A couple of years ago I won a 7 night stay at a luxury hotel owned by Karma, a hotel chain that offers memberships granting you access to their properties all over the world for a couple of weeks a year in exchange for a fairly hefty annual subscription fee. Our free stay required us to attend a presentation to convince us to join the club, but otherwise was an entirely free stay at a beautiful manor house in Tuscany. Somehow this previous booking ended up in Creed’s name (despite being my prize), but this meant that when I entered a lottery on Facebook to win a promotional hotel stay (not even realising that the properties were Karma again), I was not flagged in the system as having previously received the promo deal, and so I was eligible again. This time it was shorter and cheaper breaks offered, and we almost opted for a lakeside retreat in Scotland last summer, but it didn’t quite fit in with our plans then. Knowing that one of the promotional options was a river cruise in Egypt, I got back in touch last month to see if the offer was still valid. It was, and so we found ourselves on a 7 night luxury cruise along the Nile with all food included for £50 each.
We took an overnight bus from Cairo to Luxor where the cruise departed from, and arrived with enough time to see some of the city before heading to the boat. We stored our bags at a nearby hotel and walked to Karnak temple, the largest ancient Egyptian temple in the country. We spent a couple of hours exploring every inch of the area. It was absolutely packed, as we’d managed to time our trip to exactly coincide with every single tour group that has ever existed, but the crowds generally stuck to the main areas, so the side passageways and further out ruins were much more peaceful. Our exit route took us down the avenue of the sphynxes, which connects with Luxor temple, the other big ruin in town. But it was hot, and we had more time in Luxor later, so we decided to save this visit for another time. So we hopped in a taxi, collected our bags, topped up on water, cash and mobile data, and headed to the river.
The boat was not quite the luxury standard that Karma strives for elsewhere in the world. It was still very enjoyable, with shaded sofas and a pool on the top deck, and a big window in the cabin. But it was a little old, and the AC didn’t work great (quite a big deal when it’s 45 degrees outside), and the food was fried chicken and chips most nights. The Karma representative admitted this is their worst property, which at least made it very easy for us to say ‘no thank you’ at the obligatory ‘why you should join Karma’ presentation. The cruise from Luxor to Aswan normally takes 2 days, and generally tourists just do it one way, paying about the same price as we were for our roundtrip journey spread over 7 days. So it wasn’t a huge win financially, but a free 5 days and a more leisurely itinerary was still appreciated.
The first stop was Edfu, where we had a couple of hours to explore the temple in the morning. We declined the cruise excursions and walked there and around by ourselves. It was much less crowded here, and had some cool passageways and side rooms filled with bats, as well as some much better preserved artwork and hieroglyphics carved into the walls. Then we sailed on to Aswan where we spent 2 full days.
The first day we headed to Philae Temple on an island in the middle of the Nile – it was moved here after the Aswan dam changed the path of the river and flooded the original site. All of the temples have a very similar structure, with a huge front wall with large figures carved into the facade. The stone slabs are so huge it just looks like concrete rather than stacked bricks, and still looks as if it was just built, despite being thousands of years old. It’s hard to comprehend the age of the temples, and how on Earth such huge impressive walls and carvings were created without machinery, and some parts feel almost like a movie set or recreation.
After a cool down back on the boat for lunch, we headed to a Nubian village. I had seen pictures of this on Instagram, but all blogs and tours recommending a visit online just mention ‘the Nubian village’ without giving a location. The problem is, looking on Google maps, there are a few Nubian villages. And because people don’t really know where they were taken on their tours, they’ve tagged their photos of the Nubian village I wanted to visit to the wrong locations on Google. So, we went to the wrong Nubian village. We took a short walk up the river and happened to catch a local ferry exactly as it left, crossing the river for around 20 cents each. We then walked in the blazing heat up the other side of the river towards and then through the local village. There were some colourfully painted buildings, but nothing quite like the pictures I’d seen, and there was absolutely noone around. It was becoming increasingly obvious that we were in the wrong place, and with very little shade it was not a pleasant walk. After trying to check the map and figure out where we were going on phones that kept warning of overheating, and finishing off our incredible hot water, we have up and headed back to the ferry.
On Monday I headed to Abu Simbel, the highlight of the trip for me. 300km south of Aswan, it’s a big day to travel out and back to see just two smallish temples, but it is so worth it. Creed had been before, so it wasn’t appealing to him to go again, so I booked myself on a solo trip. The temples here are carved into the rock, with enormous statues of Rameses II guarding the entrance and more large statues forming the columns inside. The carvings here were the most impressive of any I saw in Egypt, and the least damaged from subsequent civilisations. The bus left at 4am and took around 4 hours each way. Getting just the transport and not a full tour, I was able to skip past all of the groups waiting at the entrance, and have the temples almost to myself for the first half hour. It was truly an awe inspiring place, which was Rameses’ aim when he built it in 1264BC.
I was supposed to get back to Aswan at around 1pm, but of course it was closer to 2.30. After a late lunch and an hour off to hide from the heat, I headed back out to go to the correct Nubian village, this time with Creed who had forgiven me for taking us to the wrong place the day before. This time we negotiated a private motor boat to take us, and it was a pleasant ride down the Nile with a bit of a breeze. The village here was much more colourful, with many market stalls and locals shouting hello from their porches, and a couple of puppies who were very happy to get some attention. There was also a lot more shade, so wandering around for an hour or so was much more enjoyable than the previous afternoon. After another pleasant boat ride back to the cruise it was time for a dip in the pool, a drink on deck, and an early night after a successful day.
The next morning we left Aswan early and were in Kom Ombo before we’d left our cabin for breakfast. The temple here is in honour of Sethi the crocodile god, and while the temple itself was very similar to the many others we’d seen at this point, a highlight was the attached crocodile museum, with displays of mummified crocodiles of all sizes. The rest of the day was spent sailing the Nile for the last time, all the way back to Luxor.
We still had a full day back in Luxor and another night on the cruise before having to check out, so for this day we organised a taxi to take us around the West Bank. After some aggressive haggling we found a drive to take us to the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Medinet Habu, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, the Colossi of Memnon, the Ramesseum, Deir el-Medina, the Tombs of the Nobles, and the Colossi of Amenhotep III. It was a lot, and it was very hot, but we had a few stops where there were almost no people, which was fantastic, and we managed to see a lot more than many do in this area.
The next morning we checked out of the boat and heading back into town for our final temple visit, Luxor Temple. This one has some amazing statues, and is fairly unique in that a section of it was converted into a Christian church, and then a mosque was built on top of that, so it has continuously been a place of worship since it was built over 3400 years ago. And then we hopped on a bus back to Cairo.
