I really enjoyed listening to the musicians. They were very good and the music was traditional and they looked like they really loved what they were doing. After the Dervish left they carried on playing as one of them walked around the tables selling CDs. I immediately grabbed one as I thought they were fantastic!

I assumed they would leave after selling CDs but they had other ideas. They played another couple of songs all together and then one of the drummers stood up and began to shimmy with a scarf tied around his waist. The audience loved this and he started moving among the tables trying to get people up and dancing. No one got up but as he made his way to our table he caught my eye and I knew what was coming next. Sure enough he pulled me to my feet and led me to the dance floor in front of the musicians. Then he took a second scarf and tied it about my hips and  showed me how to shimmy.

As soon as I shimmied back without much trouble he laughed and clapped his hands and then to my horror stood to one side allowing me to solo! Now I have danced solo before, a little, but I’m more accustomed to dancing in a troupe (because I can always pass the lead off to someone when my mind goes blank!). Furthermore I’ve never danced with live music before, let alone live music played by local Egyptian musicians. To say I was scared is putting it mildly!

However, I gathered my wits and put a few moves together and danced for a couple of minutes thinking the song was bound to end. However, what I hadn’t anticipated was the musicians loving my dancing and they kept playing! It really was good fun though, despite me being horrendously embarrassed the entire time. The audience didn’t seem to be as into it as me so I tried a couple of times to leave the dance floor and let the musicians play, but they wouldn’t let me for at least 20 minutes! I finally excused myself as they came to the end of a tune and prepared for the next one.

I sat down to catch my breath thinking that would be the end of my performance for the evening. Oh no. I couldn’t get out of it that easily! About 10 minutes later one of the members came to our table and grabbed both me and my husband and pulled us onto the dance floor. This time I was a bit more willing, but the look on my husband’s face was priceless. For those of you who don’t know him, my husband is not a dancer, and certainly not good at shimmying. However I was very impressed when he  allowed them to tie a scarf round his hips and actually produced some good shimmies! I think I cracked a rib laughing though.

After we danced for a few minutes they finally finished playing and we gave them back their scarves. Much to my surprise they started chatting to us and were thrilled that I had danced with them. They even invited me back to dance the next night (unfortunately they were cancelled due to a lack of audience at the restaurant) and spoke to me about how they had visited America. One of the drummers, called Hosam, came to our table as we finished coffee and struck up a conversation and offered to show us around Cairo. Sadly, as they were cancelled we were unable to get his number so can’t take him up on his kind offer.

I think I will be writing a letter to the Nile Valley though to see if I can get some sort of contact information for the musicians. How fantastic would it be to bring them to Texas!!

We were collected at 6:00am and driven to meet the motor boat carrying others who had also paid to go on the balloon. In total there were 13 of us in the balloon, including the pilot and two random Egyptian men who seemed to have no purpose except maybe to add weight. However, when we arrived at the balloon take off site I was pleased to see that it looked like most balloon sites in the US that I’ve seen on TV. The ground crew were hard at work, no one was standing around lazily and when we were ready to take off that pulled out a couple of drums and gave us a very Egyptian send off!

We floated lazily above the west bank of Luxor for almost 45 minutes. It was very awe inspiring seeing the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, Hatshepsut’s Temple, Karnak and Luxor Temple (among others) below us. The sun was bright as it rose over the Nile and the burners of the balloon were hot on the back of my neck, but the views were breathtaking. We even got a closer look at the fields of local farmers as they harvested (by hand) their crops. Several waved enthusiastically and yelled out “Hello!” and “Welcome!”.

When we landed, thankfully quite smoothly, I was surprised to see some local children appear from nowhere. Some were riding donkeys, one had a tortoise and they all carried broken stalks of sugar cane. They were very friendly but they all wanted one thing. Baksheesh. Little rug rats. As much as I love kids we just can’t afford to give everyone who asks baksheesh so I just had to smile and shake my head, despite their attempts to look pitiful.

