Noob-Land

Aswan and the Nubians.

Good food: I've indulged my predilection for seafood by scarfing down giant shrimp and clams and crab and fish for the past three days. Grilled, fried, stewed -- with saffron and black pepper and all sorts of other interesting flavors that boggles the tongue.

Interesting people: Like something out of an Arabian-esque drawing.  Ebony men sit grimly, smoking their shishah pipes and squinting under their white turbans, their long robes flowing to dusty pairs of sandals.  Women float along, like black phantasms, their only visible features are bright eyes shining through fabric opened by thin slits.

The escape of Landscape: This is one of my favorite reasons to travel, to be utterly enchanted and shocked and awed by the surrounding. The more I travel, the harder I find this to be the case... it takes a lot of strangeness to befuddle me, but Nubia (albeit a very touristy part of Egypt) did it. 

The earthen homes squatted together like bubblewrap popping off the desert.. the rounded domes reminds me of Luke's farm in Star Wars (they're round to reflect the intense sunlight).  Most are white-washed and from afar, they look beautiful, set against the green of palm trees.  Along the River Nile, feluccas puncture the water, their triangle sails drifted across the blue-purple water like white quills on indigo paper.  Stroll through the bazaar and stacks of spices compete for the eyes and nose – cinnammon, pepper, sage, saffron...

Of course, there were the achievements of the ancients: The immense ego of Ramses II is carved into Time at Abu Simbel. Down the Nile, Philae rests, a smattering of Roman and Egyptian fusion architecture.  The Egyptians never got around to finishing the nearby obelisk, but their descendants are justly proud of their modern achievement, a somewhat more practical dam that generates electricity for most of Egypt.

But what else?  Unfortunately, the thrill of the strangeness can't mask the fact that the country was still difficult for me.  I make a modification to my earlier rant against tour groups.  I am envious of the groups who are herded off their cruise ships and are whisked away to gleaming resorts without stepping into any real difficulties whatsoever.

The good food is overpriced and my stomach protests the hygiene.

The people are of interest, but only from afar.  Egypt only shows the touts, the louts, the indolent and the hustlers to travelers.  The energy and soul of the people are still lost to me.

The land? The bazaars are shit-stained, the heat calls for odors of differing levels to infiltrate the senses, and I've gotten used to walking over and through rubbish.  Cars give little warnings to pedestrians, the sidewalks are inexplicably high and narrow, and the combination of exhaust fumes, desert sand and smoke (from cigarettes and shishah pipes and burning trash) is challenging, to say the least.  The blue Nile is beautiful, but it's banks are lined with touts and street urchins who yell out "Hey you!" or "Japan! Konichiwa!" or "felucca ride? 6 pound, ok 2 pound!" every 5 meters.

I'm trying my hardest to keep the mind open, but my senses beg the gates to close.