Remind me to never tell B.B. if we have an early morning again! We had an early flight today with our driver picking us up at 4.45am. B.B woke at 1am and then every half hour or so after, rushing over to make sure I knew the time so we didn’t miss our flight! This was despite knowing I had set the alarm and we were getting a wakeup call (which I said I didn’t want and got two anyway!) So with no sleep, we head off for tour flight to Aswan. We are greeted by Mesa. He is a melancholy and goes through every detail of our itinerary and goes over a few extra tours and costs. He gives us the rundown on tipping and how much everything should be. He even takes us to an Egyptian shop to buy water and some food as it’s cheaper! The new High Dam, unfinished Obelisk and Philae temple is on the list for this morning before boarding our boat, and sailing up the Nile. The High Dam was built to better regulate the annual flooding of the Nile but despite its size Philae Temple turns out to be more impressive, especially knowing they moved it! When they put the new High Dam in, the temple was flooded (along with thousands of other sites) It took them 10 years to move it to another site.
The unfinished Obelisk is the largest one ever made. Unfortunately, just before finishing, it cracked right through the middle, rendering it useless. Finally we make it to the boat. Thanks god too as the kids are not being on their best behaviour. We are blessed to be upgraded to a suite. It has a queen bed, single fold up bed and a small couch. Considering this room is supposed to be double the cost, we were hoping for something a little bigger. Lunch is buffet style with much the same food as yesterday. A KFC style chicken, fish and some stemmed vegetables. Then another table for salad, bread and a big desert table. There are quite a few other guests, although a good 97% of them are Asian. I’m starting to feel like I have a head cold so we decide that instead of doing the Felucca ride and gardens today that we will go to the room for some quiet time. The kids however really want to go to the pool so mark takes them up. The water is below freezing so they are back in 5 minutes! Mark wants to sit in the sun up on deck for a bit but the kids and I stay in the room. I lay down for a nap while the kids play on the iPad. 10 minutes later I hear the kids setting up a shop in the room. I was trying to sleep with a pillow over my head so they didn’t know I was listening. Next I hear Benjamin say to Ayrlie “Because you have a beautiful face and a pretty smile I’ll do you a deal. I’ll give you a 10% discount so it will be 30 instead of 40 pounds.” They are practising what they have witnessed over the last few days and it’s super cute!
Dinner is great! Way better than lunch and what we have been eating. Yummy soup, lightly battered fish, pasta and pizza. Kids are stoked! We are all bushed so head straight to bed.
