On the 5th of June we woke up pretty early and ate breakfast at the roof of the hostel enjoying the sunshine. Then we left to the train station to buy tickets for the next days train to Aswan. We were pretty lost at the train station but figured it out where to buy the tickets. It cost us 40 pounds together. We had decided that why not to go and see the city of Aswan too because we had almost already seen Luxor and we had spare days before our hotel reservation started in Hurghada! No idea about the city or where we were going to stay at but that's what we decided to do. After buying the train tickets we were supposed to find a bank to get money from because we didn't have much left. We ended up walking across Luxor from bank to bank. We went to three different banks and each one of them sent us to the next bank. None accepted our Visa Electron cards.. The last bank sent us to here..
Saija who hates machines wouldn't even think about putting her card there, neither did I. So we had to manage with the money we had left and try to find a bank in Aswan. Back at the hostel we packed our backs and headed towards the River Nile to cross it over to the West side where we were going to spend one night. Marc followed us all the way to the boat and said bye to us. Finally we got rid of him. The boat owner was a nice young man (first my opinion of him wasn't that good.. I thought he only wanted us to pay to him) who proved to be quite a gentleman. He took us straight in front of our camp where we were hoping to stay at. We wandered a while before we had the courage to walk in. We were basically in the middle of a countryside with donkeys and camels walking on the small sand roads. We could see the near by fields being covered with floodwater.
We walked into the Al Salam Camp which was run by this egyptian family. We shyly asked the man if they got free beds and he seemed really shocked and surprised that we hadn't booked it in advance and asked us how we found the place. (The place is not easily found if you haven't looked for it from the internet). They had plenty of room for us. The camp was surrounded by fence and there were maybe six huts which each were for two people. There were common showers and toilets in the camp. Between the huts there was this almost like a living room outdoors with tables, chairs and couches to sit and hang around.
While we waited for the man the fix our room, the boat owner Ahmed came to sit with us and we agreed going to a felucca ride with him and his boat in the evening to the Banana island at sunset time. We also agreed on going to A HOT AIR BALLOON ride at the next day at SUNRISE! He organized it for us by calling to the Sindbad hot air balloon company. We were so excited. In the camp it almost felt like being in a paradise, the place seemed to be so far away from everything and it was only across the River Nile from the city. If you really want to enjoy a real experience in Luxor, definitely stay there!
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| Our hut |
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| Saija: Go closer.. closer! Ira: I can't it'll kick me.. |
When we were walking back to our camp these two local boys came past us with motorbikes and asked us if we needed a ride to some place. We kept on walking even though they tried to offer us a ride. Finally Saija looked at me in the way I immediately recognized, Saija wanted to have a little adventure. So, we agreed on to go with them to have a ride around and to see an area with local people and where they lived in. The boy I rode with was really really shy small town boy studying hieroglyphs at the University. He was so shy I almost felt sorry for him, but he was the most friendly boy! I knew we were fine with him and he would never try anything with us. The motorbike ride took a bit more than we expected, almost 15-20 minutes until we were in this small village with cute houses. On the way we really got to see stuff we hadn't seen in the cities. I spotted that the houses were often been built next to these small canals and over them were handmade bridges so you could cross the canal. The house we got in was really new and modern nothing like the hut we stayed at. At first I was a bit nervous when we got inside the house and the boys offered us some local juices to drink. The boy I rode with taught me how to draw hieroglyphs and how to write my name with them. That was really interesting and I could really see that the boy loved what he studied. His eyes shimmered when he explained and draw them to me. They played us some egyptian music and wanted to dance with us.. :D But we really weren't that into it.. The boys took us back to our hostel and Saija got the adventure she had wanted. Nice but a little scary experience at beginning anyway. Now I have to say that we really thought it through before leaving with the guys! We are quite good with reading people and to know who to trust and who not to.
Back at the camp the owner asked us if we wanted to go swimming in the River Nile and of course we wanted to! He sent some of his friend or someone to come with us. We rode this small rowboat to a tiny island only maybe 100-200 metres from the camp and the man with us took us there. On the next island there were children playing and one boy rode a donkey which walked in the water to the island. A bit different games than we have in Finland. Anyway at this island there was this small hut were we left our things and went to swim. The man who was with us was a bit irritating and also funny. He said ALL THE TIME: you know and it sounded like he was saying ju no. The view and experience was really something and it was really cooling to get into the water because it must havee been easily over 40 degrees. On our way back we had to row the boat back to the shore.
Back at the hostel the mother of the family made us dinner which was the first time in Egypt we actually didn't like it that much. We had a dinner company from german boys who had their holiday from Israeli where they were working as a peacekeepers or someting like that. I was a bit weird since they were younger than us and already doing that kind of stuff in Israeli.
"PARTY"
At 9 pm we waited outside our camp and it was pitch dark and we couldn't see anything. While we waited we tried not to get eaten by hundreds of mosquitos.. Then this car came to pick us up but Ahmed wasn't there so we waited until he came before we got in. We drove about 15 minutes and stopped at some local village with no taxis, no tourists or anything at all that would give us a peace of mind that we were safe and could get back to our camp somehow. There were children playing on the streets, older people smoking shisha and sitting on their chairs. There were only couple of lamps that gave some light to the street. We changed to a "normal" car and me, Saija and Ahmed shared the backseat and Ahmed's cousin was on the front seat. He looked so weird, scary and looked like he was from some action movie and he was the bad guy.
