The World's Common Tater

I’m going out of order for this one. Aswan was our last destination in Egypt. It was also our shortest so I thought it would be good for an afternoon post. I will split the Luxor part of the trip into two parts and publish them tomorrow and Saturday.

We arrived in Aswan via private car from Luxor. We needed to be dropped at the ferry so we could take it to Elephantine Island where we were staying. The ferry and private boats were the only way to access the island. I thought it was funny that the landmark we were looking for to find the ferry was the KFC. The stairs to the ferry were next to KFC and KFC was easier to see than the ferry sign.

I was happy the El Amin Guiest House, where we stayed, was right next to the ferry dock as there are no paved roads on the island, and carrying suitcases further inland would be difficult.

We had a nice Nile view from our room.

We had dinner at the restaurant next door called Jamaica King and returned there the next morning for a traditional Nubian breakfast We were the only people there for breakfast so the owner talked to us quite a bit about his life and the island.

The next day we walked around the island to see the traditional Nubian village.

We didn’t make it to the Cataract Hotel, featured in Death on the Nile, but I did get my picture with it in the background.

We went to a botanical garden on another island. I took no pictures there. In the afternoon we took the ferry to the mainland to eat lunch and go to the market. I hate the marker and hated it even more in the over 100-degree heat.

After the market, we packed and headed to the airport to return home. The guy from the guest house took the ferry with us so he could help us with our bags from the ferry to the taxi and refused to take a tip for this. The people of the island were very friendly. It was a nice, calm end to the trip.