Egypt summer 2011, ASWAN part 2

On Tuesday 7th of June we left to the Elephantine Island in the morning. We took a boat to the island and it didn't take that long. We entered the Island and saw nobody anywhere when suddenly this old man came to talk with us and told us he's going to show us around the island for a little money in return. We told him that we can get around by ourselves and we didn't like the man at all. Well, that wasn't okey for him so we had to let him show us the Island. The man was the chief of the village and one of the elderly of their people. The people who lived in there were Nubians. Not Egyptians, Nubians. They had their own spoken, not written, language. The Nubians have their own culture that is different from the egyptians. Nubians have their own dresses, dances, traditions and music for example.

We walked through the village and got to see a lot of their traditions and the way they lived. The chief showed us the school of the village etc. He took us to a house were this young Nubian woman made Henna tattoos for us (for a high price..!). But we were too embarrassed to start to haggle the price. I took a henna tattoo to my ankle with stars and my name written in arabic and Saija took some flower thingy in her arm. After the tour around the village the man started wanting money from us and he wasn't pleased at all to the money amount we gave him. We took a local ferry boat back and the payment was that you just left some money on the table whatever your conscience told you to leave.

Here's a video that I found from youtube. On the video you can see the chief that introduced us his village:
Nubian village

Like every other day it was really hot so we wanted to walked to the Isis-hotel to swim. Going to the same direction this Nubian boy called Mostafa started talking with us and I was really rude to him at first. (you'll never know what they'll want..) He was really patient with me and my angry answers to his questions. He walked with us more than 5 minutes and I started to like him when I noticed that he was just curious about us and he was being friendly. He offered to take us to this area mostly used by locals only and we could swim and relax there. It was his day off from work (he had his own boat and business) but he offered to get us there for a two hour trip and we would pay him something. We told him that we'll give him a call if we decide to accept his offer. 

At the pool we had so much fun when Saija noticed (while I was trying hard to sunbathe and get some colour since I was still white!) that there were three local men trying to paint the numbers how deep the pool is to the egdes of the swimming pool. Saija noticed that some of the numbers were incorret. It was supposed to say: 1,2 m but the number two was upside down, like a mirror image. I didn't beliave Saija so I got up to see. She was right and of course she wanted to correct it to the men that didn't speak english. Once we started to correct them, we did it throughly.. All the numbers were incorrectly marked down next to the pool and had already been painted. The deepest place in the swimming pool where I could barely stand with my head above the surface was marked as only 1,4 metres.. So they also had all the numbers wrong how deep it was at what place of the pool. Also when they meant to put 0.9m they put cm instead and didn't believe us when we told them that it is supposed to be metres. When they finally got their job done, after they had had to do it again several times after we had checked the numbers. We thought that since we were so nice and helped them out that they're gonna offer us something to drink, at least water. But no. Nothing. They just waved us bye and left. :D

We only had two hours of patience to stay put at the pool so we decided to call to Mostafa. The boat ride took around 20-30 minutes and the view was amazing! On the other side of the River Nile was the city and on the other side all you could see was sand. At some points the river was really rocky and Mostafa had to be careful not to drive too fast and he really had to know where all the rocks in the river were for not to hit them.

The place was called a Nubian Beach and it was really amazing! We were almost the only ones there and the sand was so soft and warm (hot). We had a great time hanging and sitting on the warm sun for couple of minutes at the time since after that we had to go to the water because it was too hot. Mostafa told us a story about this indian man called Ajakan who had visited Aswan many times. The man had some kind of rheumatism and in India he had been running from doctor to a doctor to get some help for his symptoms. Nothing helped. Not the medicine or anything. He had tried everything that he had heard of, even some herbal stuff and legends they knew in his town in India. Ajakan came to Aswan with his family for the first time and he heard from the local people about their old ways to treat people with his kind of symptoms. It was the magical sand on the Nubian beach. The sand was so soft and different from what I've ever come across anywhere. The sand was said to have this magical power because the sun kept it warm almost all the time. For example if you had knee problems you were supposed to sit on the sand and cover your legs to the warm sand. Ajakan thought that hey, why not to try it. The doctors in India had promised him less than 5 years to live. The sand did miracles for him. He could move and do everything better than before. Eventually he and his family moved to live in Aswan and the man lived much much longer than expected. Before his death the man dig a grave to him and his wife on the hills of the sand dunes. The graves they wanted to be buried into. The story felt like a was hearing this old urban myth or legend that were usually told around the bonfire from father to son.. :D

