There’s nothing quite as exciting as going on a cruise. I’d last travelled by ship as a five year old and the only things I really remember from that time were the fun activities for children, the wonderful food we ate on board, the dressing up for dinner and of course the lifeboat practice which really scared the hell out of me. But of course sailing down a river was a far cry from sailing in the big blue ocean where you can rock and roll with the waters . So I was really looking forward to the next leg of our journey which was a cruise down the River Nile.

We had to catch the boat from Aswan which meant an early morning trip to the airport specially since the distance from Giza to Cairo airport was 25 km and we didn’t want to get stuck in the early morning traffic which could be horrendous. Well, we did get a lot of traffic but that didn’t affect our flight to Aswan.

However, when we did arrive at the airport, we were shocked to find no one on hand to receive us. This was our second experience of WYSINWYG – something our travel agent seemed to specialise in. After waiting for almost 45 minutes outside the empty airport with not a soul around to ask any question, someone arrived to receive us on behalf of the guide who was actually meant to receive us.

Ahmad our Egyptologist ( as the guides like to call themselves) gave us some crazy story about being held up in an accident but honestly the road from the airport to town was so deserted that it was hard to imagine any accident. We later found out that he was quite a story teller and this was one of his tall tales.

Anyhow, we were on holiday and didn’t really have a great schedule to follow so we let that go with just a mild admonishment and then settled down to go to Aswan dam before boarding our boat.

Boarding the ship and a meltdown

After a quick tour of the dam – there’s nothing really to see especially at noon when the sun is beating down your back and you have to squint to see anything in the distance – we continued our way to the city.

Aswan didn’t seem much of a city ( or at least the part that we saw) and on the Ahmad desultorily pointed at a compound saying that that was the quarry and the broken obelisk. Obviously, according to him , it didn’t warrant a visit so we whizzed past and went to our boat, El Nabilat of the Queen Nabilatan Fleet .

Once again WYSINSYG and we walked into the reception of an aging passenger cruise liner. Once again there was some mix up at the check in and I was caught between the crossfire of the guide and the receptionist who were having an argument about my cabin. At least that’s what I thought and when both of them got on to their phones to have a “talk” with their respective offices, I had a meltdown. I am embarrassed to say that I had real full grown old lady meltdown. When I finally got my cabin, I actually howled, much to the chagrin of Ms. Papaya who consoled me that evrything would be all right.

She turned out to be right because after I had a good howl, I did feel much better. Perhaps it was the hectic pace at which things were happening and the heat that had left me overwhelmed.

Cruises are known for their food and luckily the ship did not disappoint. After a sumptuous banquet for lunch we disembarked for our evening trip to Philae Island.

Philae Island

The Temple at Philae is another UNESCO Heritage site and was reconstructed brick by brick as the waters of river started rising because of the dam. Accessible only by boat, it is a very popular tourist spot. We enjoyed the boat ride and took some fabulous photos in the spectacular light.

Getting off the boat, the curio vendors called out “hindi, hindi” aBy this nd one even burst into song ‘aaja haathi mere saathi‘ ( come here my elephant) hoping to tempt me to make a purchase. But would you buy something from someone who called you an elephant even though he wasn’t very far from the truth?

Once again, Ahmad tried to get us into another Tourist Trap – the Perfume factory. But again we steadfastly refused saying that we were allergic to perfumes! That put paid to that tourist trap the rest of the trip.

By this time, the sun had set and as we passed the Quarry and the Unfinished Obelisk, once again on the way to the Nabilat, Ahmad actually stopped. He expected us to get out and see the unfinished obelisk in pitch darkness! since, I wasn’t an Egyptologist , I refused to oblige and fearing another meltdown, Ahmad didn’t push it.

So as we slept, the ship made its way to Edfu our next stop.

Ciao