Wednesday
Last night, while music throbbed and the youngsters partied in the lounge, Mike slept, and I stood quietly at the window overlooking the dark night, listening to the countdown. HAPPY NEW YEAR! We were on the Nile as one decade closed and another began.
Today we woke up at the town of Edfu and soon after 8am we headed onward towards Luxor. We spent a number of hours just watching the world go by- tough job for the 1st day of the year but someone has to do it!…
A main event along this short journey is through a lock at the town of Esna.
This takes about half an hour and is preceded by long and persistent cries of Hallaw! Hallaw. Egyptian salesmen peddling their wares come alongside each river boat in droves. There are dozens of them. They cry Hallaw to get your attention and the moment they have it, they start shouting for you to buy table clothes, shawls or scarves.
One of the boats…with 4 lots of peddlers coming on one side…
If they think they may have a potential sale, they put the product in a packet and throw it up a number of floors onto the boat deck. If you are interested you can have a look. If not, you simply toss it back (and hope it doesn’t go into the water!)
Other picture of one of the river boats surrounded by peddling paddlers…
One of the couples travelling in our group decided to buy a table-cloth. The price was EP1200 (about R1100). She managed to knock half off and got it for Egyptian Pounds 600. When she received the parcel, inside was an envelop in which she put the money, put it in a packet and tossed it down. Shortly after, the waiter came up and told her those table-cloths shouldn’t go for more than EP300! Not what you want to hear. But she will forever have this as a souvenir of Egypt and remember that she got it in the most unconventional way of trading! As for me, we will be at a market on Saturday and I hope to buy a tablecloth there for EP300!
Back to the lock…..the boat enters the lock with the water at one level – the gates get shut behind …
Two boats can fit in the lock at a time. This is the one in front of us as we came in behind it.
The water level dropped …
Leaving the lock….
So it’s been a very relaxing day on the river. We have seen many banana plantations interspersed with villages consisting of huts, donkeys, fishermen and farmers. We have also passed many unfinished buildings. They seem to be everywhere in Egypt. There is a back story. We asked the tour guide and she said that there was a massive level of building corruption where builders would start building, but they would save money by using substandard material. As a result many of the buildings did not pass safety standards and they could not be complete. The government has now stepped in and given the owners a deadline to take them down or else the government will demolish them. Hence the number of buildings in various stages of collapse or in the process of being dismantled….
We are due to arrive in Luxor at 5:30pm. Tonight we see the Luxor temple and have our last night on the boat. Tomorrow we visit the Valley of the Kings, before driving to our next resort.
My new diary also has a Bible verse for each day of the year. The one they selected for today last year’s diary had a short while ago, but you can never be reminded of this too much…
Psalm 118:24
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!
These are the days.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂
Gym:
My watch spent some hours charging this morning so I’ve only done 2054 steps so far. Hope to ramp that up by the end of the day.
Braces:
1 year 49 days.