edfu - pap rules

Woke up in the wee hours, he checked his blackberry, and wouldn't be able to get back to sleep any more. He came up to the sun-deck, chilly and quiet.

The time was before 5am.

The dark sky was clear with a cresent moon overhead. the cold stars sparingly dotted the dark screen.

At 5.55 the loud speakers sounded, one after each other - the call to prayer made a very powerful statement to break dawn in a muslim country - that religion is the expression of human beings inner faith to strive for something that's not humanly possible.

The sky over the east bank of nile show the first light of dawn at 5.30am, though marathon man could not be sure that the very faint shade of brightness was actually that from the rising sun. He was fooled once, yesterday morning when he was jogging along the east bank of the nile river in luxor. He thot the sun was going to come out from the other end of the river given that he witnessed a spetacular but quite brief sun-set to the west bank the day before. but, instead, the sun rose on the south-east of the nile.

at 5.45 the shade of brightness turned into deep orange opposite where the cruise docked, and the rest of the sky brightened up in soothing turquoise-blue.

A rooster crowed - then anotehr one, then one after another, from far and near - morning had really broken at a location along the nile, unknown to marathon man.

The birds began to chirp. many of them, sweeping thru the sky - their scissor-tails alluded to their identity - the swifts.

Every so not often a horse-pulled or donkey-pulled cart trotted along the street below.

As the sky brightened up more, the stars faded away: only the moon with her lemon-cresent still hanging in the sky.

At 6.30 the sun finally appeared from the eastbank, amidst the horizontal strip of dark-grey haze. The glory of the day had indeed arrived in this land of the pharoahs.

Marathon man went on to the street next to where the cruise docked. But it stank with the horse and donkey Pee And Poo. No incentive to explore further - just to wait for the time for the day's tour to kom ombo to start.

edfu and singapore has one thing in common - each is a place where pap rules.