First, a few general thoughts after a serious day of touristing. To begin with, you can all stop worrying about me. If they are rioting in Egypt, or even suffering from a plague of locusts, it is nowhere near me, The people have all gone out of their way to be friendly, and when they find out that Trish and I are Americans, they always say "welcome to Egypt", and seem genuinely happy to see us. They all seem to love Obama. I have heard varying opinions about the new government and Morsi, but everyone agrees that the bad press they are receiving is keeping the tourists away. Just saying "thank you" in Arabic (the only word I have been able to almost master so far), and there are big grins all around. (Trish is studying Arabic, and has more words than that, and all are received with great pleasure.) What I have not seen anything of in real life is the endless loop of CNN footage of fists raised in anger in Tahrir Square. I have a much warmer feeling about the Egyptian people, and their ability to make discerning judgements about their future.
That said, one aspect of the financial situation here - i.e., lots of people are hurting - is making life distressing. There are swarms of VERY agressive vendors everywhere, importuning, bargaining, chasing you from mini-van to tourist site (into which they are not allowed to go), and waiting outside for you until you get back, trying to separate you from the herd and wear you down. I LOATHE that stuff; although they are smiling and friendly and not at all threatening, it is just plain unpleasant. It may be worse than India , which is indeed saying sonmething. My friends who live here say it has always been thus, but it has got to be worse now that the tourist trade is down 70%.
Speaking of which, if this is the tourist trade down 70%, I would have hated to be here at its peak. As it is, there seem to be lots of people, although it is true, not very many Americans. (Who would have thought that we would scare off that easily. Lots of Germans, though - they never seem to get scared off - and Latin Americans, Italians, French, Portughese, and, of course, the Japanese. There are tour guides conversing in all languages everywhere. Still, I am grateful - apparently, when tourism was at its peak, you sometimes had to wait in line for an hour or more to get into the temples.
Back to the ship. It is quite all right, although not luxurious by any manner of means. The cabins are slightly larger than they were on the Uniworld ship in France last year, I think, but the food, while plentiful, is only just okay, and the coffee is DREADFUL! (I should have bought stock in Nescafe when I first started traveling and found out that the whole world uses it!
Trish and I settled into our respective cabins that first night, Friday, March 29th, and then went up to the lounge for the Nubian show, which was full of Nubian (i.e., African) rythms and colours and drumming. It was more fun than these things usually are, and blessedly short. Herewith, some pictures of the boat, and scenes along the Nile.
(those are really water buffalos, tell you...)
So, I will leave you know. The sun has set, dinner is about to be served, and we are moving down the Nile to our next stop, the town of Esna.
That said, one aspect of the financial situation here - i.e., lots of people are hurting - is making life distressing. There are swarms of VERY agressive vendors everywhere, importuning, bargaining, chasing you from mini-van to tourist site (into which they are not allowed to go), and waiting outside for you until you get back, trying to separate you from the herd and wear you down. I LOATHE that stuff; although they are smiling and friendly and not at all threatening, it is just plain unpleasant. It may be worse than India , which is indeed saying sonmething. My friends who live here say it has always been thus, but it has got to be worse now that the tourist trade is down 70%.
Speaking of which, if this is the tourist trade down 70%, I would have hated to be here at its peak. As it is, there seem to be lots of people, although it is true, not very many Americans. (Who would have thought that we would scare off that easily. Lots of Germans, though - they never seem to get scared off - and Latin Americans, Italians, French, Portughese, and, of course, the Japanese. There are tour guides conversing in all languages everywhere. Still, I am grateful - apparently, when tourism was at its peak, you sometimes had to wait in line for an hour or more to get into the temples.
Back to the ship. It is quite all right, although not luxurious by any manner of means. The cabins are slightly larger than they were on the Uniworld ship in France last year, I think, but the food, while plentiful, is only just okay, and the coffee is DREADFUL! (I should have bought stock in Nescafe when I first started traveling and found out that the whole world uses it!
Trish and I settled into our respective cabins that first night, Friday, March 29th, and then went up to the lounge for the Nubian show, which was full of Nubian (i.e., African) rythms and colours and drumming. It was more fun than these things usually are, and blessedly short. Herewith, some pictures of the boat, and scenes along the Nile.
(those are really water buffalos, tell you...)
So, I will leave you know. The sun has set, dinner is about to be served, and we are moving down the Nile to our next stop, the town of Esna.
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