Finally the Felucca!

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Day 5 – Felucca

Riding the Felucca from Aswan to Luxor was one of the things on our itinerary that stood out on our itinerary from the first time I looked at the trips website and the day still exceeded expectations. While the majority of our group ate breakfast at the hotel Amy, Adrian, Tash, Stacey and I set out to find snacks for the felucca and McDonald’s for breakfast. Not only did we find both but I also learned the McDonald’s on the Nile sells ham and breakfast sausages both made of pork, This was the very first time I have seen pork in Egypt anywhere as the country is 80% Muslim. Another significant effect of the countries strong Muslim background is the fact 5 times a day the call to prayer can be heard over the whole country from downtown Cairo to a boat down the middle of the Nile, which is fascinating but I wish the call to prayer was yelled by someone with better sounding voice.

The weather on the felucca was absolutely prefect it was about 28C with a cool breeze off the water we ate on the felucca, drank Stella and sat in the sun on the roof. The day was amazing and could only be topped by the fire we had with the crew of the felucca once we stopped on shore for the night, they sang traditional Nubian music and we danced around the fire and smoked the sheesha. For anyone who knows it we even had our Egyptian guide singing I'm on a boat at one point.

Day 6 – Karnak Temple

After waking up on the felucca and drifting down I enjoyed reading on my kindle and laying in the sun on the roof as the crew made our breakfast of crapes, coffee and boiled eggs. It was a nice quiet slightly hung over morning that really let me think about how many amazing things I've seen so far on this trip in less than a week, and wonder with some jealousy at the fact it was Amy's 155th day of travel on her trip not just around the world but really everywhere in the world.

After the felucca we took a three hour bus ride to Karnak temple which really was mind blowing in its massive size and impressive hieroglyphs. I was especially surprised at just how much color remains on a lot of the walls, and sculptures. I could write a lot about the Karnak temple but the pictures I will eventually post will show better and I do not have much time left on my small break. I would love to catch up on the day to day events on my blog journal so I can get into some of the other amazing things I have seen and witnessed such as today the very first vote of a free Egypt!(Note I am writing this 2 days after I was at Karnak). The people are excited most of them voting for the first time in their life, lineups at every polling station and even reports of polling stations running out of ballets due to way higher participation than expected. Egyptians have earned their freedom and today is the first step in deciding their own fate.

Back to day 6 after the Karnak temple we went to Animal Care Egypt a non profit animal care centre specializing in donkeys and horses, it was really inspiring to see the great things they do to help the animals that make Egypt run. Of course the best thing to do after going to an animal care centre is eat meat so off we went to a restaurant and ate camel meat, it was actually quite tender and not nearly as tough as I thought it would be. At the end of the day we realized it was St. Patrick’s day so even though we had to wake up at 4:30 the next day we went and found an awesome rooftop bar that over looked the Nile and had a beer in St. Patrick’s honor before bed.

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Photos

Felucca
The outside of our new felucca.

Dinner
Just another great meal on the Nile.