A Cruise on Lake Nasser, Egypt. Day Two

A Day in the Souk

We spent most of the second day of our excursion in Aswan, at the delightful downtown market. Before exploring Aswan we began with the buffet breakfast in the dining room of the Basma Hotel.

  

 

After breakfast we walked through the hotel courtyard checking out the view of the local neighborhood and the crisp view across the Nile where we could see the Movenpick Hotel on its island location and the poster-like view of the Aga Khan Mausoleum in the distance above it.

  

  

 

There was quite a collection of river cruise boats docked nearby.

 

We noticed this rather stern looking lady gracing the center of the courtyard near the pool. The writing on the base of the statue said "Moukhtar" and "The Urn Carrier".  Mahmoud Mokhtar was a significant, if sometimes underappreciated artist in the modern Egyptian sculpture world. There is indeed an urn but it's on the other side of the statue. You can either photograph the face or the urn; we chose the face.

Apparently we have passed by Moukhtar's most prominent public work many times, "the statue of Saad Zaghloul, standing at the end of Qasr El- Nil Bridge in Cairo, hand raised atop his lotus columned pedestal" - next time, I'll be taking a photo.

Our initial plan for the day was to take a walk down the hill into town, strolling along the Nile Corniche and head to the local market we have visited in the past.

As we left the hotel entrance several taxi drivers stood eagerly awaiting the chance to take us to any local destination.  But I also noticed a couple of signs that might be worth photographing.  It turns out that there was a sculpture workshop taking place at the Basma.  I totally missed the sculptors hard at work in the background but fortunately, Linda took note.

  

 

We  were persuaded by a taxi driver to take one of the available taxis instead of walking the mile or so to the market and saved our walking for the market. Besides we're always happy to support the people of Aswan and pay a couple dollars for a taxi.

 

We planned on shopping for dates, peanuts and karkaday (Egyptian hibiscus tea) for a friend.  Thinking about the volume of items, we decided to keep our eyes open for a small suitcase to carry our purchases.  We hadn't gotten very far into the market area before spotting a suitable small roller bag.  The price?  Only 4000 Egyptian (about $80. Are you kidding me?)  I countered at 1000.  As I left the shop, we settled at 1200 ($24) A good price?  Hard to say;  we'll see how it holds up over time.

A couple of blocks into the market street, we encountered a "freelance" spice merchant.  He led us around the corner to "his" shop where we climbed the stairs to the second floor which was well stocked with both spices and sales people.

  

Our sales consultant, Hiyam, explained the benefits of many herbal teas, incense and spices.  In the end, we chose to purchase some "memory tea" along with some sandalwood incense.  All parties were pleased.

Returning to the main street of the market, of course, we stopped at another spice display and a jewelry shop.

This spice merchant offered us Dom, instead of the usual tea and we gladly tried out the sweet juice. Dom juice has a slight gingerbread taste.

  

This vendor put together a blend of herbs and spices to make genuine "Nubian tea".  We purchased a good-sized package.

We had reached this spice shop with the help of a friendly young man who just happened to have a family in the spice and tea business.  As luck would have it, he also has an uncle with a jewelry shop and his cousin, working in the shop, would be happy to show us a variety of silver items.  Of course, we followed him to the shop - after all, he had my newly purchased suitcase in hand and was already headed north.

Linda is the jewelry aficionado and enjoyed the display.  It was an impressive collection. There were piles of shiny, newly minted bracelets and rings that didn't have much appeal to Linda but after s few minutes the vendor brought out the vintage pieces. Now he's talking Linda's language. He only brings out these items for "the special kind of people".
 

  

 

 

There were a couple of vintage pieces that attracted particular attention. Pretty, but in the end, these were not among the purchased items.

  

 

We reached a possible decision point.  What would our total cost be for the selected items.  Cousin Ali entered a number into the calculator for our consideration.  Linda looked on in anticipation as Che Guevara stood by behind Ali. (note the photo on the shelf) Che Guevara is, in fact, the name of the shop.

 

 Linda reacted with awesome surprise.  More negotiation would ensue.

 

In the end, there was mutual agreement on the list of items and a total price. Ali was a quiet, no pressure gentleman and we can recommend this shop to anyone looking for silver jewelry in Aswan. Remember the name of the shop - Che Guevara.

We worked our way through the remainder of the souk, pausing at a few more colorful shops.

  

 

We wandered off the main path a couple of times to visit the local food vendors.  Here, we stopped to watch a baker turning out thin sheets of desert "sun bread."

By late afternoon we had returned to the Nile Cornish across from the Movenpick and began looking for a ride to take us to our favorite Nubian restaurant. There is a free ferry to this restaurant but it is further south than where we were starting out. The Nubian restaurant, El Dokka, is on an island across from the Old Cataract Hotel. Tired out from our day in the market, we hired a felucca to sail the short distance upstream.  

 

  

 

We enjoyed the ride, watching so many types of sail and power boats glide up and down the river as we passed the famed Old Cataract hotel. Was that Agatha Christie's ghost sitting at the typewriter that I saw in a window?

 

We departed our felucca and climbed the stairs to el Dokka.  We were fortunate to find a seat before a large group of tourists arrived claiming almost all seats in this popular spot. 

    

  

After an enjoyable dinner of a tagine of okra with meat and mixed girl (not my typo. It was listed thus on the menu), we returned from the island and took a tuk-tuk ($2.00fare) up the hill past Archangel Michael's Coptic Cathedral to the Basma where we enjoyed an Um Ali dessert and a coffee in the lobby before retiring to our room.
    

We prepared for a very early departure for the airport the next morning to catch our flight to Abu Simbel where we would begin the four day cruise back down Lake Nasser to Aswan.

Many more photos at this Flickr album, of course!