I had first enquired about bhangu, he had asked Ashraf about the possibility of getting some and then quickly hushed the matter up, saying it was a 'dangerous' subject.

Ashraf then went ahead and asked me if I wanted some, again to be a “secret between us”. It dawned on me at this point that a wee game was being played, for Ashraf now said he'd give me a 'discount'. I knew I had paid Said at least 15 LE too much, but he had said 'take it or leave it' without appearing pushy, and I had really wanted some! Funny, he might see me as a backstabber (he he) – or more likely, stupid! I'll decide what to do if I need any more.
_{1. The Coptic Church is the Eastern branch of Christianity. 5-7% of the Egyptian population is Coptic.}

^{Luxor | one two three four five six}

Tuesday, 16 April | 20.30 | Luxor

Last night, I went to see Petra and Günther. We walked around Luxor together and chatted for a couple of hours. I talked a little bit about my life, which is usually a sign that I like and feel comfortable with people.

Had an excellent day today. Got up around 10am this morning and left with 2 pre-rolled joints and a bike which I rented for 5LE for the day, and which I still have with me. Cycled North along the East bank for 6-7 km, then left the asphalt and took a succession of country lanes to a picturesque spot by the Nile where I thought of having a joint and reading for a while. However, three youths turned up and we sat down under a tree talking for half an hour or so. Around were fields, the river bank and distant sandy hills containing the remains of the Pharaohs.

^{Nile chill | source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4}

One of the lads, Ahmad Saleh, a 19-year old, had been suggesting repeatedly that I go for a boat ride. So the two of us set off in his little rowing boat, at first along the reeds and side-water and then onto a section of the broad Nile herself. Smoked a joint, rowed for a bit, punted through the reeds, and chatted. Gave him a fiver and a pen. Very relaxing.

Cycled on for a while, stopping and repeating my story to various Egyptians who were surprised that I should speak Arabic and interested and curious about a foreigner different from other foreigners.

^{Karnak temple complex | source 1 source 2}
I went to the temple(s) at Karnak and spent nearly two and a half hours wandering around the still majestic ruins, fairly stoned. Wonderful to have such a huge expanse of antiquity, where even the tourists who are ferried around by their guides get tired of wandering and leave the more outlying and less dramatic areas along for me to explore at my leisure. I observed that some of the tour-guides, especially those with American groups, are quite authoritarian and I've overheard things like “if you're not back in time we'll leave you behind” or “where do you think you are going?”, when someone wandered off from the group. I had great fun climbing up and down, sitting in various places, mellow and absorbed.

^{Karnak | source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4}
Cycled back along the Nile with the sunset. Had a shower and got a 20LE deal from Ashraf, who gave me a 5LE 'discount'. Better deal than Said's, but quality not so good.

Also realised that the 'chance' procession I thought I saw yesterday must really have been one, for once again the broughams were in evidence! The hotels and cruise boats have obviously pumped up the tourists into getting dressed up in Middle-Eastern outfits and strutting along in carriages at sunset. It's almost as if they are making fun of them – seems to be very much in the Egyptian character to mock the stiff, conservative and rather timid (in these exotic circumstances) foreigner!

Wednesday, 17 April | 19.05 | Luxor

Went cycling out on the West bank and over to the ancient tombs of the Pharaohs with Brendan, a 27 year-old Englishman I met yesterday. We set off 11.30 ish and returned by 6pm.

^{Valley of the Kings | source 1 source 2 source 3}

Cycled out to the Valley of the Kings and did pretty much what I had done three years previously: scrambled over the hill above Hatshepsut’s Temple with the bikes, chained them up at the crest and then carried on up to the summit for the view. It was hot today, and heavy going with the bikes. Talked to some Egyptian lads at the top and then descended into the Valley of the Kings. I wasn't interested in going inside the tombs so I cycled back down the easy sloping road to the little villages with their alabaster factories and men beckoning the tourists over. Brendan followed later.

^{Valley of the Kings | one two three four five six seven}

On the way down Brendan got a puncture which we had repaired in the village. Spent the time chatting pleasantly – I can do the small talk better in Arabic, but get irritated with it in European languages! We then visited another village where Brendan knew someone. Had a couple of joints and then cycled back, getting the ferry across the Nile.

Khalid, the man who works at Brendan's hotel is due me a 30LE deal of pot. I might head off tomorrow.

Friday, 19 April | 11.50 | Edfu, Temple of Horus

My last night in Luxor was great. Got a fairly good 30LE deal off Khalid. Half of it got 5 of us very stoned, sitting on the roof and having a laugh. Left Luxor yesterday and got to Edfu, 110 km towards Aswan, by 5pm. Checked into Medina Hotel, owned by Mr Taha, an elderly man with 3 wives, 13 kids and 31 years spent curing malaria in Saudi Arabia.

I had been talking to some people on the bus, one of whom had said he'd visit me at 7pm. I didn't fancy it at all because I strongly reckoned he'd be proselytizing, and I was in no mood for a useless discussion where he has all the linguistic tools and backup for expounding illogical theories. So I just wandered around till 8.30pm and played dominoes with Hussain, someone I met in a cafe.

Returned, had a joint and then the man, Mr Surag turned up. He said that he'd been waiting for a while and wanted me to give his daughter an English lesson. I was very stoned when he knocked and we went down to the cafe. We played dominoes and he showed me a photo of his daughter whom he wanted me to teach (and possibly marry!?). Lots of people offer me their sisters or daughters in marriage – half in jest of course, though I'm sure he'd have snapped me up for a son-in-law!

I was the observer of a wonderful and spontaneous court-room scene. It just developed, and in spite of all the shouting and gesticulating, it didn't come anywhere near to blows.

There were two youngish men (late 20s) – the 'accuser', who had lost 150LE, and the defendant, who was supposed to have taken it! Mr Surag seemed to be judge for a while and then others joined in giving evidence when called upon – 6 witnesses in total. Very interesting, for they wouldn't restrain themselves verbally, and let everything just pour out. This would then be subjected to vehement scrutiny and argument, which would occur and die out with intervals filled with tea-sipping and domino-slapping sounds. I don't know if they arrived at a decision in the end!

^{Edfu | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9}
Woke up at 9.30 this morning. Nice, small place Edfu. Lots of cruise boats stop here to discharge their goggle-eyed tourists for a few hours. I spent an hour or so in the fields. They have narrow-gauge trains ferrying sugarcane, a feature of Upper Egypt, very picturesque! I would have ridden one of the four I saw yesterday at sunset, but the track was across a canal without a bridge in sight so I had to content myself with exchanging pleasantries with the drivers and stokers as they went past.

The Temple of Horus is not as accessible as the others. The stairs to the roof are closed because the Egyptian government is paranoid about dizzy tourists falling off and damaging trade – a tourist had fallen off and died in Kom Ombo a few years ago. Real pity because for me, the view is the highlight. I got spectacular overviews of Karnak temple when I was there, but these came from surrounding ruins that I had to climb surreptitiously and sometimes be ordered down from, or which I had to bribe in order to go up onto.

^{source 1source 2}
If you would like to carry on reading click here for Part 4.

Other @barge diary travelogues:
The Levant - 1996
Eastern Europe - 1994