Relaxing on the Nile

Trip Start May 13, 2008
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Trip End Jun 26, 2008


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Flag of Egypt  , Nile River Valley,
Wednesday, May 21, 2008

We woke up at around 10am this morning, ready to relax and catch some sun on the boat. Lunch was yummy again. In the dining room, the meals were served buffet style with large spread of great looking food. They always had tons of different breads first, followed by salads. There was always feta and tomatoes which we liked best! The other salads were sometimes quite interesting and we attempted a few and some were good. Next was the soup that never failed to impress (our other favorite!)  There was always a rice dish and some sort of cooked, flavorful vegatable dish.  They also always had a potato dish of some sort followed by freshly cut meat (chicken or beef, NEVER pork!)  There always was an interesting fish dish and it seemed that the favorite spice of Egypt is Coriander a.k.a. CILANTRO!!! Needless to say, we love cilantro and almost all the dishes they prepared. If there wasn't enough flavor in the food for us they had out dishes of extra spices you could sprinkle on top. We would experiment with them in the soup and on the rice. The food was definitley the high point of the boat! The desserts were pretty good with different geletins, cakes and sometimes bakclava! Unfortunately there was no chocolate so we sometimes had to supplement with Mars bars from the markets.

Our entire day was spent in the sun on the top deck, swimming and relaxing. All our Contiki group were there too hanging out with us. The afternoon tea was good again but only Jenn got to enjoy it because Jill was fast asleep in the shade. We arrived in Luxor before dinner and ventured off the boat to the market to buy some water and MARS BARS!! This was Jenn's new favorite candy bar. Where we were in Luxor, there was not much right off the boat, but we did see an Egyptian albino man!! He had the bluest eyes, the lightest skin and hair, it was weird to hear him spear arabic even though he was 100% Egyptian!!!   Back on the boat we had another feast, unfortunately the Goodbye dinner and all the staff sang their goodbye song.  During dinner we discussed whether or not to splurge on the hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings.  We decided to do it because it was once in a lifetime even with the 4am start time! After a refreshing shower, we saw a real belly dancing show, but first, a man came and spun around in a slirt to give the illusion of a lotus flower.  He spun around in place for about ten minutes and did some sort of balancing act with plates.  Then the Belly dancer came in.  She was not what we expected because she a bit large and shook it all.  She got the crowd involved and picked two of our guy friends to dance with her, quite a funny sight!

We decided to turn in early because of our extremely early balloon ride in the morning! 
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