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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.