Day 135 of international places giving smiles – Remembering Nile Cruise in Egypt
August 2012… After years of resisting the idea of a cruise on a holiday I finally found myself actually looking forward to the relaxing luxury of staying for 3 nights and 3 days literally on the river Nile.
The reality of spending 8 hours of rail travel and then 4 hours of sight seeing under the harsh sun of Aswan was that we felt both physically and mentally drained out by mid afternoon and we barely had any energy left as we entered the Nile cruise liner. So it was a pleasure to suddenly be surrounded in a luxurious ambience and very polite staff.
The lavish spread on the buffet table was given complete justice and we were happy to get our first sumptuous lunch on this holiday. They had a system that on the boat that once we were allocated a particular table we had to sit at the same place for the rest of the stay on the cruise.
My first impression of the room was not too great, it seemed like any other star rated hotel room. There was another cruise liner parked next to ours as I noticed from the window. We did our afternoon sightseeing and when we returned in the evening the obstructing neighbouring ship had gone away and the view from our room was amazing. It felt as if the river water was conversing closely with us, sharing her secrets and allowing us to be an intimate part of her beauty!
We went shopping after dinner and when we returned to the room we saw symmetrical lights from a hill on the west bank of the Nile at Aswan….these lights were not coming from the modern structures but from the ancient tombs of the Egyptian noblemen.
I must have been dreaming about the earlier Sound and Light show and suddenly awoke around 4.30 am to the sight of moving patterns of light outside the window. In the stillness of the dark night, it took some time for me to get out of this disoriented feeling. No, we weren’t still, our cruise liner was moving…..smoothly like a swan on the waters leaving behind the different patterns of light that were visible to me in my half asleep state of mind from my bed!
There was a magical feeling in the air outside. I was mesmerized by the changing colours of the sky as the sun arose on east bank of the Nile. I almost forget I was on a ship and felt as if I was in the water and just felt one with nature. This was the first time I had an uninterrupted view of the beauty of the rising sun.
The Breakfast spread was the typical continental stuff, though I did like the Egyptian version of cereals with sweet milk. It was too early to eat too much, yet we had to be out by 8 a.m to do as much of sightseeing as possible before the day got too hot.
We did our bit of exploring of all the amenities on the ship, the shops, the lounges, the reading and resting spaces, the bars, the pool tables, the gym and spa, etc. The foreigners seemed thrilled to get themselves tanned on the upper deck. There was a very small sized almost apologetic semblance of a swimming pool and we didn’t feel inclined to use any of the amenities.
Lunch on the second day was quite a disaster. I assumed that all the salads were vegetarian and was surprised to see bits of salami hiding in the midst of the different items that I had heaped my plate with. Even my daughter picked up a non-veg item by mistake. I wish they would colour code the items on the buffet table so that we vegetarians could clearly keep away from the restricted non veg items!
In the midst of a leisurely afternoon nap, I was awakened by loud screams of ‘Hello! Hello!’ Our cruise liner was about to go through the waters from the high side to the lower side of the Nile river by crossing the Esna lock. Our boat did not have to wait much as the water inside the gate was being pumped out to the lower side. It as was an amusing sight to see very enthusiastic salesmen on their small motorboats, sailing below our cruise liner and displaying their, shawls, towels, bedsheets from the middle of the water. And there were long negotiations happening between the tourists and the traders on different moving boats in the middle of the Nile! I went back to the privacy of my room and I suddenly I realized it wasn’t so private anymore… An inquisitive head had just popped up from a platform outside my second floor window…. our cruise liner had crossed the lock at Esna and very soon we would reach the city of Luxor!
We were told that the second evening on the cruise would be an Egyptian themed night. We had purchased the traditional jewelry and also the long Arabic robes called Galabiya. After a long indulgent tub bath, we had fun dressing up and adorning ourselves with ethnic makeup, complete with even a golden head veil. A lot of heads turned and polite conversations were made during dinner. But there were very few foreign tourists who could actually converse in English. That is when I realized that it would have been better if we had come in a bigger group for a cruise.
This feeling did not last long, because very soon the dance floor was filled up and the place came alive with a new type of throbbing Egyptian music. Two happy games were organized to get everyone in the mood and I had to keep requesting for instructions to be also given in English! We took a group photo of the people who made the effort to be traditionally dressed. As I danced with the others, I realized that there were so many nationalities from different countries on the floor. We may be divided because of our language barriers, yet we were united by the common friendly spirit of human bonding.
Our alarm woke us up rudely on day 3, and we went through the ritual of trying to finish breakfast before the unearthly hour of 7a.m. We had to leave early as we had a lot of open-air walking to do during the days sight seeing at the beautiful city of Luxor.
By the end of the third day I would have had 8 consecutive meals in the same dining room and on the same table! I get easily bored by routine and felt that it would have been better to sample 8 different buffet meals in 8 different restaurants. I again went back to justify my initial resistance to the idea of a cruise holiday.
Maybe this river cruise liner was not as grand as the ocean cruise liners. Maybe I don’t know how to indulge in the numerous amenities on board. Maybe I am different and just don’t know how to relax with myself. But I do know that going on a cruise holiday is not as great a hyped up experience as it is made out to be.
Next morning we awoke at 4 a.m. to go out for a magical hot air balloon ride to see the sunrise over the Nile. This was an unforgettable experience! When I had my ninth meal and my last breakfast on the ship, I could actually predict what would be on the buffet table. Another friendly guide who had also come on this cruise for the first time told us that he had traveled on over 60 other cruise liners over the years and yet this was one of his better, more luxurious cruise experience on the Nile! I had to forget all my initial misgivings about what to do on a cruise…
I then realized how lucky I was to spend these three days literally on the river, with memories that I would never forget for the rest of my life!
So which place made you smile today?
Be grateful for the places that make you smile!
Recent Comments