After tipping the ground crew we were taken back to our hotel where we were just in time for breakfast on the roof.  I highly recommend going up in a balloon, I just wish the ride had lasted longer!

At Karnak our guide took us to some of the most important parts of the temple complex before leaving us to wander through it ourselves taking photos. Like the Temple of Horus at Edfu, Karnak had a special atmosphere to me. Although it was full of tourists you could really imagine quite easily how it would have looked in ancient times. The temples at Karnak were built by 40 different pharaohs and the complex is dedicated to the sun god Amon-Ra. Our guide told us that in December the sun rises directly between the pylons at the main entrance and that in ancient times the King would come here at sun rise to watch the birth of the new day.

Like many temples, Karnak was at one point half buried in Nile mud and submerged by flood waters. As a result of this many of the columns were damaged and have since been restored. It’s still impressive despite the restorations. The carvings on the walls are still intact for the most part, and at the top of columns you can still see the original colors.

There is also a lake here called the Sacred Lake which is still filled with water. I’m sure in ancient times it was a beautiful place but now it’s surrounded by modern buildings and people selling cokes.  Next to the lake is a statue of a scarab beetle around which everyone was walking for good luck. Three times for general luck, five times to get married, seven times to get pregnant and nine times to get divorced. We joined in the fun but stopped at seven!

Afterwards we headed to Luxor Temple about 2km from Karnak. We saw the avenue of sphinxes that have recently been discovered lining a walkway that once linked the two temples together. Luxor Temple itself is an impressive sight, with an obelisk and two huge statues of Ramses II at the first pylon. At one point this temple was covered with silt from the Nile and a village was built on the top. However the government removed the village and the mud uncovering the temple. All that is left of the village is a mosque that still remains as part of the temple wall.

It really was a fascinating walk through history seeing the passage of time from the original temple buildings, seeing the mosque, the Christian artwork and the temple built by Alexander the Great. Thankfully at both sites the number of street vendors and “guides” was minimal so we could enjoy walking through the buildings and ruins without distraction.

We headed back to the boat for tea time and got chatting to our Australian friends again and arranged to go on a shopping trip before dinner. We ended up in the middle of horse carriage wars as drivers and touts fought over who was getting our money and we were warned by both sides not to trust the other. It was rather amusing but it made me want to walk instead of riding the carriage, but nevertheless we took the carriage through the local market and were dropped at a supposedly government run bazaar in a three storey building. Neither of us were convinced on the government run part as they had no certificate on display like all the other places we’ve been with a license from the Ministry of Tourism. Still they had some nice pieces of “papyrus” artwork and we decided to go ahead and get one with our names hand drawn in hieroglyphics. On the second floor I found the perfect gift for a friend’s son but when I enquired about it the guy obviously saw $$ signs because he paused and said “850 pounds … genuine cubic zirconia.” Even for cubic zirconia that’s extortionate (about $155), but in this case the piece I was looking at was obviously cut glass and not cubic zirconia by any stretch of the imagination. I just laughed at him and walked away.

We were then dropped outside another bazaar this time containing numerous shops and restaurants all catering to tourists it seemed. That was fun to walk through with a larger group as some of the hassling was deflected among the four of us rather than just on me or Oland. A few people tried to rip us off though and we had to laugh and walk away. One jeweler wanted to charge us $400 for a necklace and bracelet set that I could get at Midland Mall from one of the Chinese stalls for $30 or less.

Shopping is hard work over here and not for the faint of heart. At the markets I can understand it but at the stores where there is a fixed price on some things they still try and rip you off. I guess there are enough tourists who pay whatever they are told to make it worth the vendors’ while.

Back at the boat and we enjoyed our last evening meal of the cruise before heading to the lounge bar to watch the bellydance show that was scheduled. Another disappointment! The live band was fantastic and the bellydancer was dressed more modestly than the last one we saw in Cairo, but I have no idea what she was doing on the dance floor. I saw a few shimmies and hip bumps, but her arms flailed a bit or hung limply by her side and overall I just wasn’t that impressed. She also started 5 minutes early and most of the cruise passengers hadn’t made it to the show! She danced for 10 minutes and was done. She did pull me up to dance with my Australian friend, which was fun, but it was the Whirling Dervish who came on after her that stole the show.

