Luxor and Aswan 2 (9/11/10)

I woke up on a cruise ship. It was pretty sweet. We hadn't sailed at all during the night, which was surprising. Breakfast was delicious and after it was over, maggie and I sat up on the top deck (the 'solarium') and read and talked for a while until it got too hot. We were really surprised when we got back to the room and found a surprise waiting for us (and not a very good surprise). It pretty much scared us to death. Well-intentioned maybe, well-thought out, no.

surprise! right in our doorway.

my bananagram letters

After our surprise, I learned how to play 'bananagrams' with small pieces of paper with letters written on them. It's basically scrabble, but faster and much more interesting. I didn't win, but I still had fun. While we were playing, the boat started moving for the first time. I didn't expect it to go so fast!
In only a few hours (just in time to put us in the hottest part of the day) we landed at Kom Ombu, an ancient temple on the bank of the Nile. After exploring the temple, we visited a traditional Egyptian house nearby and saw some animals and stuff.

my little buddy gryphon-thing

the original paint - it's lasted about 2000 years!

four different pillars at kom ombu

moo cow

the boat's wake (side wake?)

Then we returned to the ship and it started sailing again for a few hours, until it was dark, and we spent the whole time 'doing homework' (ie: talking about subjects ranging from BBC shows to Catholic school to books about time travel). Then we went to dinner, which was delicious as usual. [Edit to add: I keep gushing about the food in these blogs and never describing it. Basically, it was every kind of carbohydrate every night, always in some new sauce or cheese or something. Dessert was either fancy Western cakes (okay) or traditional Egyptian desserts (absolutely fabulous). I would have gotten pictures, but I was too busy stuffing my face to pick up my camera.]

okay, one lunch picture. see what i mean about carbs?

After dinner, there was a galabeya (traditional Egyptian dress) party, for which Maggie and I had purchased two (moderately expensive) galabeya earlier. We didn't end up going to the party because it looked a little bit lame. When we got back to our room, though, we found another surprise waiting for us. This one was much better: surprising but not incredibly freaky.

our friends the towel swans.
mine (r) is named clyde, and maggie's (l) is named gibson.

Anyway, tomorrow we have to get up and be off the boat to go to Edfu by 6:00 am, so it's time to get some sleep. 'Tomorrow' will stretch all the way to Monday night without stopping, so we need to take our sleep where we can get it.

iftar cruise

Nothing exciting to note today, except for the end. AUC has been putting on some amazing trips for the new international students, including a trip to Old Cairo (which I missed), the felucca Nile ride I mentioned earlier, a horseback riding tour of the pyramids (tomorrow!!), and tonight, a Nile cruise with dinner.












After driving for an hour and a half from the campus to the boat dock (making about 8 u-turns that wouldn't have been necessary had our driver not missed the dock's parking lot by 3 feet), we were really glad to walk around for a bit, even if it was only to get onto a boat.


The decor was very tasteful, and not at all over the top. (photographic evidence!)

me and my tiny egyptian friend

We were herded onto the top deck where we all admired the setting sun, and then realized to our horror that we weren't going to be served any food until it had set completely. This was an iftar (breaking the fast) cruise, after all.

we have to wait till what sets?!?

almost dinnertime!

so close and yet so far

Eventually, we were seated in the dining room and served dinner, which turned out to be the best (and probably most nutritionally complete) meal I've had so far in Egypt...

the rice was cinnamon flavored. i didn't know that was even possible...

There was even some live entertainment, which the Egyptians mostly ignored, but which the other international students and I were fascinated by.

(sorry the video is sideways, I haven't figured out how to switch that yet...)

I didn't know that whirling dervishes performed, or that they did it to disco music with bass quite that loud...

At some point during dinner, I realized that the boat was moving, and had been for a while. However, when we reached the dock at the end of the cruise, I hadn't noticed up turning around or changing directions. I could only conclude that the Nile is a circle, or possibly a mobius strip.

Either way, it was beautiful.