Aswan 

I met some Israeli and British travelers departing the train station and we set out en mass to find a guest house. The tourist police stopped us the minute our feet hit the dusty road and demanded we explain to them our travel plans. I found this cool at first, thinking they were protecting us from the touts trying to scam incoming tourists. Then I found it odd that they weren't stopping any other of the tourists exiting the station. We assumed the tourist police were getting kickbacks from certain hostels so we bravely ignored the officers (and their machine guns) and set out to find accommodation. Why the tourist police need automatic weapons in the first place is beyond me.

We settled on the first place we saw but ran into trouble when the manager asked to see our passports. “British, okay,” he said. “American, okay. Israel, we have a problem.” Initially, he didn't want the Israelis to stay there because he said the local government would give him trouble, but after an hour or so of serious contemplation he agreed to allow them to stay under two circumstances. “No Hebrew, always English,” he proclaimed. “also, you are from Malta.” So that was that. We arranged a 3 hour falucca tour on the Nile that evening followed by a trip to Abu Simbal the following morning. The falucca was cool and the captain reminded me of a pirate, complete with the golden tooth. The journey to Abu Simbal was a long 3 hour bus ride though the Sahara Desert. I found the colossal statues there far more impressive and awe-inspiring than the pyramids, and the temples inside were equally incredible.

I was templed out towards the end of the day and didn't want to spend any more money after being extremely disappointed after paying to see the "high dam".  While the group enjoyed the last temple, I found a coffee shop and had a cheese sandwhich, coffee, and shisha.  I was amazed at how cheap everything was! The amount of cheese in the sanwhich would have cost $10 in bangkok and the shisha would have been another ten.  My total was less than $3!  Talk about elation! When the group returned, my new travel buddies from Israel set up a camping stove and made some coffee.  Several people asked us where we were from (this is the first thing people in Egypt usually asked) and it was both amusing and slightly sad when they would reply "Malta".   Once or twice I was even Canadian- everyone loves them! Anyway, I have traveled with Israelis before and have found it to be quite an enjoyable experience on both occasions.  It's a shame that predjudices and stereotypes still exist with such fervor today.