Hopefully we get to see some better bellydancing before the end of our trip! Though I suspect we’ll have to pay for it if we want to see a professional. If our budget allows it we’ll look into it in Cairo next week.

After breakfast we ventured out onto the street. As always as we walked it appears the Egyptians have no concept of just taking a stroll and we had carriage drivers crossing the street trying to get us to ride their horse drawn carriages, as well as taxi drivers slowing down and honking us. It was rather tiresome but we managed to make it to a market area relatively unscathed.

We were “found” by a guy in the street walking the same direction who led us into the main market area. He told us about his “family” store called Nubian Smile and insisted we follow him inside. We were both rather dubious about his claims of family and rather suspected he had followed us from the boat and brought us here to get a commission from any sales. Nevertheless we went into the shop and were introduced to his “Uncle”. They both promised there would be no hassle and we could shop without being pestered.

There was a nice collection of jewelry and we showed an interest. The no pestering rule was of course not adhered to as the “Uncle” insisted we look at his pendants and emptied several bags onto the counter for us to look at. There were several pendants that I liked so we agreed to purchase them. The haggling then began. He kept telling us we were getting a discount but the first price he quoted was over $200 making the pieces about $45-$50 a piece, which despite his discount was very expensive. We argued with him for several minutes because really we could get these pendants in the US for $25-$30 a piece and we weren’t going to pay any more than that. We managed to get him down to $30 a piece and agreed to pay him that amount as it was a much fairer price and he refused to go down any further.

A few minutes after leaving his store we were approached by a gentleman who wanted to show us his store (like everyone else in the market). However this store was government run which we have already discovered means a much fairer price. We spent an hour or so shopping with him picking up more souvenirs including more jewelry (which he had a better price on) and some spices. I opted to buy spices from this store as he had a decent price on them already and I was too exhausted mentally to try battling the market to purchase some off a stall there.

We decided after this store to head back because there was no way we could wander through the market without being constantly pestered by store owners. As much as the initial experience of haggling was fun I have to say it is really off-putting to have people try and get you into their store one after another, many of which sell the same thing. And they have no idea what “No thank you” means. So we went back to the Crown Jewel amid constant honks from taxis and calls from carriage drivers (one of whom remembered us from earlier, ran across the street and tried to force us into his carriage).

After lunch we ventured out once more to visit the Nubian Museum. This time we actually needed a taxi so hailed one down and haggled with him briefly to get a decent price on his fare. He dropped us outside the museum and then insisted on waiting for us to drive us back for the same price. We tried to tell him he didn’t have to wait (as we didn’t want to pay any hidden fees), but he ignored us.

The Nubian Museum was actually quite enjoyable. It was a newer building than the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and better laid out. It didn’t have too many artifacts and the displays were poorly lit in areas, but it was a fascinating journey from prehistory (which suited Oland perfectly considering his interests in that era) right through to the relocation of the Nubian people when the Aswan High Dam was constructed.

That evening we went to the second Galabya Party of our cruise and this time I dressed in the red and gold dress I bought in Cairo. It was good fun really, though the lack of English speakers meant that the games pretty much were a non-starter, but we met a family from Australia and had a great chat.

We set off the next morning at 9am with our tour guide Mohamed El Aswany. There were six of us in the group and our mode of transport, in the morning, was a local felucca. The feluccas are the small boats with one large sail that have been traditionally used on the Nile to transport crop harvests to other settlements for trade purposes. Nowadays they are mostly used for tourism purposes due to the construction of the railway and roads in the country.

