Bring on the Belly Dancing!

Our last night on the cruiser was belly dancing night, & when I got upstairs at 9pm, there was a fully-fledged belly dancer strutting her stuff (consisting mostly of extremely large breasts) on stage. There was also a young boy, perhaps 13 y.o. who did this twirling dance that went on for about 20 mins - I was incredibly surprised (& impressed) he didn’t spin out & fall over. But when the 3rd act came on - a bit of a dodgy magician - I decided it was time for bed.

A Free Day on Board

Ahhhh…time to relax & unwind after a fast-paced trip. After the Edfu Temple visit, it was back to the cruiser for breakfast, then a full free day. I took the chance to wash all my smalls & put some of my bigs in for washing. It was also a great chance to catch up on some writing, which was quite a way behind. In the afternoon, some of us in the group were up on the sundeck chilling out & getting in to some very in-depth conversations about people that scam the welfare system & racial/religious discrimination. David & I had a great talk on what would be needed to transform the bigotry within the human species. He believed it would come perhaps when we are visited from ET’s - quite possible really!

Nubian Night

The ship management put on a Nubian night to showcase the local Nubian people’s culture. The first dancers that came out probably looked like they could be in Nubian dress, but they danced as if they were in an Egyptian nightclub. And the songs were also from some, probably unknown, rapper mixed with Egyptian tunes - very entertaining! The second act to perform was a group of drummers with a singer - now they sounded authentic. After the performance, I sat back, drank a cocktail, did a bit of dancing (to some pretty bad songs), then headed to bed for an early night.

3 Square Meals a Day

If I was a bit hungry before the cruise, I certainly couldn’t go hungry once I was onboard. We were served three huge meals a day, with lunch & dinner following a theme each day (oriental, Egyptian). For breakfast you could even get an omelette cooked right in front of you. And with dessert on offer at both lunch & dinner, I found it impossible to resist at least a small selection of the offerings. I’m sure I’m gaining weight every day I’m on board - thank God it’s only a 3-night cruise!

9th Nov - On to the Cruiser!

Our train took eons to pull up at Aswan Station after travelling for over 900 kms to get there. Once there, we had to get off pretty quickly, so my bags were packed & ready to roll. What I loved about this trip, as compared with China, was that other people had the privilege of carrying my backpack - wonderful! We all jumped on a bus (getting pretty used to this) & were transported to the Nile Cruiser ship, La Terrasse - interesting name for an Egyptian ship. The cruiser was reputedly 5-star, but would probably match a 3-4 star elsewhere. Seemingly the star system here is self-rated, opening a world of possibilities for all ships & hotels to claim to be whatever they wish.
We’d been assigned a room, & even though I’d paid for a single supplement, I ended up sharing with Kirsten simply because the cruise had been overbooked. Our room was below the reception desk level, eyes equal to the water line. We were both itching for a shower & the day before had been busy & dirty & the train didn’t offer a chance to clean up properly.