Yay! Felucca!

One of the dreamy things I wanted to do when I decided to come here was to cruise down the Nile. Laying on cushions being fanned by over-sized palm leaves drifting past crocodiles and small villages. Yeah, that doesn’t really happen. But there are a few other options. You can hop a 5 star hotel on water cruise boat and tourist your way between Luxor and Aswan or you can hour trip around the small islands that surround either of those two cities. I wasn’t too keen on either of them. After chatting with lovely Mr. Mohamed who had saved me from Mr. McFeely Hands my first day in Aswan, he had an option for me; he was a tour operator of course. We had arranged for me to do a two day, two night trip from Aswan to Kom Ombo, 40kms north towards Luxor. I would then train it from there. I was kinda disappointed as 40kms isn’t that far, but considering feluccas are sailboats so no wind, no moving, it made sense. That was the best we could do and I absolutely thrilled with it.

I’d returned from Abu Simbel early that morning and at noon, Mr. Mohamed met me and passed me on to another tour operator who passed me on to a driver who was going to take me to the boat. We drove and we drove and we drove and I was thinking I was driving a lot of what I should have been floating but whatever. I get dropped in a marshy area and pointed towards a felucca tied up along shore so I eagerly bound towards a young man approaching me from the boat. Stomping along beside this lovely Egyptian young man, I see one of my boat mates aggressively gesturing towards his watch and the sky. Oh dear. Not off to a good start. I plop myself on board with a family of 5 from France. As is often in case in Africa, what you pay for and what you get are two very different things. It turns out that the family had started their journey the day before from Aswan, where I had just driven from, and cruised nicely but then spent the night the entire day on this bank and the one just opposite, apparently waiting on me and another person yet to arrive. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Mom, dad, and three kids, 13, 10, and 6 (I think). Luckily the kids didn’t seem to mind as they were swimming and jumping around the boat but dad was really frustrated. 20 hours in the same spot more or less with nowhere much to walk around and nothing to really do. He had my sympathy.

Between mom’s very good English and my broken French, I was able to make friends and we were able to distract the dad while we waited for our last passenger. The three crew members were amazing and played with the kids like kids themselves. The kids were endlessly entertaining and remarkably well-behaved. SO easy to please! Finally, American Dan arrives and we’re off. Poor Dan was the first native English speaker I had seen in a while so I was quickly chatting his ear off in between my shameful attempts in French. As terrible as I am with the language, at least I’m not so embarrassed to try anymore. And I think we did okay between the lot of us as the conversation never stopped until it was time to sleep.

Luckily we had good wind so we just switchbacked from one bank to the next, slowly making our way north. The kids were having fun steering the boat and teasing the staff and the grown-ups (yes, I’m in that group!) talked and shared travel stories. We left about 2pm and just had the nicest time hanging out and chatting. You can see photos of what the felucca looked like on my facebook. Essentially a covered deck lined with cushions with enough space to sit up right but not enough to stand. Perfect for lounging and chatting. When we pull up alongside for the night that is quickly approaching, we all wander up from the water where there’s some farmland and a gathering of donkeys, cows, and stray dogs that all made for good distraction while staff made us dinner. 10 of us sat around to a simple home made dinner as we settled in for the night.

It got pretty chilly out there so thick woolen blankets were passed around and we all sprawled out and snuggled up on the cushioned boat deck. Everyone had had long days so sleep came quickly and is ALWAYS so much better when you’re sleeping outdoors. I, however, continue to be the world’s lightest sleeper and spent most of the night listening to our puppy friends in constant conversation with their buddies across the river, donkeys and cows braying and lowing their share of the chat, and the put-put of hotel boat engines chugging past in the dead of night. Even so, wrapped tight in my fleece jacket and wool blanket with the tip of my nose ice cold, wide awake but desperate for sleep, I was a happy, happy girl. This wasn’t what I had imagined but it was so fantastic nonetheless!

Oh, forgot to tell you MY part of the “it never goes as planned in Africa” bit. I had planned and paid for two days, two nights. Getting on the boat at lunch time and getting off the boat two breakfasts later. Well, my boat mates were all finishing their journeys after my one night, the very next day. The staff seemed surprised to hear that I had booked for two nights. Many phone calls were made, many back and forth conversations were had, and it was agreed that I would get off the boat with everyone else tomorrow. We had already made it to my departure point of Kom Ombo because of good wind so the only option would be to spend the second day heading BACK to Aswan. Ummm… no thanks. Half of my money was ACTUALLY returned to me and everyone was okay with the plan. It was the middle man, the one Mr. Mohamed passed me off to, who had given everyone the run around and he, of course, wasn’t answering his phone. No harm done, it would have been nice to have another day and night on the boat, but no big deal. I had such a lovely time cruising for the day that I did. We were away from the city, I got to lounge and see camels and donkeys grazing (no crocs), families bathing along the shore, and met some incredibly nice people. I had so much fun!

Our poor crew had to paddle us across and just up from our sleeping point the next morning, as there was no wind, to where everyone was getting off the boat. I hitched a ride part way into town with the family who had a driver waiting for them and then did the last bit to the train station via tuk tuk! I was thrilled as I hadn’t seen a tuk tuk since Asia! I love those annoying, cramped tricycle rides!

Boarded the local train to Luxor. The locals REALLY try to discourage me from using the local train and it’s understandable. They are hot, smelly, rough, and DIRTY as hell. But they are cheap cheap and run much more frequently than the A/C trains. So I get onto this very crowded train to Luxor and am immediately regretting not waiting it out. The trains have that four-seat configuration where two seats face forward and two seats backwards so you can look at each other instead of the back of a seat. I shared my little section with a very kind, tired mom and her very tired, dirty young boy. Our window doesn’t open, every smoker is a chain smoker, the heat is intense this morning, and the three hour journey is a tough one. With my backpack propped in between my legs, dripping sweat and hurting from the amount of smoke I’m inhaling, it was a LONG three hours. Take me back to my wide open felucca, please!