in Luxor

I arrived in Luxor this afternoon. My two-day feluca boat trip down the Nile turned into one day, because the other five people on board were all on only a one day cruise. And since no one else was joining us then I would have been the only passenger for all of a day and another chilly (...okay, just plain cold) night on the Nile. So I decided to change plans and go ahead with the other folks, leaving this morning on a bus headed down here to Luxor.

But the feluca trip was a fun one anyway. After some waiting for other passengers, we set sail yesterday afternoon from Aswan at about 2:30 with eight people in total: the Egyptian feluca sailor, his young helper, and six passengers including myself, a couple from France, a couple from Japan, and a young, very enthusiastic and talkative guy from Croatia. The feluca boats don't sail straight down the river, but instead tack diagonally back-and-forth across it. The reason is that the wind blows upstream (and thus it's actually quicker to go upstream). It's a very relaxing way to sail though, because the Nile is pretty much devoid of any waves or hardly even ripples. But neither do you sail completely flat, since you're going back and forth, so the ship is always slanted one way or another, but not to any great degree.

The passengers all sit on a square, flat surface in the middle of the boat, almost even with the edge of the boat (with about a six-inch lip and then a couple of feet down to the water), which is cushioned and covered a few feet overhead with a cloth sheet, to keep the sun out of your eyes. So the first thing you do is take off your shoes and toss them in a plastic basket, then step down onto the cushioned surface, grab a pillow to lean against, and just kick back and hang out with the other folks.

We sailed until around 7:30 that evening, which meant for a couple of hours we were in the dark, or at least past sunset, since it's getting dark here shortly after 5 now. But things were well lit both by occasional lights from buildings on shore (the main highway runs right along the river), and especially from the full moon that started rising overhead.

So we eventually pulled over at a sandy spot on the river, and immediately everyone jumped off the boat and headed for the bushes, as there's no bathroom on board and we hadn't made any stops for those five hours, due to getting a late start (apparently they aren't allowed to sail after 8 pm). Then the 19-year-old helper cooked up dinner for everyone, which included pita bread, pinto beans, falafel, salad and something that resembled feta cheese, but wasn't quite the same. Pretty delicious. At about 9 o'clock the feluca captain started getting out the blankets, and it was apparent that it was going to be an early night. And, he confirmed that we would be heading out early morning.

So everyone layed down to sleep, and I layed down and, well, layed there. Then I got up, and sent a couple of text messages since we had a cell signal. Then some drums started playing somewhere nearby, and I was tempted to go check them out since it was coming from fairly close, and whoever it was was having a great time. But I figured it would be better to focus on the sleeping, even if it wasn't coming easily. As it turned out, the drumming was coming from another feluca boat's crew and passengers--and one of them was Clive, the Englishman who I had shared a cabin with on the train from Cairo to Aswan! I would find this out the next morning when I ran into him on the same bus.

Eventually sleep happened, or at least happened for a while and then didn't happen for a while and then occurred again, etc., intermittenly throughout the night due to the fact that despite being in one of the hottest countries in the world, wrapped in a very thick blanket that probably would have kept a camel warm (and smelled like it had), there on the Nile things were actually pretty darn cold.

At one point I woke up, sensed it was getting close to daylight, and looked forward to seeing the sun rising over the Nile. Unfortunately, I woke up again a short while later, and it already had. But it was still a gorgeous sight, and all considering I felt fairly well rested.

As we were all just beginning to wake up and, no doubt, thinking about checking out those bushes again, the captain pushed off without a word and we set sail. We didn't go far however, just across the river...and out of the sun that we had all been reveling in, since it was shaded there by palm trees. But this was where we would be catching the bus, and the captain probably wanted to be there waiting for it whenever it arrived. They then cooked up breakfast: scrambled eggs, pita with jam and cucumbers (I passed on the cucumbers) and shortly thereafter the captain's cell phone informed him that the bus had arrived, and it was time to grab my stuff and head for the highway, which was just on the other side of the palm trees.

I'll wrap things up here except to say that along the way to Luxor (chatting with Clive and catching up with what he'd seen) we visited two amazing temples, the Kom Ombo Temple and the Edfu Temple. The computer I'm on is being finicky though, so although I was able to upload a few pictures to my facebook page, it's not letting my load any more, so I'll have to try again some other time.

So I'm here in Luxor, staying at a very nice 3-star hotel that was part of my package tour, for the next two nights. After that I might stay a couple of more days, although I would switch hotels because I already asked them what it would cost, and it's way over my budget. But at least I'm living in style for now. From here I hope to go to the Dhakla oases, but I'll have to enquire about transportation because I've heard conflicting reports on how to get there from here. If that isn't a good way to go then I'll just change plans and head elsewhere, as there's plenty more to see...