Egypt Day 8: All Aboard (The 80's Greek Love Boat)

Well, Grant claims 'we' fell asleep, but really it was more like he feel asleep. I fell asleep only briefly, and then proceeded to toss and turn trying to keep my insides from escaping. I finally gave up the fight and braved the bathroom at the end of the hall. Turns out I had developed the full fledged Pharaoh's Curse. Very little stayed down, and what did stay down beat a hasty retreat. After my insides were completely outside I went back to the car to try and sleep. I managed to toss and turn and snooze on and off until morning.

We arrived in Aswan at 8:30 am and were met by our guide. He packed us up in the van and drove us the maybe 3 blocks to the boat. If I'd realized it was that close I would have likely walked. The boat was the real treat, however.

Words cannot describe the cheesy attempt at opulence properly. Lots of gilt and mirrors everywhere. We actually get to check into our room, and discover twin beds. Luckily, this time they were able to switch us to a queen bed, so we were rather happy. The room was bigger than we expected. We even had a sitting area next to the big window facing the opposite bank.

After enjoying the nice and clean facilities our room offered, and taking a nice nap, we decided to hit the pool. We met Joe and Judy from Sydney and Chris from DC also hanging out and enjoying the splash pool. It was really more of a fountain with a well than a pool. It had a sitting area that was wide and about 6" deep and then the middle section was 180 cm deep. But it was cool, which was appreciated in the heat. But I'm glad the boat wasn't full, the pool really didn't hold more than about 12 at a time.

Tea time was at 6 pm on deck, quite nice really. When we got our bill for the cocktails we learned that alcohol was not included. When we got our bill at dinner for our water we learned that no beverages were included (except for the tea served once a day and the juice at breakfast). Who charges for water? I understand that it's bottled, but I've never heard of a meal being included in an activity/room/vacation/cruise/hotel that did not also include some sort of non-alcoholic drink. I found this further annoying because this was not a cheap cruise, this was one of the nicer ones we found.

At dinner we got to know our table mates. Josh and his two kids, Maya and Alex, were from St. Louis and Ramy, Tom and Eric had just finished grad school at MIT and were wandering the globe before settling in the Bay (small world) and Arizona.

After dinner it was off to the Nubian show in the discotheque (yes, they really spelled it that way). There was dancing and drums, which were entertaining, but then they had a guy in a grass skirt doing audience participation stuff which was ok, but a bit too cheesy for me, especially in a room of virtual strangers. The end was a band that included a rather high and screetchy flute, though it was well played.

We hit the sack after that, as we had a 7 am wake up call for an 8 am tour the next morning. Check Grant's blog for the details on Day 9: Dam Tourist Traps.