Cruise Time

Yesterday, I left Luxor for a two day cruise on a riverboat.

I didn't have much hopes for this little cruise-but it has turned out to be quite a nice diversion.

The room was nice but not luxurious. there is good food on board which is included. I had a nice room with a porthole window. The only thing is that there is no daily program-so everyone else seems to know what is going on but i have no idea.
- I really am not familiar with the stops-so we pulled up to a dock yesterday, and I assumed we we're getting off-so I rushed down to my room and put on my pants and shirt (I just had my bathing suit on from the pool). I rushed up to the top deck, and saw that the deck was two stories higher then the pier-we we're just going through locks in the river.

- I didn't realize there was a free drink party until it was almost over. I grabbed one of the last free drinks-a whisky sour with almost as much alcohol as a cupfull of mouthwash.

Other then that it was fine. We passed by great scenery of towns, lots of mosques, minuetes, etc.n WE passed cows. At one point, two guys tied their rowboat to tour big boat, to sell their towels and other stuff. They would throw it up to the deck (hoping it lands on deck), and the purchaser would throw down the money (hoping it lands in the boat). At one point, some lady decided she didn't want one of their towels in a bag, she tried throwing it into her boat and it landed in the water-the guys got angry calling her a bad lady.
After the party, I Went to dinner. I found out there is assigned seating. I sat next to two Chinese woman who didn't speak English, and across from a mean looking white man with a white goattee and khaki shirts and pants. It was just the four of us initially. To break the ice, I made a comment to the guy "We are the luckiest guys in the world-with two beautiful ladies". That at least united the three of them-they all seemed confused by my comment.

Eventually-two German guys sat two seats down who spoke English, and an older woman from Massachusetts who was travelling alone. I normally like meeting people from around the world-but I enjoyed talking to that woman-as it is nice to see someone who speaks English.

We spoke for a while-then I went on deck and watched the silent night go by. With lights and minarets in the distance.

The second day of the cruise, I got up early to eat breakfast, which was good-there was cereal, eggs, and all sorts of fruits. today the river cruise would stop in two ports of calls along the Nile river. The first was the temple of Edfu. We had 2 hours to visit the temple, before the boat left, and it wasn't within walking distance of the boat. We had to pay a horse carriage to take me there. I was nervous about going alone-as if the horse driver decided to screw me over, he could leave me in Edfu-without my passport (the guest services deck on board had it), in a rural part of the country, where most people didn't speak English. So I sat outside and waited to see if anyone else wants to go to Edfu. Two couples and a baby left the ship-but one of them said there wouldn't be any room for a fifth person. But after that, my new friend from Massachusetts walked off-and she was fine with taking a horse carriage together.

We rode the carriage threw the town, past markets, poor houses, and a new school, and arrived at the temple after about 15 minutes. The temple was giant and imposing, with the normal columns, hieroglyphics. and pictures of boats, etc. We didn't have a guide-but a police officer showed us around. One whose English was ummm...limited. He would point at stuff and say words like "splitter...splitter!" Not knowing what he meant. Here in Egypt, a police officer doesn't show you around out of the goodness of his heart, he is in essence moonlighting, so we gave him a tip.

Anyway, the carriage took us back to the ship, and got back on.
After a hearty lunch of rice, vegetable saute, and nice deserts, We reached the second port of call, Kom Ombo-here we had an hour and a half-but since the temple was a 5 minute walk from the ship-this wasn't a big deal. I walked around the temple. A guide would have been helpful. But after all this time, it all starts to run together. I then went to the museum of the crocodile, which is dedicated to a God named Sobek, an God with a Crocodile head, There we'e displayed of mummified crocodiles. I liked this museums, not only because of the crocodiles, but because the museum was cool and dark (outside the temperature was 100+ and it was smokey and hazy).

Got back on the ship-Sayan, the room steward, made the typical towel swan on the bed, but this was surrounded by roses.

so it was dinner time. There was a typical buffet dinner-but this time the lights we're off for a romantic ambiance. I went back to the room, and feel asleep. While it was nice-I wasn't feeling well. The constant and unrelenting heat was getting to me.