Felucca Cruise, Egypt

The Felucca Cruise was a lesson in relaxation. Mainly all we did was idle away the hours by eating, drinking, lying about, or reading. One night we watched an Egyptian football (soccer) match on the television in a Nubian Village. That was pretty cool, and since it was our tour manager's home town, we got to mix with the locals. The next night we just chilled out and played cards. It was all good except for one thing: peeing on the boat was very much a problem. By the time we pulled into shore, everyone's bladder was near bursting; however, ducking behind the bushes was not a feasible option when the whole town turned out to stare at us. (You may think I'm exaggerating here, but I'm not. Twenty kids would just line up on the bank and stare while we did nothing more interesting than put on our shoes.)

Muslims tend to be fairly abstemious people, especially during Ramadan. For a solid month between the hours of 4 a.m. and 5 p.m., Muslims cannot eat, drink anything (including water), smoke, or fornicate. Needless to say, as soon as they are allowed to break their fast, they start scarfing down food like there is no tomorrow. (The fast is broken with a sweet drink, either coconut milk and dates or some really sweet/icky fermented bread drink.) Did Izzart, our Muslim tour manager, gobble down food at the day's conclusion? Nono, he did not. He proceeded to light up and blaze a pound of weed.

I kid you not.

Though Muslims aren't allowed to touch a bottle of alcohol, smoking their brains out is apparently A-OK. Izzart spent the next four days completely blasted. So blasted he stopped responding to his own name. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but you would have to repeat his name at least three times before a response was elicited.

We had been traveling for nearly a day and a half but hadn't left Aswan. In two days we covered thirty kilometers. How funny is that? Though the Felucca was not the most efficient form of transport, it was a ton of fun. Plus we had lots of really good food on board, and I discovered the spice cumin. :)

*Sigh* I'm so behind on this blog. I'll post about Luxor and Cairo part II as soon as I get a chance. My flight to Nairobi leaves in three hours, so I gotta jet--literally.

I'm flying Ethiopian Air...I wonder if we will get anything to eat.