Compared to the cruise ship the felucca was wonderfully peaceful. We were taken across the river to a small island known as Kitchener’s Island, which once belonged to the British general Horatio Kitchener. According to the guidebook, he was given the island in the 1800s as a reward for leading the Egyptian army’s successful campaigns in Sudan. He turned the island into his home and planted many exotic and local plants forming a lush garden. Now it is known as the Island of Plants and is home to botanical gardens. We enjoyed a lovely walk through the trees enjoying the quiet.

We then boarded a small motor boat and headed further up river to the First Cataract to visit a traditional Nubian village. The village was quite interesting. We started at one of the schools that teaches kindergarten children and older illiterate people to read and write. First we had our own small lesson learning the numbers 1 to 10 in Arabic and Nubian, followed by the Arabic alphabet and finally got to write our names in Arabic. We were then taken into a couple of children’s classes all of them about 4 and 5 yrs old, which was adorable. Kids appear to be the same the world over. We were also shown a sewing room where local women, particularly older widowed women with no income, are taught how to sew and make cloths, bellydance costumes and hip scarves for sale in the village and other local souqs.

Afterwards we walked through the market area, buying a few handmade items and enjoying the scent of many spice stalls. We even got to see piles of bright blue powder for sale which turned out to be Indigo. There was also a gentleman there making a pashmina scarf with a wooden, foot pedaled weaving machine. Our final stop in the village was at a local residence, where we looked at the living quarters of these people. The houses are actually quite large built with adobe and mud bricks with domed roofs.

After lunch on the boat we headed out again for another full afternoon. We started by visiting the Unfinished Obelisk, which was interesting if you have a tour guide with you to explain the history behind it. Otherwise it really is just a lump of rock in the ground!

After 30 minutes we headed off again to visit something a little more modern: the Aswan High Dam. I remember whilst still at school spending several geography lessons studying this dam so I was very interested to visit it. It is an area that is very heavily militarized, so photo opportunities were limited, nevertheless we were allowed to get pictures from the top of the dam on both sides. On one side facing down river to the First Cataract you can see the place where the rock that was used to fill the dam was quarried and the huge power station. On the opposite side of the dam is the lake formed by the building of the dam, Lake Nasser. It’s quite an impressive sight. Even more impressive is what else occurred at the time of the lake creation. Lake Nasser stretches for more than 500km (310 miles) south into Sudan. However the land it now covers was not entirely free. About 40,000 Nubian people were forced to relocate (most of them ended up at Kom Ombo approximately 50miles north of Aswan). In addition many historic sites, particularly temples, were threatened by the lake including the Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel and the Temple of Philae. A huge project run by UNESCO was created to physically relocated these temples and such to higher ground. For example this involved cutting the Temple of Ramses II out from the rock face and moving it about 210 meters back from the water’s edge and higher up to avoid possible flooding. The Temple of Philae was actually submerged about three quarters of the way and to first be pulled out of the water before it could be moved.

The Temple of Philae was next on our list of places to visit. This temple was begun in the Ptolemaic period and is dedicated to the goddess Isis. It is located next to another island that is supposedly the grave of her husband Osiris. When it was relocated they made sure it remained close to this island to preserve its integrity. The only way to reach the temple is by boat so we found ourselves once more on the river. The temple itself is another impressive sight and fascinating to wander through. Luckily the water didn’t do too much damage when it was submerged, however other damage was apparent. Like many of the other sites in Egypt, the Christians that came after the end of the dynastic period chiseled away the images of all gods and goddesses (unless they were covered with sand as was the case in many instances) to prevent the rest of the population worshipping the “wrong” god. Philae is particularly interesting in this respect as Coptic crosses have been carved into the walls replacing some of the hieroglyphics  and the temple at one point was converted into a church.

By the time we got back to the Crown Jewel  we were both shattered!

The entertainment in the evening was a Nubian Show featuring musicians, various male dancers and audience participation. Yours truly was of course forced to join in several times, but it was all good fun.

As it turned out, we were not forced to wear galabyas, but many people had bought them so came dressed appropriately. It was good fun and I won at the tombola. I spent the evening chatting with an Italian girl called Sylvia and we had a good giggle at the escapades of some of the people at the party during the games.