Seti Abu Simbel Hotel, Abu Simbel

...to check in at the Seti Abu Simbel Hotel.

You drive through the arched entrance gate flanked by hotel security guards and the coach circles round the driveway to pull up in front of Reception. The hotel is set up more like a Caribbean holiday village resort with the main public areas close together in the centre and the hotel rooms/chalets radiating out. All the public areas are on ground level, each accessed via linked court yards. ...
...water feature with water coming out of the sculptured heads of local animals into the pool below. It is the landscaped gardens which are this hotel's best feature, the exotic flora of pinks and oranges and rich green foliage set against the yellow harshness of the desert and the vivid azure blue of the lake and the permanent blue sky. The hotel rooms are spread out in these beautiful gardens each with own unique view of Lake Nasser. Our room was ... more

Here for just one night during our Bales Worldwide 15 day tour. After our last night in Cairo, day four was an early start. Out of the hotel by 5 am to fly to Aswan and catch the plane to Abu Simbel. This was to be the worst morning of the trip for me, two flights! But worst was to come, we landed and picked up more passengers at Luxor as well. We finally landed at Aswan Airport and as there were a couple of hours before the flight to Abu Simbel instead of waiting at the airport (watching an documentary about UNESCO saving the Abu Simbel monuments on the screens of the departure lounge - first time was interesting but the tenth or twelfth time!), Bales had arranged for an additional visit to the modern Nubian Museum (finished in 1998). A great idea but it meant we had to hump our large shoulder bags with our passports, money etc with us. The majority of museums have x-ray equipment as part of the country's very visible anti-terrorist defence and in the process of entering the museum; the tourist policeman stopped my mum and queried what a small round metal object was in her shoulder bag.
After a couple of seconds it hit me - her powder compact. With relief she got it out and showed the policeman and the operator who both cracked up in hysterics when they saw it. Phew!
The museum is different to others in Egypt as it is a completely dedicated to the history of the Nubian nation and the impact both Nubian and Egypt have had on each other over the centuries. The museum uses a really modern approach to displaying the exhibits making what could be boring very interesting. At the time of going taking photos is permitted inside this museum but naturally we didn't know this until we were about to get back on the bus.
We travelled back to the airport crossing the old Aswan Dam built while the British were still in control at the turn of the Twentieth Century. From here you can easily see Philae (the Temple of Isis) in the lake between the Old and High Dam. We got back on the airplane to find that it was just our group and two other tourists going to Abu Simbel so we could all sit on the left had side of the plane so we could see the monuments as we came into land and we all had a really good view of them. From that height the view was stunning and unreal - more like seeing a scale model on a movie set.
A local coach company; 'Starlight Coaches' was hired to transport us around while we were at Abu Simbel and we promptly named it starlight express - it really wanted scrapping the seats wanted recovering and the backs of the chairs would suddenly fall backwards without any warning - not good if you were having a drink but fortunately there were enough functional seats for us all and it would be okay for the few short trips we would make in it. First stop was to check in at the Seti Abu Simbel Hotel.

