Friday, October 27, 2006
25/10 Cruising... or not....
What a day. We joined the traffic jam of cruise boats trying to cross the Lock to Esna yesterday afternoon. 42 boats, 2 at a time, 45 minutes each pair...you do the maths...Anyway we didn't cross that afternoon or evening; in fact we were still waiting at breakfast today. So we bused to Edfu Temple which ended up a great idea, cause we got to see parts of the country we'd never have seen from the water. We cruised the same route this afternoon just to prove the different perspective. Got some great shots and insights into daily life. It was especially good because today is still festival time. Everyone is out socialising, dressed up. The kids are in their new clothes, carrying or playing with their new toys. Many of the young boys carry to machine guns and immitate the men around them. Soldiers, tourist police, etc, in uniform or not, carrying machine guns slung over their shoulders like back packs or cameras over the shoulders of the tourists.
We travelled as a convoy, supposedly for security, but in reality we were much more of a target in this way. But the convoy and constant security scans (like at airports) are just the Egyptian Government's way of 'showing' they are doing something. It is actually quite funny to walk through security scanners with your bag - that of course goes off - and they just wave you through.
The temple was huge, from about 300BC when Alexander was ruling Egypt. Later, back on the boat, we could see the two huge entrance pillars on the horizon like 2 huge apartment buildings. When travelling we passed through villages created for the people displaced when they built the high dam. The nubians, or upper Egyptians were relocated here and the government built apartment blocks for them and gifted land.This was in the late 1960's , and since then the people have moved out, either back closer to their homelands or to the Nile side of the railway line (more fertile). These areas a re deserted. It looks like pictures I have seen of Siberia but hot instead of cold. The dam was built with Russian money and so much of the building dsesign is Russian.
An incredible contrast, the road followed the railway line which followed the river. Green one side (river side), yellow desert the other. Not a tree or bus or skerrick of shade vs date palms, crops, grasses, irrigation canals.
We joined the boat again after it had crossed the Lock. We sailed all afternoon and evening to catch up the itinerary.
Tonight was hilarious. As expected there was a party planned for the cruise, as it was Ramadan festival it was even bigger. We had traditional Egyptian food for dinner - fantastiuc - the best meal we've had. Why suppliersthink you want to eat your own food when they prepare their own style so much better...anyway the flafel, kebab, cocheree, tahini, honey desserts, etc was delicious. But the hilarious bit was we had to come dressed as Egyptians. They were encouraging us to buy Galib...(somethingorothers) from the shop on board, but our group decided it would be more fun to use whatever we had. We had two mummies wrapped in towels and toilet paper. Cleopatera with beaded hair and alfoil wrapped alice band and alfoil cobra. I used a black garbage bag as a long skirt and my silk sarong over my head and shoulders. My nightie was wrapped tightly around my head under the sarong - a bedouin woman. One lady turned her shower curtaiun into a berka. Many, many laughs.
What a day. We joined the traffic jam of cruise boats trying to cross the Lock to Esna yesterday afternoon. 42 boats, 2 at a time, 45 minutes each pair...you do the maths...Anyway we didn't cross that afternoon or evening; in fact we were still waiting at breakfast today. So we bused to Edfu Temple which ended up a great idea, cause we got to see parts of the country we'd never have seen from the water. We cruised the same route this afternoon just to prove the different perspective. Got some great shots and insights into daily life. It was especially good because today is still festival time. Everyone is out socialising, dressed up. The kids are in their new clothes, carrying or playing with their new toys. Many of the young boys carry to machine guns and immitate the men around them. Soldiers, tourist police, etc, in uniform or not, carrying machine guns slung over their shoulders like back packs or cameras over the shoulders of the tourists.
We travelled as a convoy, supposedly for security, but in reality we were much more of a target in this way. But the convoy and constant security scans (like at airports) are just the Egyptian Government's way of 'showing' they are doing something. It is actually quite funny to walk through security scanners with your bag - that of course goes off - and they just wave you through.
The temple was huge, from about 300BC when Alexander was ruling Egypt. Later, back on the boat, we could see the two huge entrance pillars on the horizon like 2 huge apartment buildings. When travelling we passed through villages created for the people displaced when they built the high dam. The nubians, or upper Egyptians were relocated here and the government built apartment blocks for them and gifted land.This was in the late 1960's , and since then the people have moved out, either back closer to their homelands or to the Nile side of the railway line (more fertile). These areas a re deserted. It looks like pictures I have seen of Siberia but hot instead of cold. The dam was built with Russian money and so much of the building dsesign is Russian.
An incredible contrast, the road followed the railway line which followed the river. Green one side (river side), yellow desert the other. Not a tree or bus or skerrick of shade vs date palms, crops, grasses, irrigation canals.
We joined the boat again after it had crossed the Lock. We sailed all afternoon and evening to catch up the itinerary.
Tonight was hilarious. As expected there was a party planned for the cruise, as it was Ramadan festival it was even bigger. We had traditional Egyptian food for dinner - fantastiuc - the best meal we've had. Why suppliersthink you want to eat your own food when they prepare their own style so much better...anyway the flafel, kebab, cocheree, tahini, honey desserts, etc was delicious. But the hilarious bit was we had to come dressed as Egyptians. They were encouraging us to buy Galib...(somethingorothers) from the shop on board, but our group decided it would be more fun to use whatever we had. We had two mummies wrapped in towels and toilet paper. Cleopatera with beaded hair and alfoil wrapped alice band and alfoil cobra. I used a black garbage bag as a long skirt and my silk sarong over my head and shoulders. My nightie was wrapped tightly around my head under the sarong - a bedouin woman. One lady turned her shower curtaiun into a berka. Many, many laughs.
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 4:33 PM 
