It's only a short flight to Aswan, but an exciting morning. We go to
the Cairo airport, where I am pulled aside and told to go with Mr. Moustafa,
because they think they have finally located my luggage. Note that all
this time I have been wearing the same pants. I have a change of underwear
and socks in my carry-on, so I have been wearing one and washing the other
in the sink. I have the shirt I wore on the plane, plus I bought a T-shirt
at the first hotel, which was embroidered with the hieroglyphics for "TAE".
It was evidently not picked up by someone who ordered it, but it was the
only shirt they had in my size. For the rest of the trip, whenever I wore
it, vendors would spot it and called me "Tae".
Moustafa and I jump in a cab and drive like maniacs (even for Egyptian
drivers) to the old airport a few miles away. There we run from terminal
to terminal and finally locate my bag, get it through customs, and take
another crazy cab back to the new airport. Moustafa shoves us through
the security checkpoints and the runs up the back side of the ticket counter
to get my bag through. His was the one singular act of great customer
service I witnessed the entire trip. The good news is my bag made it to
Aswan, even though we checked it so late and I had to do the O.J. run
through the airport to catch up with the group.
We start in Aswan with the bus to tour the dam. This "lotus flower"
monument was built to acknowledge the Soviet help.
Some of the electrical distribution center.
Looking downstream into the river that is between this dam and the old
dam four miles downstream.
Some basic diagrams of the structure.
Looking out on the Temple of Philae.
We stayed at the Basma Hotel.
After checking in and having dinner, we head back out for the Sound and
Light Show at the Temple of Philae.
The Sound and Light Show has lots of booming voices for the sound, and
the lights just move around a bit depending on who is talking. However,
it makes for some pretty dramatic lighting to view the temple at night.
The lights make the hieroglyphics come alive.
It had a really neat feeling to be there at night.
