Aswan’s West Bank

I joined Erich and Ulla today to explore Aswan’s west bank. Our planned activities required a private felucca journey in one direction so it made sense to do it together.

We started off in town and found a felucca for EGP50 to take us over to the west bank, getting off underneath the Aga Khan’s mausoleum. The tout reluctantly agreed to the price to find that the intended boatman didn’t want to do it, so the tout had to take us personally. So, we know we had a good price! There was a bit of discussion in a slightly raised voice saying “khamseen?” (fifty?)!

The felucca ride was beautiful passing by the Botanical Gardens. I’m not normally into gardens but this was would have been worthwhile for me if I had the time.

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Once on the other side, we walked up to the ruins of St Simeon’s monastery. We didn’t see any obvious entrance so climbed through a low opening in the ruins of the wall. There were a few archaeologists at work in there and when it came for us to leave, we asked if there was an entrance on the other side. They responded in the affirmative at which point we realised we had come in without paying, so retreated back to where we came in from!

Next was Qubbet al-Hawa, a local sheikh’s tomb high on top of a hill to the south. We paused for a snack-lunch of biscuits and sweets before the hike up a large dune. It was harder than I expected with very hot sand burning my feet as they flowed through my sandals.

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Once at that tomb, we descended to the Tomb of the Nobles (from around 2200BC). There was no official ticketing the way that we had come down, so we negotiated for a lower price to enter just one tomb, I believe of Sarenput II.

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We descended back to the bank of the Nile to take a public ferry across to the city where I was due for a well-deserved rest. Along the way, we were accosted by a felucca man and it opened up the possibility of doing a felucca cruise down the Nile to/towards Luxor; I had written off this possibility due to lack of other people in town wanting to do the same. I had resigned myself to doing it in a soulless cruise boat.

There was no rest for me then, as I had to research the best stops and have an idea of price so I could negotiate reasonably. That evening, I sealed the deal, sharing the boat with a Canadian guy whom I hadn’t met.

I had dinner with Erich and Ulla in a cheap local restaurant. The price seemed a little high until we saw the Arabic menu. We realised the prices there were different from what we had been told, so decided we’d read the menu slowly (both Ulla and I read Arabic somewhat) and order by pointing to it, to get the local price. Despite this, I find Aswan to be quite laid back and people generally not too pushy.