Pretty soon it turned out the it wasn't just some party we were going, it was a wedding! We were a bit stunned and asked if we were dressed correctly and asking what about if we should have had a present or something to bring. Well, it wasn't anything like that! The whole village was happy to meet the new couple and it's about their happiness, not about gifts or what you're wearing. The WHOLE village was there, it was a celebration of the whole community. First our driver took us some place near the beauty salon where the bride was getting her makeup and hair done. People sat there and drank tea and had a good time. We also tried to do that but we were a bit nervous, Saija was totally freaking out and tried her best not to show it but I could tell she was freaking out. Ahmed's cousin didn't make us feel any better with his behaviour and the way he was, just gross. We were told that the beuty salon was owned by this english girl named Sara. Suddenly the couple came out from the salon and people went absolutely crazy! It was like something had happened and people were running around like maniacs. Before we hopped into our car and left to drive behind the wedding couple we changed a few words with Sara and she seemed really nice and for a moment we were happy that we knew someone who we could automatically trust.
The wedding couples car was this black car and it was decorated with bright different coloured lights all over the car. There were over ten cars driving behind the bride and the groom. These cars were full of people! And I really mean full! There could be over eight people in a normal car. The minibuses or the local cars were also full of people! We drove to the waterside were the first wedding pictures were taken. The bride looked beuatiful and also really young, I think they told us that she was 18 or so. The pictures must have been good 'cause the moonlight and the wedding couple looked amazing. There were also pictures taken of them when they were holding someones baby. Maybe that was also some kind of ritual or tradition. After the pictures were taken along the River Nile all the cars drove to the sightseeing place called Colossi of Memnon were they took more pictures. All the locals stayed near their cars about 50 metres away from the couple but Ahmed took us near the couple so we could take pictures of them. We ended up on their wedding video.. At the same time we saw another sight which we hadn't seen yet. Before we got to the actual wedding party it took us over two hours waiting for the couple and when the pictures were taken.
On our way to the wedding place all the cars were driving on this narrow road, speeding and driving like crazy. At that point we were driving behing this minibus so we couldn't see what happened in front of it. Suddenly I saw how the bus in front of us braked and I saw how our driver started to brake but immediately my first thought was that we are going to crash! Thank god the driver got the speed down even a bit before we crashed to the other car's back. I was sitting in the middle of the backseat without a seatbelt! I saw before we crashed so I could hold myself almost still but I still hit my legs to the seats in front of me. Saija hit her cheek and head to the drivers seat. Nothing worse happened and the people were immediatelly asking us if we were fine. We were fine, just shocked. The car got the worst damages. The driver almost couldn't get out because the door didn't open up that much.
The wedding place was located in the village outdoors along some small canal. It was on some alley with open space and the wedding couple went to sit down on this small stage in front of the space. There were only couple of benches and the rest of the people stand. We first waited something to happen but nothing did. There was egyptian or arabic music and first the children started to dance and then some adults also. The couple just sat on the stage and watched everyone. We were sitting on the bench (I was sure it was going to break down and we were going to roll down the small hill to the canal). In front of us there were about 15 children staring at us. Ahmed told us that we were the first white and blond females some of them had ever seen and that there weren't any tourists visiting their village so they were curious to stare at us. The children were really cute and they could dance! It was amazing to follow them move and dance. They really had the rhytm in their blood. Other people also shyly stared at us. We had been there about an hour when Sara appeared from some where. Sara was a 29-year old english woman who had just moved to the village with her egyptian fience. The had been engaged for four years and now she had opened her own beauty salon. She told us that the children would stare at us all night if we stayed there and she suggested that we leave to an other wedding to the next village near by.
Egyptian weddings usually take several days. There are the actual wedding day, ceremonies, prewedding things, after wedding things. Usually they take three to even four days (that's what we were told). The bride wore an ordinary white bridal dress and the groom wore a black suit. Wikipedia says this: "The ceremony starts with a car parade. The wedding car (as prestigious as possible) will be decorated with flowers and ribbons. Cars of both families move together in a noisy parade of continuous sounding of car horns to a wedding hall most often in a hotel (not in the wedding we were). The honking is to announce that there is a wedding taking place.When the bride and groom finally reach to their destination in the hall (outdoors) they sit in the “Kosha”. The Kosha usually consists of two comfortable seats in front of the guests where the bride and groom reign as though king and queen." That's the part of the wedding we got to see! :)
We left to the next wedding with two motorbikes with three persons on each. The next wedding was much different. The wedding couple wasn't there (at first) it was just a party or celebration for them. It was held on this big open area outdoors and it reminded me of like a carnival or something like a funfair with all the bright colorful lights. There was this old fashioned horse carriage in front of everyone with four men on it playing music and one of them sang. Men were sitting on the ground on carpets and all the women and children sat on the other side on chairs. There was three men from different age groups dancing some same ritual dance at the open area in front of everyone. Some of the men there were drinking beer and some smoke pot (Ahmed's cousin for example.). Sara's fiance paid to some small boy to go and buy us cokes from somewhere. After a while the boy kindly came back with our drinks. We really wanted to leave with Saija 'cause it was already at 1 am and we had to wake up before 4 am. Before we left we saw a glimpse of the wedding couple when they got there to enjoy the night. We got a motorbike rides back to our camp after 1 am.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures or videos from the weddings, 'cause Saija accidentally deleted them. :/ Afterwards we thought that maybe it was a sign that only we were supposed to see and experience the local weddings and their traditions.
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| It was quite a day to remember! |
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