You drive through the arched entrance gate flanked by hotel security guards and the coach circles round the driveway to pull up in front of Reception. The hotel is set up more like a Caribbean holiday village resort with the main public areas close together in the centre and the hotel rooms/chalets radiating out. All the public areas are on ground level, each accessed via linked court yards. In the main courtyard behind reception there is a large water feature with water coming out of the sculptured heads of local animals into the pool below. It is the landscaped gardens which are this hotel's best feature, the exotic flora of pinks and oranges and rich green foliage set against the yellow harshness of the desert and the vivid azure blue of the lake and the permanent blue sky. The hotel rooms are spread out in these beautiful gardens each with own unique view of Lake Nasser. Our room was the last in a staggered row of six; staggered so all the chalets had uninterrupted views. A large heavy wooden front door opened onto a tiled entrance hallway with storage on the left (with a concealed fridge) and a large full en-suite bathroom to the right. Up three steps and you are in the bedroom. The style of the rooms are clearly Nubian and had the high dome ceilings, whitewashed walls, tiled floors and the heavily carved dark wooden furniture giving a more African than Arabic feel which is completely different from our last hotel. Naturally there's air conditioning, TV, towels/toiletries and ample storage if you were staying longer than one night. Beyond the bedroom is the tiled balcony with a wicker table and 2 chairs. This too has an arched roof carrying on with the Nubian theme. The views from the balcony are breathtaking!
There is just the one main restaurant where your included meals are served in the form of hot and cold buffet which to be honest I didn't think much to. The small fast food bar near the swimming pool was better, they made brilliant chips! The garden bar and seating is set close to the lake's shore line allowing for brilliant views over the lake at sunset and sunrise. There is a good size pool just past the bar area but the tour manager who did an inspection for Bales at every hotel we stayed in did say there were no depth measurements around the pool which marked it down in her inspection report.
Quick change and something to eat (a shared plate of chips at the fast food bar) and we were then off to the monuments. It is a really short journey a big plus point for staying at this hotel. From the bus park you have to run the gauntlet of tourist stall holders. This seemed to be the case at all the monument sites, at the entrance/exit (most used the same) you are funnelled pass all the stalls, a set up to catch you either way but apart from the 'unofficial' guides offering their services there wasn't any hassling at the actual monument allowing you to explore and experience it in peace. I don't know if this is an official comprise to try and please both tourists and stall keepers but it seems to work. However, saying that the stall keepers at Abu Simbel are bit on the pushy side. I quickly got into the habit of always wearing my sunglasses (a habit you soon pick up - at times I couldn't remember if I was wearing my ordinary glasses or not the sunlight is really bright) and kept on walking saying no thank you (la' shukran). There is no need for any rudeness or bad language - if the Egyptians experience ill-mannered tourists soon the rest are tarred with the same brush and their attitude towards western tourists will change for the worse.
When you go through the ticket office there in front of you is the rear side of the monument mountain and there is a choice of two curving paths down the hill side. The left one takes you down to Nefertari's temple. The right one takes you down to the side of Ramses temple and bit by bit it is revealed as you go down this surprisingly long path. And suddenly it's there in front of you. The movie model has now changed into a gigantic solid rock presence which is awesome.
The bad news was that the BBC had beaten us to it and was currently filming part of their Egypt series. So we had to wait before we could go inside. (Apparently Matthew Kelly said something derogatory about tourists but I didn't hear him otherwise he would have gotten an ear bashing from a TV licence paying tourist!) The good news after we finally could get in - stepping over the film props rocks and artistically arrange sand - was the fact they hadn't put the guard rail back in front of the sanctuary containing the four statues of the Gods Ramses II, Ra-Harakhty, Amun and Ptar so we went right in and were up close and personal to them! There are wonderful relief's craved into the walls of the inside, the main one being the famous Battle of Kadesh. Nefertari's temple is smaller but just as impressive. After quite a while exploring the temples and then just sitting and gazing at them as the setting sun gave them a slowly changing façade, it was back to the hotel for another quick change and a refreshing drink in the bar before coming back again for that evening's Sound & Light Show which was awesome. The seats were far enough away so both temples were used as back drops to the story. Headphones were provided and they were plug into the system at base of your seat and you adjusted the dial to your own language. After the show we went back for our evening meal, a hot buffet with a large choise of different foods but there was nothing you could combine to make a proper meal of - too much choice not enough substance.
Another early start for day five, a 7am check-in at the airport. I set my camcorder up to film the sunrise over Lake Nasser from our balcony and also caught on film the other inhabitants of the hotel; little green lizards (which kept the bug population down but they this annoying habit of wanting to come in your room and say hello). Fortunately this is all the wildlife we saw, nothing of the reported nastier beastiessuch as spiders and snakes and crocodiles, oh my! The BBC were also staying at our hotel so it was quite funny seeing the extras at breakfast going around in full make-up and costumes for their parts of priests and soldiers. Starlight Express arrived, was loaded up and off we went. When we arrived at the airport there seemed to be a lot of people milling about but we got off and entered the airport. Sitting down waiting for check-in to open, out tour manager told us of a previous traveller she had in her group who had wrote a book about a group of people who were thrust into a survival situation and how they dealt with it. And as if it had put the mockers (jinx) onto the whole day it was announced that due to traffic controllers going on a walk-out strike there would be no further flights to Aswan. Arrgh! We had to be back at there to catch our cruise ship the Nile Beauty which sailed at 1pm!

So the tour manager and our guide were busy on their mobile phones (yes, they are all over Egypt as well) trying work up a solution when the driver of Starlight Express became the hero of the hour and said they would have to clear it with his boss but he would be willing to drive us up to Aswan. So it was a quick stop at a kiosk to stock up on provisions and we were then ready to set off brimming with Dunkirk spirit. Almost got away when the tourist police stopped the coach and put an Egyptian man who was without transport to Aswan onto our coach. In this instance we felt our guide overstepped the mark by allowing it (in retrospect I don't think the police gave him much of an option to refuse), the man himself was an ordinary local, wasn't a problem and over the four hour trip through the desert down the Aswan highway we sort of 'adopted' him into the group. We were supposed to travel in a police escorted convoy but poor old starlight couldn't keep up with the more modern, faster coaches and soon the rest of the convoy had disappeared leaving us all alone trundling down the highway. Despite threatening to break down on us Starlight Express got us to the familiar surroundings of Aswan and to where the Nile Beauty was moored. The poor driver now faced the journey back so we tipped him generously - he got paid by the day not the mileage and yes, both he and Starlight Express got back to Abu Simbel in one piece.
We now started our seven night Nile cruise travelling to Luxor and then back to Aswan again.
 

...less