Fujian White Crane Kung Fu

This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series FWC Aswan Training 2015. 

So it’s time for another training trip!  This time to Aswan in southern Egypt.  Familiar scenario of turning up at airport blah blah.  Overnight flights from Heathrow to Aswan via Cairo.  No sleep to be had.  Arrive at Aswan in the morning light.  Here for the culture, to see the Pharaohs and meet the Nubians, plus the training in the warmth at the end of an Egyptian summer.

Nubian architecture beside the Nile – nice spot for lunch

In 30-odd years of travelling I have never had a problem with lost luggage – whenever anyone lost luggage it wasn’t me.

All aboard!

And now it seems that my bag will be here in 20 minutes, on the next flight, tomorrow morning, errr hasn’t actually left London.  Hubris.  No need to complain, I have the essentials: a spare shirt, macbook air, phone, some unmentionables, and a camera.   But all my lovely little luxuries have gone missing, the bits and pieces put together from travels around the world.  Time to practise non-attachment, freedom from desire.  I can do it – it’s only stuff.

So practising virtues whilst sitting by the Nile eating breakfast at a Nubian hotel doesn’t seem so hard.  My new-found moral high ground was put to the test during a stop at a sports shop to pick up some cool clothes.  By this I mean clothes for hot weather not cool in the King’s Road Chelsea sense. Would Madam like to try these trousers as worn by Obelix? Could I be seen alive in these clothes????

The sun goes down over the Nile in Aswan

Many many many hours later after miles and miles and miles of the Agricultural Road from Aswan to Erwan we finally get to the boat that is going to take us down the Nile to the temples of culture.  What a relief!  Not only are we off the bus but we are on an unbelievably luxurious dahabeya called “Nubia”.  She is beautiful, all white paintwork, overstuffed cushions and marble bathrooms.

Let the non-attached good times roll!