Cruising the Nile

Otherwise entitled, how I spent my Christmas vacation.

Sunset on the Nile – photo courtesy Sara Lawrence

Last year, my mother, brother and niece came to visit just after the holidays. We went to Luxor, and saw the sights of Cairo – all chronicled here (in TOO much detail, I am quite sure). This year however, to my great disappointment, Steve and Kenzie did not come. On the happy side, my mother did make it for a 2 week visit.

We planned a grand adventure for the holidays for the three of us. Unlike last year, we traveled for the majority of the time that mom was here. It was loads of fun, but also quite exhausting. *Note to self – vacation time CAN be spent doing NOTHING*

This year’s adventure took us back to Luxor, floated us along the Nile to Aswan and finally to Abu Simbel for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We visited temples and sites along the Nile, took loads of pictures, taught mom to crochet and watched the rhythm of river life, as it has been forever.

That, for me, was one of the most impressive sights – the daily rhythm of life along the river. Men in galabiyyas and turbans, tending their goats and cows along the rich silty banks, women with water jugs on their heads collecting the day’s water from the river, naked children splashing in the shallow pools at the river’s edge. The only concession to modern life seemed to be the ubiquitous satellite dishes on top of nearly every mudbrick house and the mobile phones in every hand. Life as it has been since time began.

Some notes:
The Mercure Inn in Luxor has changed hands and is now a Swiss Inn, but the accommodations are the same – slightly Bates Motel, but clean and comfortable. The small row of shops along the driveway have been demolished. There was no indication what will go in there, but I’m sure it is in the name of “progress”.

The lights at Luxor temple are turned off at 9pm. How do I know? Why do I care? We were on our way out for dinner and to take some tripod night shots of the temple when we saw the lights go out. Ahh well, no eerily lighted shots this year.

Both Jack and I have gotten better at speaking Arabic – which is a blessing and a curse. We can communicate better, we know what prices the taxi drivers are negotiating before they switch to English, we gain a small modicum of respect for learning the language BUT we also become the “trained khawaga monkeys” who speak Arabic. It becomes a PITA when everyone wants to ask questions just to hear us speak. Gee, Mr Ed, how old are you?

Our cruise was…basically what we expected. It was not the QEII, but it was comfortable. The food was plentiful, if not spectacular. Jack (a.k.a. Mr Alex) became the basha with the dining room staff. Both the maitre d’ and our waiter (Mohammed and Ramadan) were falling over themselves to make sure that Mr Jack and Madame Sara were happy. Not surprisingly, neither of them ever bothered to learn my name – I am neither the “Man” nor the “Matriarch” therefore I was merely “Lady”.

The worst part of our cruise was our tour guide – Basem. He had little personality, and was not at all interesting to listen to. He was repetitive, monotonous and long winded. He seemed to have the attitude, “You will listen to me and I will show you when and where to take pictures”. And although he was very keen on pointing out WHAT to take pictures of, he had no understanding of photography, light or composition. We had dawn, sunset and night tours, during which he herded people into deeply shadowed (and very cold) areas to talk at them for the best parts of the light. Needless to say, we did not endear ourselves to Besem – we tended to abandon his lectures to explore on our own and discover our own photo opportunities.

Sites:
While in Luxor, we went back over to the West side, though not with the tour. The tour was going to Valley of the Kings, Deir el Bahari and the Colossi of Memnon – all of which we saw last year with Mr Saleh. We went our own way to see things we missed last time. The Valley of the Queens was not so impressive. Only 3 tombs were open, and the great tomb of Nefertari is no longer open to the public.

Medinat Habu is incredible! It is rarely mentioned on tours or in guide books, but it is extremely well preserved, HUGE and many of the colors on the columns and ceilings are still very vivid.

I had my own, personal, grand adventure at Medinat Habu. Our “inconvenience” was trying to find the ticket office – my “right consideration” was to accept the offer of a young man to give me a ride to get the tickets.

photo courtesy of Jack Tavares
As with most adventures, I probably shouldn’t have climbed on the back of a stranger’s motorbike, with no gear, not knowing where I was going – but I came thru with a smile on my face and tickets for the site – all’s well that ends well.

NB – In an effort to actually post in a reasonable amount of time, all pictures are completely un-retouched. WYSIWYG