M-whY

"Hey Mark, are you in there?" Chanda asked, knocking on my door. "I just talked to the guy, so our cruise doesn't leave until 11:00."

What?! But didn't they tell us yesterday to be ready by 7:00?

"If that's the case, I'm going back to sleep then," I said. It might just be the way things are done in Egypt, but no one ever seems to know what's going to happen until the last minute.

Four hours later, the three of us were sitting in the lobby, with everything we needed, except our vouchers.

"Okay, the taxi is here," said Mohammed, supposedly the guy in charge around here.

"Wait, we need our vouchers back," we told him.

"No problem, it's okay, you don't need the voucher."

"Yes we do, you asked for them when we got here, what if the next hotel asks for them too?"

There was a brief exchange in Arabic with him and the receptionist. "The voucher is in the other office. If we spend time to go get it, you will miss your cruise. Don't worry, everything will be okay, you have three nights on the cruise..."

"Two," we corrected him.

"Two nights on the cruise, two nights in Aswan, plus train ticket back to Cairo. No problem, why don't you trust us?"

"Because we've been asking for them back for the past two days, and we still haven't gotten them back..." Each time, we were told to check back later, either in a couple hours, or in the evening, or the next morning. I was fairly confident they'd live up to their end of the bargain, but possession of the voucher would've been reassuring.

We ended up getting Mohammed's cell phone number and his word that someone would be waiting for us once we got off the boat in Aswan. Not that the latter was worth very much. Considering all the hassle we've gotten from just walking down the street, I might trust a used car salesman more than I would an Egyptian. (Can you imagine an Egyptian used car salesman?) During the short drive to the port, I wondered what our ship would be like, and prepared myself for the worst.

To be fair, they had delivered all that they promised up til now, and it would be that way for at least the next two days. Our cruise was rated five-star, just like they said it'd be. Now obviously, five-star on the Nile isn't the same as five-star in, say, the Carribean, but this was more than acceptable. The beds were fresh, the shower was clean, the toilet had enough oomph to flush down a turd.

"This is probably the best I've stayed in in a while."

Exploring the rest of the ship, we found lounge chairs and a couple jacuzzis on the upper deck. We sailed a few minutes past noon, and lunchtime came an hour later. We followed the dinner bell down to the restaurant.

The food looked better than it tasted, but served buffet style, I could stuff myself with as much tough beef as I wanted. After eating, we returned above to waste away the afternoon. No stops were scheduled for today, so between naps, I watched the banks of the Nile scroll by. Birds flitted about the surface, camels loitered at the water's edge. Some kids paused their soccer game to wave 'Hello' at us.

As Ra descended from his midday perch, trees became a silhouette against the orange glow. I couldn't ask for a better first sunset of 2006. Meanwhile, I wondered what those back home were doing... Just waking up, I'll bet, tired and hungover!

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!