Ugh, the computer just ate my post, but I will soldier on here.
Okay we just arrived in Luxor yesterday after spending 2 nights and almost 2 days on a Fellucca sailing the Nile. Because I haven’t been able to post pictures (and probably won’t be trying again until I get home) I will just have to describe this for you. ASIDE: I should probably warn you that I know nothing of nautical terms and will therefore probably annoy any readers who do know something. Okay so our boat was around 25 ft long and around half of that was the part where we spent our time. Built by covering the shallow cargo area with board and then foam mattresses and covered by a tarp strung up at slightly higher than waist level, this little area quickly began to take on a kinda hippy feel with the reclining and the cushions (although we weren’t stoned, so a big difference there).
Despite its downsides such as no toilets (not even latrines), occassional lack of space, having a rather shady captain, this trip ended up being a big highlight of my trip so far, mainly this is due to the people. After booking (big surprise, we have realized in hindsight that we got majorly ripped off) our tour in Cairo we quickly fell in step with several other people who booked almost identical tours. Soon we found ourselves forming a group on our exhibitions to Abu Simbel, other Aswan trips and soon finding ourselves all on the same fellucca ride. While I am sure there are plenty of stories out there about bad experiences with the backpacking culture, so far it as been wonderful. It quickly became the norm to share what we each had to contribute and were soon joking around and telling each other stories from various travels.
Maybe this is where I should tell you a little bit about this ragtag group. Consisting of obviously Z and myself, there was also another guy from Chicago, a girl from California (Korean in background) and two Spaniards (one of whom has been working in Sharm for the past year as a diving instructor). This has lead to new connections (The diving instructer has pretty much convinced Z and I to come try diving in Sharm), new ideas (I really want to try some Korean food right now), new knowledge (did anyone else know that some bottled water is better than others because of the TDS or Total Disolved Solids?) and a renewed enjoyment of travel. Anyways I have to head off because we are meeting up with the group for lunch, then temple tours, and then maybe some more swimming and dinner.
Mennogirl 