I was on a mission for two things- underwear after I noticed mine had all disappeared after a run in with a disgruntled laundry attendant in Czech, and beers because I was sick of paying the $4 AU for a pint on the boat. Yeah- I know it was extortion, especially at half the price of back home and in a Muslim country that doesn't really drink. I have to say I failed pretty spectacularly on both accounts- After nearly dropping my dacks to show what "underwear" is for blokes (I now know they are "undershorts" in Egypt- handy knowledge!), and having half a dozen black market shops shoo me out for offering offensive prices for beers, I had no luck at all. It still gives me a laugh though asking a 80 odd year old granny huddled at an empty drinks stall "Stella?" and she looks at you suspiciously for a minute, then leads you to the back fridge in her shop and under 3 layers of water bottles, under a t-shirt and inside a sealed box she reveals what you want while keeping an eye on the door for police. Unfortunately she also wants $10 AUD for a small can, and I'm not a sucker. Enter the bartering with a crippled pensioner over an illegal item, and though I know I should feel sorry for her and all, its her standing between me and a cheap cold brew, so the battle is on and im taking no prisoners.After another tiring night of bartering in the Markets I retired back to the boat with our fearless leader on the top deck for another night cap. Its a pretty good send off before bed and as we chatted about the similarities of stoners over the world (PlayStation, munchies and a vast knowledge of how to relax) we watched the huge floating apartment blocks that we are residing on perform the worlds slowest game of leapfrog as a ship against the dock pushed off the other 4 attached to it, cruised off and the others re-assembled back on the jetty in their formation. Once again the last ones to bed from our entire ship I couldn't help but think how a contiki tour would be different... oh yeah- theres no pubs in this town, so there wouldnt be contiki here! An Egyptian business idea I seriously contemplated bringing back to Aus: In shops here, you can rent a room with your mates that has: Tv, Playstation, Fridge. It sounds awesome and you can run amok in there... until I realised everyone that wants a playstation in Aus can just buy one- Its not 5 years wage for them.
Today we did camels. Our group, minus Helen (who tore part of a ligament after Paul the picture taking oldie fell ontop of her when we beached our Felucca yesterday) set sail for the far side of the Nile and headed towards the Nubian village in Aswan. For ships of the desert, they sure dont have alot of comfort with their stinky breath, phlegm factories on overtime and watering the sand at the most inopportune moments, but damn they have a class of their own. Enormous fat feet for weight distribution on sand, huge eyelashes to keep out sandstorms, raked back ears to shelter from the wind.. We mounted our ships with no idea what to expect. After being close to thrown over "Mickey mouse's" head when he tried to stand, I then played a game of 'dont die' until my guide found that my saddle wasnt actually tied to my camel and sorted it out for me. It was pretty cool cruising around on these things up and down sand dunes, but I still couldnt shake the "I wish I had my landcruiser or trail bike" feeling. Actually I just wished I had anything with handles to stop me falling off or a steering wheel. Driving a camel was on par with driving my first car the troopy- you can steer it, but it may choose to laugh at you and go wherever the hell it wants. I guess Im just lucky my troopy didnt t-bone and smash into as many others as my camel did today, but I cant say much- I'd be doin the same if I was a camel.
On the ferry cruise back to our side of the nile we all compared war stories from our camel rides and discussed our days plans as we shuffled, bow legged, back to the ship. Me and Lyn were off to an internet cafe to sort our the next month of our trip- As it turns out, the Greek party islands are all set for a party, they are just missing the people and closing up this weekend. The new plan is pretty much Cairo-Athens, Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Sofia, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Split, Hvar, Italy, Marseilles, Paris, London, back to work, yaaaay. We did real well on this occasion and managed to book our flights out of egypt, and subsequent accommodation on incorrect dates so have managed to miraculously set ourselves backward in progress after 4 hours on the net.Im starting to think that getting a decent illness here and claiming a packet on travel insurance would just be easier to do to get home- I reckon Medibank would make a decent travel agent. who knows- we might not even have to try to pick anything up after we went for a swim in the nile yesterday. Seriously- I think I have found the worlds second richest oil field aside from the UAE- Its floating ontop of the nile river. Oh- no need to pick up anything exotic here I have now found. The docks here for cruise ships are about 1km long. Thats not short, but there is also about 60 cruise ships here too. Our ship is the fourth away from the jetty in our berth and to walk to it we have to walk the plank of the ship closest the dock, then through 3 other liners front doors, foyers, then out the exit and again into the next ship, repeat. At each ship's entry they have a crew member assigned to "Head Watcher". As elaborate as that title may be, he has one role: to say "Watch your head" as anyone walks past. I almost pissed myself laughing as a musical rendition of "Watch your head" came individually from each one of the 8 blokes having a smoko out front of our ship today. Of course, the day the head watcher trusts us and doesnt say it is the day Lynda clocks her head on the steel ceiling haha.
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