【Egypt Tour】Abu Simbel Sunrise, Nile River Tour

🌅✨ 2024.02.05 Day 5 Abu Simbel Sunrise & Temple of Komenbo, Arrival in Luxor✨🌅 Good morning, Egypt! Today we will have a Nile River trip, let's explore Lake Nasser together 🚢🇪🇬 🌄 6:00 - Sunrise cruise on the Nile At 5 o'clock in the morning, after we got up, we saw that the owner of the B&B had thoughtfully prepared breakfast and placed it on the table outside the door. When we arrived, we asked the owner to arrange a boat for us to watch the sunrise at 6 o'clock the next morning. We chose a big boat for $50 US dollars (1 hour). If there are many people, it will be very cheap because a boat can accommodate at least 20 to 30 people! There were only four of us, but it was only $12.5 per person which was still very cheap! The boarding point is very close to our homestay, only about 2 minutes' walk, and it takes about 15 minutes to drive to the temple, so we arrived in front of the temple at 6:15 to greet the first light of the Nile River. Take a boat ride on the water and witness the sun rise from the horizon. It was a peaceful and beautiful time that painted the land of Egypt golden. Moreover, we were the only ones who took the boat to see the sunrise and the temple, so we could see many people at the temple taking pictures of our boat, which made us feel like rich people who had the whole world to ourselves! Hahaha Today was a very long journey, as we had to sit in the car for 7-8 hours, but fortunately our car was very new and comfortable, and there were only 4 of us in the 9-seater car, so it was basically very comfortable. We didn't feel uncomfortable during the long rides in the car for the past two days, and we even fell asleep in the car. Plus, the driver was a very good driver! Our driver was driving from Abu Simbel to Aswan for less than 30 minutes when suddenly a man got on the car and took his seat. He told us that today's drive was very long, so his friend would help him drive this section. When the friend arrived in Aswan, he drove to his home, got out of the car and said goodbye to us. It was really amazing. Haha, we all suspected that he just grabbed someone who could drive on the road, took him back, and then that person drove him this section for free! 🏛 12:00 - Komombo Temple , we came to the Temple of Kongmengbo, which was built in the 2nd century BC and is famous for its unique double-hall structure. This temple is dedicated to Horus, the falcon-headed god, and Sobek, the crocodile god. Explore this mysterious and sacred place. It was noon when we arrived, so there were basically no people there, and the only group of tourists was about to leave after the tour ended. The others were just individual tourists in twos and threes like us, so we leisurely took photos and visited here for an hour. Next we were in the car all the way. We went to Edfu Temple because we didn't have enough time. We delayed it for an hour because we wanted to watch the sunrise. Otherwise we would have left at 6 o'clock without watching the sunrise. We had enough time to go to Edfu, but we wanted to watch the sunrise so we gave up the Edfu Temple and went directly to Luxor. It was only 5 o'clock when we arrived. We first went to pay Hamdy, the owner of the travel agency who helped us book the itinerary, and confirmed the next itinerary. I will share the price of my itinerary for your reference. 1. Two-day chartered car Day 1 Aswan-Abu Simbel The next day, we went to Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo Temple, Edfu Temple and Luxor. The total cost for a 9-seater car was $315. 2. We booked a sunrise hot air balloon for USD 40 per person, and some people traveling with us also booked it for USD 25 to USD 60. Anyway, I can only say that the price of hot air balloons is very complicated, and if you are good at bargaining, you can find it on the spot when you arrive! 4. One-day charter in Dandara + airport transfer USD45 I can only say that when booking an itinerary with Hamdy and getting quotes from other travel agencies online, his prices are quite fair and you don’t have to bargain. His prices are clearly marked on a board and are all in US dollars. But if you come to the site and look for it yourself, you should be able to find a cheaper one. It’s just that it’s tiring to keep bargaining with the drivers, so just take a look for yourself! If you can use a better black market exchange rate when you come to Egypt, it is more cost-effective than paying in US dollars. The exchange rates we got were 1:50 and 55 with the US dollar, which is a 40% discount when converted into Taiwan dollars. If you can get 1:50, it is a 50% discount for us! However, it happens to be the peak tourist season recently and there are a lot of Arabs and Chinese people coming here to play, so the exchange rate of their black market US dollars has been falling, but no matter what, the exchange rate is much better than the exchange rate at the official bank1:31 The hotel we stayed in this time was Iberotel Luxor, a 4-star hotel. It should be the highest-end hotel room we stayed in during this trip. The room cost about NT$3,300 a night (including breakfast). The room had everything you need, the hot water was very hot, and the toilet flushing pressure was sufficient. right! Our requirements for traveling to Egypt and accommodation are so low, hahaha, because we have heard so many terrible experiences! But what satisfied me most was the balcony facing the Nile River. I could see the beautiful sunset directly from the room and the hot air balloons rising in the early morning! And you can dry clothes on the balcony, which is actually quite convenient. We turned on the manual laundry mode every day for the three days we lived here, hahahaha #AbuSimbelMagic #EgyptianWonders #Abu Simbel Temple #Egypt #Must-visit Egypt