30/01/19 The first night was cold but manageable. They used curtains to protect us at night against the cold and lighted up some candles during dinner that they cooked on board. They lighted a chicha as well for us to enjoy.
Today we stopped by the beach twice to enjoy the sun. The morning stop was pretty cold but most of us put their swimwear on and went into the water.
We played Exploding Kittens for a while, a funny card game to kill time. The cruise was very relaxing as we didn’t have to do anything for 2 days.
For the second night the crew made us a bonfire on the beach and we danced around the fire while they played some music with the instruments they brought with them.
When we arrived on the beach at sundown, a family of white dogs came by hoping we would bring them food. At least 10 puppies from various sizes were running around it was very cute. 2 of them stayed close to the fire all night.
31/01/19 (happy bday Flo!) The cruise ended this morning and we had to be back to the bus at 7am.
We visited the Komombo temple made by Dolomi 6. Next to the temple is a little crocodile museum where we saw crocodile mummies.
Next stop was Edfu temple before finally reaching the hotel where we were all happy to have a shower after 2 nights on the sail boat.
We were supposed to make our order for dinner at a restaurant in front of the hotel before the evening activity so my roommate and I went together. We had to look for a green sign and an Irish pub on the second floor. We followed the directions and found a restaurant. It was more British than Irish but green sign and on second floor as advised so we got in. The waiter seemed surprised but took our orders.
When we joined the rest of the group later we realised we went to the wrong restaurant ?. So we apologised to the wrong one and made the order at the other restaurant, in a parallel street, which was indeed more Irish. Twice the price as the first one though, for a similar menu.
The bus took us to the Luxor temple by night for the evening which was all beautifully lighted up.
Then we went to the Irish pub to have our food ordered earlier, and my spaghetti bolognese was 1 spoon of sauce on top of overcooked pasta ?. The others found their food pretty average too but no one got sick so we didn’t care.
2 couples formed on the Felucca cruise (did I mention that I travel with a group of 28 people in their early 20’s? ?) so my roommate asked for a roommate switch tonight.
01/02/19 This morning we visit the Memnon statues. Before that some of us booked a hot air balloon ride and they had to be ready by 5.15am. The tour guide organised a wake up call at 4.45am so the night was short again.
Nearby the statues we had a fun donkey ride for 10 minutes then drove to the Valley of the Kings where many Kings from Ancient Egypt were buried. These tombs are incredibly well preserved as colours on the walls are still vivid. Champollion who translated hieroglyphs might have spent 6 months in those tombs to study them when they were discovered. There are more than 60 tombs but our ticket only allows us to visit 3 of them. The tomb of Tutankhamun is located here and required an extra ticket but our guide mentioned that only his mummy is kept inside the tomb, in bad condition, and all the objects including his mask are visible at the Cairo museum we will visit tomorrow so I didn’t buy the extra ticket.
I visited the tombs of Ramses IV, Ramses IX and Ramses III, as recommended by the guide.
Our last temple visit is the temple of Hatshepsut, before a visit to an alabaster factory.
Back on the road again, we have a 9h drive to Cairo.
