The next morning was free so we took advantage and got up late. After breakfast it was time for some hardcore lazing by and in the pool. I felt kind of like I should be seeing more of Aswan, but I didn’t think I could really see anything but more markets on foot. Anyway I’m always wearing myself out sightseeing – sometimes I would do well to remember I am on my holidays and spending time relaxing is what I’m supposed to be doing!
In the afternoon we got our stuff together and headed down to the Nile where we boarded the three feluccas which were to be our home for the next two nights. Shelly and I were on felucca B, which, just quietly, was the best felucca both in terms of fun had and comfort. It wasn’t the biggest felucca but the biggest one had about 12 people on it, while we only had eight, and our boat wasn’t much smaller. We met our crew (Nubians), Ramadan (the skipper), Mohammad and Khaled, and sailed away on the Nile. The crew were the nicest and most helpful guys in the whole world (continuing in the general Egyptian tradition).
We didn’t get far before we stopped for a simple but delicious lunch, and then some more relaxing sailing, We lazed about in the sun reading and chatting idly until Shelly asked Rami to teach us the Egyptian Olympic song Sam had sung earlier. He refused at first but once we began he had no choice but to continue. In fact he didn’t know all of the words so we rang Sam on board felucca A and sang to him over the phone. He wouldn’t teach us the song over the telephone though, so later he abandoned his boat temporarily and we finally learned all the words:
Have you seen the beauty of the Nile?
Have you seen Egyptians when they smile?
We are the Pharoahs, you must know the name
We like to be heroes, when we play the game
Since long ago, we are friendly people
I’m sure you know, I’m sure you feel it
Cheesy, huh? But fun to sing. The Nubian sailors took a break from the boat and pulled out the drums and we had a great sing along while sipping ice cold soft drinks out of the Esky. Rami made us laugh when Shelly was having trouble counting the Egyptian money (it can be quite old and hard to read). She tried a couple of times to figure out if she had the right amount for her drinks and gave up – so she held the bills out to Rami and demanded “Count!”. He grinned and replied, “Yes, Princess Shelly” at which point we all fell about laughing and from then on Marcie called Shelly “Princess Shelly”. Sam tried to teach us Soo ya soo – but that was less successful! We had the chorus down pat “Soo, ya soo, habibi habe soo” but the verses still required a lot of work! The wind picked up towards the evening, the water became choppy and the skipper decided we should moor for the night. We sorted ourselves out with regards to “the call of the wild” ashore as the feluccas didn’t even have a motor, let alone a toilet. Ah, the joys of camping. To be honest, going to the toilet in a hole in the ground is usually much more pleasant than use of public toilets, so I was as happy as Larry. We ate dinner on the boats by candlelight and after dinner gathered around the fire for singing and dancing with the Nubians. They sang some songs in Nubian but it soon became endless repetitions of “She’ll be coming round the mountain”. If I ever hear that song again it will be too soon. I enjoyed the primitive feel of the campfire and the rustic style entertainment. Who needs a TV, Xbox or iPod when you have a voice to sing and feet to dance? This is why you don’t need possessions to make you happy – when happiness can be found in the simplest of situations, buying cars, flat screen TVs, state of the art computers and fancy fridges with ice dispensers seems totally barking up the wrong tree. We went to bed kind of early considering we had a day of very hard and difficult lazing about to do the next day on the boat.
No comments:
Post a Comment