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Published: September 10th 2008
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Breakfast
Exciting stuff. I had about a week between orientation and classes so I decided to go on a small trip to get away from the hustle and bustle of Cairo. I've read that taking a felucca down the Nile river from Aswan is a relaxing way to travel, and relaxing I wanted, so it didn't take much thought to pack my bag and headout to Upper Egypt.
My mode of transportation to Aswan was a sleeper-train. This was a very expensive option, but I've never done it and I figured it would be kind of fun. The ride itself turned out to be far less interesting than I thought it would be. It runs during the night (hence a sleeper-train), so there isn't much of a view to enjoy out of the window, and the thrill of having a bed on a train quickly dies when you realize you were excited about nothing more than a bed on a train. Not that impressive. What was more impressive, however, was the food on the train. The ride included a dinner and a breakfast, which were both exceptional in their own ways. First of all, the dinner came with bread, rice, fish, AND beef.
So none of the agony of choosing between beef, chicken, fish, etc, like you have to on an airplane. On top of that, the food actually tasted really good, despite looking like it came out of someone's butt. Then there was breakfast, which was an assortment of 4 different types of bread. Once again, super exciting. Like I said in the beginning, I paid $60 to get on this train and the most excitment I got out of it was the pile of bread on my plate, which hardly made the journey a good deal.
Anyway, once I made it to Aswan I explored the city a little bit with two travellers I've met on the train. I really liked the city of Aswan. It's very slow and quiet, and once you cross the river to Elephantine Island, you can really see how relaxed life is in the city. The residents seem to add to the general slowness makes it an overall pleasant place. The only disruptions coming from the mass landings of tourists from the huge Nile cruises that stop by the city.
Once I got a hang of the place I went on to look for
Misguided Kid
I don't understand this picture either. a felucca captain that will take me down the Nile river, and whom I will have to trust with my life for the next three days. Basically there are these sketchy-looking felucca captains hanging out by the corniche, and you're supposed to pick out the least sketchy-looking one out of all of them and make arrangements for your trip. How I ended up with the sketchiest one of them all is still a mystery. Because it was low-season for tourism, there were't that many fellow travellers who were planning trips for the next day, which made it harder to pick the captain of choice because the cost had to be split between 5 to 8 travellers. In other words, I had to go with the captain that already arranged trips with other people. At the end of the day the process was fairly simple and I found a decent deal. So everything was set and I was to set sail the next morning.
Going down the Nile on a felucca takes more than a few leaps of faith. many stages of the trip requires you to hand over your destiny into the hands of the captain or circumstances and
Sketch
Not so inviting. without thinking about it too much. However, once you get over the many concerns, there is nothing stopping you from gently floating down the famous river.
I've already talked about this a little bit, but the first leap of faith comes when you are picking your felucca captain. I mean, if you think about it, it kind of makes sense. You will be spending 3 days on a sail boat on the Nile with these people and they're the only ones who know where you are or how to operate the boat that is your lifeline. These people will also control the food and water you will be consuming during the trip. The only thing that can save you in the case of an emergency are the other naive travellers who were dumb enough to do the same thing as you. So, when your captain looks like Ziggy (our captain's name), the very definition of sketchy Egyptians, and is clearly stoned when you meet him at 11 in the morning, you get a little worried.
Many others follow. Waiting around for the lazy captain to wake up and put his working shoes on (it took him 3 hours
Crew
Lazy and stoned. to begin sailing from the time I got on the felucca), swimming in the questionable waters of the Nile, eating the fish that was just caught out of that Nile (delicious), and telling yourself the wild dogs on the beach (massive) will not try to kill you.
At the end of it all though, was an experience that in my opinion, beats any other ways of travelling down the river. It's the closest possible way to get on it because you are on a very basic sail boat. There aren't that many things I've seen that are as beautiful as the sun setting over the banks of the river, donkeys and buffalows taking an afternoon dip, and the water gently rippling from the soft wind. Nor is there anything as refreshing as jumping into the Nile, cooling down in its surprisingly cold water when it gets too hot on the felucca. You are in the middle of a desert afterall. At the end of the day, you feel pretty good about the whole thing as you lie down on the deck and spot the occasional shooting stars. Maybe you'll even begin to like the sketchy captain and think about
Food
Prepared on the spot. doing it again.
So, despite the few scares there might have been, which inevitably did happen, it was a phenomenal trip, and I hope those to come will be just as good.
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