A cruise up the Nile

Egypt on a budget is easy. If you go in the Summer (definitely NOT the tourist season) and if you meet up with like minded budget travelers, there are many deals to be found. There was a 3 day, five star Movenpick cruise up (remember - the Nile flows South to North) the Nile to Aswan. At the Pharone I met an Australian on walkabout and her cousin from Poole, and we chipped in for a three bed stateroom on the cruise. Tony was off to meet some friends at Hurghada on the Red Sea.

The cruise was old world and amazing. We had an on board tour guide, Reda Fouad. We stopped at temples along the way: Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo. The sunsets on the Nile were beautiful. Equatorial sunlight is very special, providing some of the most intense and moving sunsets that I have ever seen. We went through the Nile lock at Esna, and I felt that I was following in the wake of so many tourists, artists and writers, that it would be redundant and impossible to add to their words.

But for me it was at sunset, as I sat alone in our stateroom looking out the window, that the trip was overwhelmingly beautiful. I watched local business children throwing souvenirs up to the guests on the boat. If the guests wanted to purchase, they would toss down money. I watched this impromptu market emerge from the banks of the river as the ship came to the lock, and as the water level slowly changed, I listened to the muffled negotiations going on outside. As the ship progressed up the river, one by one, these riverside entrepreneurs disappeared, back to their perches, waiting for the next ship to pass by.

We had an onboard costume party that night. A group of strangers, in fancy dress, on the adventure of a lifetime. I, of course, went as Cleopatra (after all, she had red hair). There was eating, drinking and dancing into the dawn. We had a chance to sleep, and soon enough we had arrived at Aswan. There was the option to drive to see the sun rise over the tomb of the Aga Khan which my travel companions took - I stayed in Aswan. After two weeks in Luxor, and the temples along the Nile - I was tombed out.

I chose to have a gin & tonic at The Old Cataract Hotel (I was looking for Agatha Christie, but she had left decades ago). That evening, a group of us went to the Aswan Market, were given a drink of pressed sugar cane, and left to shop. But I couldn't get my head around the kaleshes, and the poor horses and donkeys that labor with them. I wanted to take them all home with me. When I finally went into the Bazaar, the men were aggressive, and would catcall. I hated it, and I wished that Tony were with me. When a Western woman is alone in Eqypt, she is fair game. It is harmless flirting for the most part, but I have never been comfortable with that. And there is also a nasty undercurrent of sex tourism in Eqypt - as I was alone, it made me feel vulnerable. Just as I was able to see and touch ancient history with every turn of my head, while I was in Egypt, I was able to see and learn about parts of my personality that a sheltered life would never have allowed me to see clearly.

The next morning, we took a first class train back to Luxor, a taxi to the hotel, and Tony was waiting pool side. We had much to discuss about our respective side journeys. We bonded over what we saw, and our own personal journeys. Or, as my friend Denise says - there is something about Egypt that changes people.