Forbidden to cycle

Thanks to Kris Holiday, a Scotsman who has been living in Luxor for the past eleven years, we've lost a number of illusions about the Islamic Egyptians. He shocks us with stories about the sexual disposition and experiences of male Muslims. He tells us that - despite the fact that the Koran forbids homophily - almost every man has sex with other men, apart for some rare exceptions. This explains all those intense looks Peter gets from a lot of men. We have seen a lot of men caress, kiss and embrace each other on the street. What a society. Women are being circumcised and aren't allowed anything in the sex-area. Men seem to make the best of two worlds: men, women, sheep, donkeys and everything they can lay their hands on.
Kris introduces us to Mohamed S., a 72-year old who looks 55. He lives on the west bank, where the tombs are. His grandfather originated from Syria and was one of the most famous tomb-raiders ever. The profession goes from father to son, because his father and Mohamed himself are tomb-raiders as well. Mohamed shows us some of his most beautiful finds from the different tombs: statue of Anubis, scarabs, beads, fragments of clay-tablets with Coptic letters on them, stone heads and small sphinxes. Despite our growing greed at seeing all those beautiful things we decide not to buy anything. Our panniers are full.

Before leaving Luxor we meet Andree Fernee and Anny Bosma from Oudorp in the Netherlands. They travelling are on their own through Egypt for a month and visit the sights at their leisure. No guide that commands them back in the bus after ten minutes. They are so kind as to take some superfluous things and films of ours to the Netherlands. We are very grateful to them for that.

Since the attacks in Cairo and Luxor on tourists some five years ago, president Mubarak has deemed the road alongside the Nile, between Cairo to Aswan, as too dangerous for individual tourists. There are many heavily guarded and armed checkpoints and as cyclists we're forced to join a military convoy. In Luxor we do everything in our power to obtain permission to cycle the distance to Aswan on our own. The high-ranked soldier at the tourist-police-post assures us this will be no problem at all. According to him we're free to travel to Aswan anyway we like. It sounds quite undeserving of belief, but the man insists. The day before our departure we try to get him to put his promise on paper, but this is asking too much.
Saying goodbye to Eid is very hard for all of us. At the best bakery in Luxor we've bought a kilo of sweets for Eid and his staff. Eid manages to present us with about two kilos worth of gifts: stone obelisks with our names engraved, stone necklaces, bracelets and tiny statues. It's incredibly sweet, but what are we going to do with it?

Just before seven a.m. we report ourselves at the convoy, on our departing day, to say that we're going to cycle to Aswan. The responsible soldier doesn't agree at all: cycling alongside the Nile is prohibited. Eleven o'clock we can join a convoy, there's no talking about it. Bicycles and bags are transported in a police-truck, we have to arrange a lift for ourselves in a tourist-bus. We land in a bus full off Dutch tourists who are ´doing´ Egypt in a week. These peoples way of visiting the country is so enormously different from the way we do it. We're absolutely not jealous of them, and they not of us. Their guide tells a lot of things about his country, but leaves a lot of things unsaid that are seen from the bus.
Unfortunately we have to decide not to visit the temples of Hours and Kom Ombo, because were forced to go by bus now.

Aswan is somewhat less atmospheric than Luxor, the temperature is about ten degrees higher and it is even more touristic. From here we organise our last visit with a cultural touch: to the temples of Abu Simbel, about 300 kilometres to the south. We don't like the thought of spending a whole day with a lot of western tourists, that's why we decide to go to Abu Simbel by public transport. This sounds easier than it is, especially since two busses in a row do not show up. With the third bus-company we finally arrive at our destination, in the afternoon. A great advantage is that we are the only visitors at this moment of the day.

bbbbb

By building the Nasser-dam in the sixties of the last century a lot of temples and other antiquities threatened to be flooded by the rising water of Lake Nasser. It's very impressive to see how they moved the entire hill, temples and all, a few hundred metres higher up. A photo-exhibition shows how the whole operation and reconstruction was carried out. At least as impressive are the temples themselves, that consist of halls, passages and tombs, filled with relief and paintings. The small temple is dedicated to Hathor, the goddess of love and happiness, and Nefertari, Ramses II's wife. The big temple is dedicated to Ramses II himself. Gigantic statues on both sides of the entrance show his then greatness. Egypt stole our heart forever.

When we walk back through the souq the next evening, on our way to our hotel, we pass a herb-merchant who invites us for tea and a chat. He turns out to be the local medicine-man, that relieves people from their pain. One after the other comes to him with their complaints. Voluntarily we undergo his treatment as well. While muttering prayers to Allah he pulls pains out of back, neck, shoulders and head. The finale consists of an earwashing and an enormous pull of the ears. We're surprised that they're still attached to our heads. Finally he cracks our neck-vertebra with a pull of our heads. Painful, but strangely enough we both feel reborn after this treatment. Out of gratitude we buy a tin of massage-cream. We have another cup of teas and while good wishes are bestowed upon us we leave his hop, a little dazzled.

The stretch from Aswan to Sudan can't be travelled individually either. The is no borderpost over land, travellers have to take the boat over Lake Nasser. A first class ticket costs about 195 Egyptian pounds, that is 32 euro. We choose the most expensive option, because then we have a cabin for two persons with beds, and probably a good nights sleep. Second class means sleeping on a wooden bench or the deck. For our bicycles we have to pay nine euro in total.
The boat turns out to be an old passenger-ship with a flat-bottomed vessel tied to it. Both are being loaded to the brim, by hand. Our bicycles we can put on the hind-deck via a treat-needle route, through tiny doors, over huge bags and boxes. As soon as the bicycles are tied to the ship and we have found our cabin, we return to the quay to watch the crawling ant-nest. Immediately we are invited for tea: we're sitting on the ground, in the shade of a huge stack of boxes, together with a bunch of men, watching the sweaty ball of drudging men. What do those men carry on their bare backs? Large bags of rice, boxes with apples, refrigerators, two jeep, bales of cloth and an enormous amount of big sacks with unknown contents. In short: everything you can buy in Egypt, you find here on this boat. Don't they have anything in Sudan?

One day later the veeeery slow boat has arrived in Sudan. In retrospect we were very lucky. One week later we meet a Polish girl in Khartoum, who took the same boat a few days before we did. Her journey lasted three days, because the boats were overloaded and ran aground. Merchandise and passenger's luggage were thrown overboard to pull the boat free. Have we been lucky or what!