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Published: July 17th 2010
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Today we had a lazy morning in Aswan. The guide gave us a much needed sleep in (well till 10) and then we checked out of our hotel in Aswan and embarked on our felucca journey. A felucca is a type of sail boat used on the Nile in ancient times. It consists of a canopy covering a deck. A large mattress covered the whole deck and this is where we spent the day and night all together. You might think that's pretty crazy to sail on this boat especially since many of us have been getting sick, but fortunately we had the help of a support boat. The support boat spent much of the time right next to us as we cruises the Nile. That's where we ate lunch, dinner and breakfast the next morning and it had bathrooms and showers. We each really worried that today would be the day that we got the egyptian travellers sickness. fortunately it wasn't that lucky day for either of us. We got on the boat at Aswan and then we sailed down the Nile (the Nile runs south to north) to a town called Kom onbo. During the day some
of the group read their books and we tried to engage the rest in a card game of asshole (some call the game president). Unfortunately we had some problems with the wind at times, and we had to get the support boat to pull us along. Another reason we were glad to have the support boat. We even got pulled over by the Nile marine police- they checked all the boat staffs IDs but the captain had forgotten his, so they took off with the captain and left us alone. The captain never returned. We were a bit worried after awhile but our guide eventually told us that the cops had taken him back to get his ID but then he stayed home because his mom was sick.
Part way through our cruise, we stopped to have a nice swim in a clean spot in the Nile. It was really refreshing considering it was so hot!
As nighttime fell, we tied up for the night attached to the support boat and to the shore. As this is a very agricultural area, it was sure humid! We had some dinner and then we all got ready for bed. You
really have to like your group to spend a night sleeping next to these strangers! It's a good thing that at least we had a few days to get to know them before getting into bed with them. Fortunately I got to sleep on the end so I didn't have to worry about waking up to a unfamiliar fresh face. Mike however took advantage of the extra large mattress (meant for 11 people). He rolled over away from me and probably a little too close to Dave, a former stranger thats on our tour. Mike just likes to gain as much territory as possible I guess.
I have to say that the night was a tough night for both of us. It was sooo hot and humid We were told that it would get cold later but it never did. I was hiding under the sheets we brought, trying to escape the nasty mosquitos but it was soo hot that sweat was just dripping down. Mike was hot too and also because of the pillows that felt like rocks. Not to mention the fact that a nearby village was blasting techno music at 2am. Also the fact that we
were called to prayer at 4am (how can these Muslims get up so early to pray?) and the sounds were blasting over the loudspeaker from the mosque in the village. Needless to say we didn't sleep much. Everytime I looked up as I couldn't sleep I could also see the silhouettes of other people in our group sitting up sleepless as well.
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