Day 10 - Aswan, Cruise to Luxor Saturday - November 26

We slept well on the boat and woke up at 6:30, dressed and went to the breakfast buffet at 6:45. The buffet had cold items, bread, etc., and then other hot items like omelets could be ordered from the wait staff. It was a large buffet for the small amount of people on the boat. I had an omelet, oatmeal, and a sweet roll. At 7:30 we took the van to the dock at Aswan to take a primitive ferry boat to Philae Temple. There were lots of vendors at the dock selling all kinds of tourist items. Aki's friend boarded with us to sell jewelry. Aki met him in Cairo when he called saying he had gotten his name from somewhere, was in Cairo and lost. Aki went to pick him up, took care of him, and got him home to Aswan. Next time Aki went to Aswan, the friend's family met Aki to thank him.

It was a 10 minute ride out to Aqilka Island to the Philae Temple. We were one of the first groups to land, and I got a great shot of the neat Trojan's Kiosk. Aki stopped in front of the West Colonnade to give his talk on the temple. I especially liked the carvings of Hathor - a female god with ears of a cow. We wandered around the Temple with Aki pointing out the wall carvings of gods and cartouches. I had read about a nilometer, so Michael and I went to check that out. A nilometer measured the height of the Nile, and people were taxed based upon the height of the Nile. We were there from 8 - 9:30, and took the boat back to the Aswan dock, where we maneuvered through the vendors. The van took us back to the Sun Boat IV where we set sail for Luxor at 10am.

At 10:30 the boat chef gave a cooking demo that only Michael and I showed up for. He showed us how to make baba ganoush, kushari (rice, lentils, pasta with a tomato sauce), and om ali (the bread pudding). Sandy showed up towards the end, and we all got to eat what he had made. I loved all three of these dishes.

We then went on the sun deck to watch the landscape as we cruised. It was quite windy, so we went down a deck to the covered lounge and spent the day watching Egypt float by. We watched the herders with their cows/donkeys/horses feeding and watering along the shore. We saw lots of different birds, fishermen on the water, other cruise boats, banana plantations. There were also lots of minarets. I would love to go back and photograph a coffee table book of minarets. They are so varied and beautiful. It was also interesting to see the lush greenness along the Nile and then the dessert behind it.

At 12:45 we docked to tour Kom Ombo, a temple built in the 2nd century BC. It is actually two temples, one dedicated to Sobek (crocodile god) and the other to Haroeris (Horus), the Egyptian sky god with the head of a falcon. I especially liked the carvings representing medical treatments. The temple also served as kind of a hospital with the priests acting as doctors. There were even game carvings on the floor where people played games while waiting to be seen. Aki also showed us what appears to be the first insurance policy carved on the floor. We saw the big pit where crocodiles where kept, and a well. And finally, there was a casket section so that people who died here could be sent home. We also saw a fertility symbol of two penises dripping semen.

On our walk back to the boat, we saw a little shop decorated with dom fruit from the dom palm. This appears to be a hard fruit, smaller than a coconut and also edible.

At 2pm, we had lunch - a set menu. I had a great cheese/tomato/cucumber salad, chicken orzo soup, and mixed grill with kofta/chicken/steak. For dessert we had flan. Then it was back to the covered deck for more cruise viewing. We saw a mama and baby water buffalo with the baby prancing and chasing all over. We saw feluccas, corn fields, more sheep and cows, El Kab (ancient tombs), and a beautiful sunset. We were served tea on the deck with tea, coffee, cookies, and cake.

At 5 we took a tour of the bridge, and I got my photo taken at the helm. Of course when I started to touch something, everyone politely jumped in to stop me!

At 6 we docked at Edfu and took a horse and carriage ride to the Temple of Horus. This was the only temple we saw at night, and it was dramatically lit and quite impressive. Listening to the call to prayers from within the temple was quite impressive. I love Horus because he has such neat bird shapes both in statues and carvings on the wall. All of the tombs and temples were over-whelming in terms of size, quantity of columns, carvings, cartouches. Aki explained lots of it, but most of it did not stick with me. I did enjoy the sheer beauty of the temples.

After our carriage ride back to the ship, we got under way and dressed for our "Egyptian Night" dinner. Bill and I had both purchased the galabeya (long Arabic dress) to wear. At 8 we had an Egyptian dinner buffet with the usual mezza (babaganoush, beans, hummus, tomato/cucumber salad, pickled lemons (wow!), entrees of kushari, beef with shallots/okra/tomatoes, spinach stuffed chicken, fish, and a variety of desserts including my favorite om ali (bread pudding).

We went to the deck for a final night view. We motored down the Nile during the night, docking for a short while somewhere.