Aswan Day 2

Initially, I planned a tour to Abu Simbel departing at 8:00am. It would have taken 3 hours from Aswan so I would have been there around 11:00am. However, the previous tour guide told me that this would be too late and it'd be so hot by then. I took his recommendation and changed the departure time to 4:00am. I arrived at 7:00am, which is a little after sunrise. It's already hot...... it could have been much worse if I didn't listen to his advice.

I usually feel bad drinking water in front of Muslim guides because they still have to walk with the guests under the brutal heat, yet they can't drink water during the daytime. But today's guide and driver were Christian so they can eat and drink during Ramadan.


I came back to Aswan in early afternoon and rested in the B&B until sunset. I went to the kebab restaurant, called El Masry, which is recommended by today's guide. The meal was accompanied by the regular side dishes.

Tahini based tangy dipping sauce

Baba ganoush

Tomato & Cucumber salad

Egyptian flat bread (Aish Baladi) - almost identical to pita

Stewed okra - This is something new. Okra is a popular ingredient for Nubians so this may be the Nubian influence.

I thought this is another complimentary stewed potato. But it's more like a soup.



This is beef kebab and kofta. The beef kebab was well marinated and very flavorful. Kofta is usually described as a meat ball. In some cultures (such as Morocco), it's prepared like a meatball. But the seasoned ground meat is usually wrapped around the skewers and grilled. So, I'm not sure if "meat ball" is the right description...

I found many dishes that I've had so far had are a bit salty. The more local the restaurants are, the saltier the dishes become. The hotel breakfast wasn't salty at all. In this kind of heat, additional salt makes sense as a preservative.

Stuffed pigeon (Hamam Mahshi) is another unique Egyptian dish. In fact, this is squab, which is young domestic pigeon, which is normally less than 4 weeks old. So there are not much meat to eat...

The picture below is a bit too graphic, though. The skin was nice and crispy. But unfortunately, the stuffed grain inside the squab was pretty cold. By now I started to have some stomach problems.. I was being very careful about what to eat & drink. I don't have any symptoms of food poisoning. So, there must be something I can't digest well... But just in case, I skipped the stuffing...

Tomorrow morning, I'm flying back to Cairo. I'll be paranoid about checking my passport....