Day 10-17: Beach Bumming It

From Aswan, the grueling police escorted three hour ride to Abu Simbel turned out to be well worth it. Ramses' temple is....ginormous. The colossi are only an introduction to the interior temple, which of course, we were not permitted to photograph. Take our word for it: it's big, and impressive. That was pretty much it for us in Aswan. From there we made the mistake of heading back north to Edfu for its well-known Temple of Horus. The temple is interesting. The town is not. It seems that by far and large most tourist only stay for the day. This is where we miss-stepped. The only accomodation we could find was dirtier than dirty, and we were followed everywhere by small-time and big-time scam artists alike. We fled Edfu the following day, and made it to the tranquil Marsa Alam for our first dive of the trip. We consider Marsa Alam our vacation from vacation. No scam artists, no hussle and bustle. Just the sea and the beach. The diving was warm, and bright, and there was something to look at in every direction. We are now inhabiting Hurghada, and tomorrow we embark on our first boat dive of the trip!