Nile River Cruise Day 6
27 December 2011
The ship is still docked at Aswan this morning, and a number of the group took out for an optional flight to Abu Simbel (another site that was relocated when the dam was built), but I opted to stay on board and relax, plus get caught up on blogs, emails, etc.
One thing I cannot learn to like is the incessant hustling from virtually any person who sees you on the street. (Note that this applies to the south or Upper Egypt; Cairo and Lower Egypt are different and are explained a few days later). I expect and accept hustling when I walk into a shop, I am somewhat understanding of it when walking through street merchants, but I am getting very annoyed by being hit up by virtually anybody who sees me on the street, or those who tie up small boats alongside the cruise ship and try to sell to you as you are cruising! I cannot go for a walk without taxis and horse carriage drivers trailing me. Yesterday I went for a walk and a taxi driver not only pestered me about a ride, but he even knew the ship I was on. Several hours later that night, I walked the dock, and he remembered and yelled at me from the upper street, reminding me “Tomorrow maybe” in terms of taking a ride with him. This morning when I was on the ship’s sundeck he spotted me yet again and reminded me he was there to serve my needs. I understand this is an impoverished area, a matter that has only been exacerbated by the recent plummet in tourism, but I do get very frustrated not being able to walk along a street without being approached by essentially anybody for anything, from rides to trinkets to cigarettes (especially since I don’t smoke!). It’s not a matter of feeling unsafe—I never believe they would cause me any harm—but it is annoying.
As it turns out, we will be setting sail today, back to Edfu (Kom Ombo), where we will be spending the night. There are many more people on the ship right now, which is a mixed blessing: It feels more lively, like a real cruise, but it is also taking more time to get through the dinner line, etc. Given a choice between the two, I prefer having more bodies as it is now, but I am not sure what it would be like if we were to reach full capacity (I think we are about half full right now).
I’m getting to know my fellow Trafalgar passengers much better, and I continue to be pleased with how well the group is balanced and how comfortable everybody seems with each other. I’ve been welcomed by all of them, far, far better than the Italy “tour from hell” some years back when it was a different class of passengers, about 75% of whom were, to put it simply, rude and tacky. You never know with escorted tours, as your companions are essentially determined by luck, but in this case fate worked in my favor.
We shoved off about 2:30 PM local time, and I was coming down with a little bit of a sniffle, so napped until about 5:00 PM.
I also found out that one other “benefit” of being an Insight passenger is that the ship’s tips are included in the price, so in theory I don’t have to tip at the end, though they have been so awesome I think I will do so a second time. The suggested amount is $5 per day, which means that for seven days we are looking at $35 or just a tad over 200 Egyptian pounds. It is such a small amount for us, but it seems to be so necessary for them, especially in light of the lack of tourists.
I had a bit of the sniffles today, but after sleeping in a bit this morning and catching a short mid-afternoon, I feel pretty much back to normal. We’ve been passing this low grade ailment around the entire group, but fortunately it does not seem to be too strong a bug.
27 December 2011
The ship is still docked at Aswan this morning, and a number of the group took out for an optional flight to Abu Simbel (another site that was relocated when the dam was built), but I opted to stay on board and relax, plus get caught up on blogs, emails, etc.
I was able to meet “Cleopatra” from last night (Martina in real life), and she sat with me for an hour and a half as I showed her the Kindle and how it worked—she (like most who see it) was fascinated that you could get the Internet on it, with Facebook being the thing that excited her most. That made for a very interesting chat, between her broken English and my broken German, but we befriended each other both in the real world and on FB. It turns out this is her first vacation in eight years, and you could tell from her enthusiasm about everything that she was taking nothing for granted. It was quite a novelty for me: Sitting on a cruise ship in the Nile, talking with a beautiful Austrian in an orange string bikini. I could learn to like this!
One thing I cannot learn to like is the incessant hustling from virtually any person who sees you on the street. (Note that this applies to the south or Upper Egypt; Cairo and Lower Egypt are different and are explained a few days later). I expect and accept hustling when I walk into a shop, I am somewhat understanding of it when walking through street merchants, but I am getting very annoyed by being hit up by virtually anybody who sees me on the street, or those who tie up small boats alongside the cruise ship and try to sell to you as you are cruising! I cannot go for a walk without taxis and horse carriage drivers trailing me. Yesterday I went for a walk and a taxi driver not only pestered me about a ride, but he even knew the ship I was on. Several hours later that night, I walked the dock, and he remembered and yelled at me from the upper street, reminding me “Tomorrow maybe” in terms of taking a ride with him. This morning when I was on the ship’s sundeck he spotted me yet again and reminded me he was there to serve my needs. I understand this is an impoverished area, a matter that has only been exacerbated by the recent plummet in tourism, but I do get very frustrated not being able to walk along a street without being approached by essentially anybody for anything, from rides to trinkets to cigarettes (especially since I don’t smoke!). It’s not a matter of feeling unsafe—I never believe they would cause me any harm—but it is annoying.As it turns out, we will be setting sail today, back to Edfu (Kom Ombo), where we will be spending the night. There are many more people on the ship right now, which is a mixed blessing: It feels more lively, like a real cruise, but it is also taking more time to get through the dinner line, etc. Given a choice between the two, I prefer having more bodies as it is now, but I am not sure what it would be like if we were to reach full capacity (I think we are about half full right now).I’m getting to know my fellow Trafalgar passengers much better, and I continue to be pleased with how well the group is balanced and how comfortable everybody seems with each other. I’ve been welcomed by all of them, far, far better than the Italy “tour from hell” some years back when it was a different class of passengers, about 75% of whom were, to put it simply, rude and tacky. You never know with escorted tours, as your companions are essentially determined by luck, but in this case fate worked in my favor.
We shoved off about 2:30 PM local time, and I was coming down with a little bit of a sniffle, so napped until about 5:00 PM.
I also found out that one other “benefit” of being an Insight passenger is that the ship’s tips are included in the price, so in theory I don’t have to tip at the end, though they have been so awesome I think I will do so a second time. The suggested amount is $5 per day, which means that for seven days we are looking at $35 or just a tad over 200 Egyptian pounds. It is such a small amount for us, but it seems to be so necessary for them, especially in light of the lack of tourists.
I had a bit of the sniffles today, but after sleeping in a bit this morning and catching a short mid-afternoon, I feel pretty much back to normal. We’ve been passing this low grade ailment around the entire group, but fortunately it does not seem to be too strong a bug.
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