The new 5 people we had were still in a foul mood as they woke up, but we knew they would soon depart. The big upside is that the one fellow knew Arabic and when they left the boat, they left their Chocolate! Hurrah!
But before they left, one of the girls found her bag wet and complained and then told the crew member to "carry that bag because its wet!". Safe to say, we were glad to see that they went off.
So it was down to, Me, Bill, Mel in our gang, Then Dan and Claire an English and Kiwi Couple. Then 2 girls that are friends, Zara and Lucia. What a great group of people! They really made the trip. How crew was 2 guys named Ramadan and Allah, both nick or middle names. Course the amount of dope they smoked seemed more like a steam ship then a sail boat! I gave them the name Cheec and Chong. That name seemed to have stuck by the end of the trip!
Anyway after sailing a bit we landed at a place quickly and I got a few neat photos, saw an old watch tower then we headed quickly to a small town. We decided once again to go ashore together, "That is Me, Bill and Mel" with Zara tagging along too. With our captain, leading us to a shop we seemed to have all the kids of the village coming out to greet us. Me and Bill then started playing with the kids by kicking a soccer ball about, trying to ride there kid sized bikes and teaching them the great American "High-five". The kids were so excited and yelling and saying hello. Very few were asking for anything and just seemed plain excited that tourists would come to their village. Not a usual thing it seems!
After that we went across the other side of the Nile and made camp on an island. And make camp I really mean we sleep on the boat and have a fire on the land. The boat is much nicer to sleep on then the sandy ground.
So after getting some firewood I talked William into walking around the island a bit before night, which was soon coming. So we walked around, seeing the amazing trees and farming that is pretty much unchanged in thousands of years. Course right as we might have turned around, there was a man with a donkey and cow, who then insisted that we join him by his fire with his buddies. It seemed only rude not to accept, so we did. Sadly we couldn't talk to each other well, but it seems one was a taxi driver from Dubai who was in Egypt on holiday. That was about as much as we could talk about. After being given a cigarette which I then tried to smoke out of good faith and trying talk more, William then decided it was a good idea to head back to the boat, least they think we were lost or whatever.
Though instead of walking we were then offered donkey taxis. Yes, you heard me right! The hospitality of these guys were amazing, and never really wanting any "Backsheesh" either. In so many of the tourist areas the people are ruined like over feed pigeons in a city square! They are god awful annoying there and always looking for hand outs. But the Egyptians off the main drag are great.
Lets see, oh yes! So after the Egyptian guys talked us into a donkey ride back to the boat we were off. Interesting to be on a donkey at night going back to a boat. The rest of our boat mates were a bit surprised to see 2 donkeys come out of the dark with us riding AND while whistling the "Lawrence of Arabia" tune.
The rest of the night then passed with singing songs that we knew only a few words too, charades and trying to tell a pass it around story involving Flesh eating vampire donkeys and no we were only a little drunk that night!
However in the morning that was the end of our 3 day 2 night boat trip. We were landed and our lazy crew then took us quickly to the landing point. They were alright guys, but they drank our beer, lied to us AND used NILE WATER to clean our dishes. Thankfully none of us got sick.
I guess they could have been worse. Maybe. Then sticking there hands out into our faces for tips was off putting, BUT overall the trip along the Nile was AMAZING! Great times!
We then boarded a mini bus to see some temples before we got to Luxor. Amazing temples and a nice drive, course we were all pretty exhausted.
Getting to Luxor we were accosted by touts saying "Oh that hotel is closed! Come stay at ours!". An old trick. LIARS! we said, and we went to our hotel of choice.......... which we then found out was indeed shut...... So we walked to the next place Lonely planet guide said was good........
"Dear Lonely Planet...
You suck. You lazy bastards don't bother mentioning prices hikes, slimly hotel manager an that the FREAKING mosque BLASTS the call to prayer literally in front of our room.... at 5:30 in the morning. You guys have bad info and just get drunk"
So next day all of us had moved. Luxor is kinda shit, but great things to see around. The temples and tombs are amazing! Seeing the Pharaohs tombs in the valley of the kings was awesome. Just amazing. But the city and people weren't that wonderful.
Most the stuff I saw was well known, and won't bore with details.
Now I'm on the red sea coast, enjoying a great place, great weather. Feasting on fresh Red sea Lobster and Shark. Dahab really is great and relaxing, though the 19 hour bus ride from Luxor sucked. ALL by land too! Oh boy! But relaxed now and I plan to do very little, until PETRA JORDAN! WOOOO!
Kinda sad now though....... on the last 3-4 weeks of the trip. Well on the most exciting stuff now! Hurrah!
No comments:
Post a Comment