You can see the rocks to where we swam

Anyway, at the beach we had fun! At the shore we jumped of from the roof of Mostafas boat! We swam in the River Nile and we even swam to the nearest rocks even though to currents were really strong. And you needed to be a good swimmer the get there. Me and Mostafa jumped to the water from the rocks and it was about 3 metres to the water. First I couldn't even walk on the poiling rocks, when my feet got dry. Mostafa didn't even notice that the rocks were that hot and I couldn't walk there at all. After a while my feet got used to it at least a bit.  I was too scared to jump because I was afraid of the rocks benieth the surface. Mostafa knew the water like his own pockets and to places were the rocks were. He showed me exactly were I could jump and it was so cool! :D Swimming back to the shore was much much easier and we didn't even have to do anything because to current got us almost to the shore. :D

When we got back Saija and Mostafa's friend had disappeared from the boat and my bag was gone (I knew she had taken it). Then I saw one snow white hand moving behind the sand dune and we ran to see what happened. Saija and the other guy were riding on a camel!! :D Me and Mostafa also got a short and also a free camel ride. It was fun but also a bit scary because the camel was a bit stubborn and when he felt like it he just went down all of the sudden to rest.. After riding the camels we swam and hang in Mostafa's boat to get some cover from the sun and wait for the sun to go down. Our agreement for the two hour trip didn't go as planned 'cause we really fast became friends and had such a good time so it was like friends spending a day rather than that we had bought a business from him.

We waited the sun to start setting and then started to climb our way to the top of sand dunes! We had to wait because the sand would have been burning hot otherwise. The way up was sweaty, hard and long! It felt like walking without moving anywhere. The guys walked without shoes but me and Saija had flipflops on and they told us when we needed to use them when it was rocky. The rocks were sharp as knives! So we didn't want to get cut.

On our way up

Half way up and the view was quite something!

Finally we were at the top and we could see the whole Aswan! Our boat seemed so small when we saw it. We were at the top for almost an hour just admiring the view and enjoying the cool breeze from the wind.

Our boat

You can see the strong currents

Me and Saija holding the Sun :D

Then we decided to walk even higher to the other side of the sand dune to see where the sun was setting. We ran the hill up and it was a great excersise!! We were at the top. Couldn't get any higher.

Running up the hill

Coming down from the sand dunes was fast!! :D it only took a minute or so! :D The sand was so soft and still warm for the sun. While we headed back to the boat Mostafa's friend took of running to what seemed like a desert for us. Mostafa told us that they know the places and the sand like their own pockets. Their villages was just around some of the sand dunes so the friend left there to get us some sodas to drink.

Coming down

Back at the boat we finally left back to our hotel. First we picked up the guy from around the corner of the island. We were starving so Mostafa drove his boat in front of this restaurant where we ate. He kept us company. After eating we wanted to go to take showers with Saija and agreed to see him in a bit. After taking a shower we went to this bigger boat with a restaurant in it to drink beers. We were joined by Mostafas friends and we had a good time with them. :) Mostafa invited us to a Nubian wedding the next evening so we decided to stay one more night in Aswan. We would miss the first day of our hotel reservation in Hurghada but we didn't care and Mostafa kindly offered to call to the hotel to tell them that we're going to arrive one day later than expected. We were only a street across from our hotel so Saija left to sleep earlier and I stayed with the boys. We talked over two hours about everything like coverments, religions and the situation in Egypt. It was an interesting night with the boys. :) Mostafa walked me to my hotel at 3 am. And Saija, the magical girl with electronics, couldn't get our door open for a while, but finally I got in..

Shokran Mostafa for making our day so great and unforgettable!