Aswan, Ismail and the randomness of rolling blackouts

Aswan didn’t start off in a way that boded well after the visits to the phenomenal temples at Edfu and Kom Ombo.

I lost my hat (which I’ve only had for eight days), the electricity (and thus water I needed) went out just before I jumped in the shower in the hotel as the temperature in my sun facing room started to climb. Coming back from a lovely lunch across the street where I met some very nice fellow travellers (E, A and F), I came back to run off some blog posts, mail and the like, but the internet wat out back at the hotel (though the electric was back on). And finally, the quiet victory sunset drink on the veranda of the Old Cataract Hotel with its view over the Nile was rudely shattered by the fact that it’s been closed for the last 2 years (damn you Lonely Planet and your slow to update editions !).

Undaunted (it’s me after all), I decided the next best thing was to go next door and try the Farial gardens, grab a lemonade and watch the sun go down on the Nile and dunes from the best shady hilltop I could find. There I managed to run into my friends from lunch who had much the same idea and we drank lemonade and chatted until approached by Ismail.

Ismail is a retired diver who worked the Red Sea. A wonderful older man, he chatted with us for hours, invited us back to his house for tea (which ended up being by candlelight as the entire city is having rolling blackouts – I’m assuming due to the electrical demands on AC and fans in this heat) and soundly thrashed us all at backgammon before teaching us a bit of yoga and sending us on our way.

By the time we left it was getting very late and we were lucky to get fed at Aswan moon considering they were closing. But I have to say, it was incredible how the day turned out overall and probably the nicest one I’ve had in Egypt since getting here.