Sudan awaits while I sail the Egyptian Nile

Felucca on the Nile near Aswan

Cleaning dishes for dinner

Over a year or so ago, a casual a conversation with a good friend somehow led to me disclosing that someday I wanted to visit Sudan. The reaction of the friend was “Why…..why Sudan? Since then I have gotten a similar responses from most who heard that Sudan was my choice for my last home in 2012. Though I never quite answered those questions, in my mind I kept saying “That’s precisely what I am going to figure out!”

Steering the Felucca

Our felucca

A journey in November/December to a country in the northern hemisphere and dominated by hot, desert climate seemed logical as the winter months were probably the best time to do it. Moreover, a Bradt travel guide for Sudan that I purchased back in 2010 lay on my coffee table always reminding me that a visit was long overdue, especially considering some other countries like Djibouti, Sao Tome & Principe, Comoros, and Kenya had jumped the queue since I lay out my original plan for exploring Africa way back before I arrived on this fascinating continent.

My first view of ancient Egyptian carvings

Planning for Sudan armed with a guidebook was the easy part but getting a visa for this country was another matter all together. Some have described it as “visa from hell” while others reckon that’s its one of the toughest countries to get a visa for. Major problems with obtaining this visa in most cases are due to the embassy’s insistence for a letter of invitation from someone in Sudan and a letter of sponsorship from the embassy of the passport holders’ country. Then there is a wait for anything from a few days to few weeks depending on which country the application is made for the visa to be finally issued.

Temple of Kom Ombo

Thanks to the internet and generous travel reports from fellow travelers, I had found out that the best place in the world to apply for a Sudanese visa was in Aswan, Egypt. Travel reports also suggested that there was a ferry commuting from Egypt to Sudan. Armed with this information, I set out for Cairo and then took the earliest flight to Aswan. Most would spend some time in Cairo if heading that way but not wanting to be part of the circus resulting from overcrowding by tourists and the hassle that comes with it I decided to give it the skip.

Second from right is the Pharaoh with gods and godesses

Hieroglyphs

My views on Egypt were similarly downbeat. Sure I would want to visit Egypt someday but not right now. Not when I am still single and want to avoid the so called “touristic places”. Ideally I would get my visa in Aswan within a day and then take the first ferry to Sudan.

Wall of temple covered with carvings and hieroglyphs

Crocodile headed god Sobek


I landed in Aswan still tired due to a redeye flight but headed straight to the embassy of Sudan. I passed on my passport to a lady who sifted through it seemingly looking for something. When she was done she asked if I had travelled to Israel. I said no but knew where her questions had come from. Being a country founded on Arab and Islamic principles its no surprise that they dislike Israel (to put it mildly) but going as far as rejecting a visa application for a person who has visited there seems a little extreme to me. Well, that’s just my personal apolitical thought anyway.

Pharaoh in the middle with gods & godesses (Lto R:Thoth,
Hathor, Sekhmet Horus)

Regardless, they accepted my application but it was a shocker when she said that I have to come back after 3 days to collect it. The travel report as recent as August 2012 that I had based my plans on said that the visa was issued the same day but as I learnt out this was Sudan we are talking about and the rules change seemingly everyday. That development threw a spanner in my plans because I had to now stick around in Egypt for a few days and did not even know how it would affect my plans of getting the ferry from Aswan to the border city of Wadi Halfa in Sudan.

Typical carvings of Pharaoh's
offering to gods

I still had my backpack on me and as I walked from the Embassy to the Corniche where the boats and ships dock on the backs of the River Nile I quickly tweaked my plan. Instead of going south to Sudan I was now going to go north to the city of Luxor and while I waited for the Sudan visa it was time to explore the land of the Pharaohs…though Egypt was not in the plans initially it was well and truly on now.

I was quite lucky to soon find a felucca that was going to take a few other travelers towards Luxor. A normal sail to Luxor could take more than 3 days but being pressed for time in Egypt meant that I was glad I to find a felucca for just a day’s sail and then a minibus ride to Luxor. The owner of the boat also threw in the additional incentive of taking us to the Egyptian temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu on the way to Luxor.

On the felucca, I joined a group of Spaniards from Malaga and one individual from China and Los Angeles respectively. Felucca, being a sail boat dependent on the river current and wind took its time to lazily pass through Aswan and then the agricultural fields as we spent the night on board.

The next morning we drove to the temple of Kom Ombo which would be my first Egyptian temple with amazing hieroglyphs decorating its walls and columns. The word amazing to describe the temple is relative because over the course of the next few days the design, size, hieroglyphs just got better and better. Thus began my Egyptian odyssey.