M-whY

I ignored the 7:00am wakeup call and the 'snooze' call fifteen minutes later. In my condition, breakfast was definately a no go. An hour later, someone knocked on my door.

"Hey, we're supposed to be leaving in a few minutes," said Aaron.

"Oh, we're at Edfu already?" Two Egyptian temples were on slate today, the first being the Temple of Horus at Edfu. We were given boarding passes as we got off and told what time the ship would be sailing again.

On shore, other people were climbing into these fancy horse drawn carriages, and we were about to do the same when Aaron smartly decided to check if it was going to cost us anything. "60 pounds," came the answer. Was everyone paying that much? It didn't seem like it. Many were accompanied by guides, and whatever tour company they were with had arranged everything for them. "Where's our guide," we wondered. Maybe our cheap backpacker package didn't come with one?

So we had to reach the Temple of Horus ourselves. Had we known how far, and in which direction, to go, I would've been fine walking. But we didn't, and so our hands were kind of tied. Horse carriage seemed like the only way to go. E£60 was way too much though. Back in Luxor, we once caught one for E£1 per person. The haggling began. We insisted on paying no more than E£30, round trip, and they countered with E£45. "It's a good price," they kept saying, but I've heard that line so many times that I now interpret it as "That's how much we like to charge you foreigners." We came to an impasse in negotiations, and unable to come to an agreement, we walked away, pretending to look for another driver.

"Okay, okay, okay! 30 pounds!" they called out after us. It still felt ridiculously expensive, but like I said, we really weren't in a great position to bargain.

Dedicated to the falcon god, the Temple of Horus was built about 2000 years ago by the Ptolemy line of pharaohs. I made it past the first pylon, then sat down in the Great Court, abdomen pains putting a damper on my enthusiasm. Chanda had come down with whatever I had too. The two of us spent most of the time under the pillars, while Aaron went off in his everlasting hunt for 'good pictures'. I'll bet he got a few; The Temple of Horus is regarded as the best preserved of any Egyptian temple. Its location is, according to Egyptian mythology, where the legendary clash between Horus and his evil uncle Seth took place.

I was waging just as epic a battle in my digestive tracts, and was relieved when I got back to my room. I wrestled off the crocodile on my bed, curled up, and went back to sleep - I couldn't feel the discomfort if I wasn't awake. I showed up at lunch, mostly out of curiousity to see what was being served, and, for obvious reasons, didn't eat very much. The couple bites I did have didn't stay in me very long.

Admittedly, confining myself to my room defeats the whole purpose of taking a cruise. The view from my window wasn't all that bad though, and I felt more at ease knowing the bathroom was only a few steps away. I was thinking about staying on board during our stopover at Kom Ombo, and had we had to negotiate and pay for another horse carriage ride, I most certainly would have. Fortunately, these temple ruins were right at river's edge. Right before leaving the boat, we were approached by someone from the ship.

"Are you rooms 215 and 217?" he asked. "I'm your guide for Kom Ombo."

Oh really? Then where were you at the last stop? Aaron and I didn't believe him. He was already leading another couple around, and we suspected he was just trying to have us along so that he might earn some extra tips. I wasn't especially interested in listening to him anyways. Using guidebooks handed down to me from Tess (the English woman I met two days ago), I showed myself around, finding a shrine with two mummified crocodiles in addition to reliefs of falcon-headed Horus and croc-headed Sobek.

At dinner, having not eaten all day, was ready to give food another try. I felt fine during the meal, but a couple hours later, not so fine. The curse of the pharaohs live on, and all I can do is wait for it to pass. In the meantime, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go use the toilet.

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!