We farewelled the Dolphin and piled into the mini bus with two other Australians who were also doing the Lake Nasser cruise. Our driver was a bit of a maniac even though the traffic wasn't that bad because it was a Friday (Fridays and Saturdays are the weekends here). We arrived at the airport and checked in and then had to kill two hours before our flight. Boring.
The flight itself was incredibly short. Total boarding, taxiing and flight time was only about 45 minutes. I slept the whole way :) When we arrived we were greeted by a representative from the tour group who waited until we collected our luggage and then showed us to the minibus before disappearing into another car with other people. We were told that there would be a representative somewhere else waiting for us. Umm, ok...
So the driver takes us off and after about 10 minutes of driving we pull up on what appears to be the edge of a rocky hill where some guys are sitting in the shade of a tree. The driver says to us "Khayam?" I'm like, that vaguely sounds like what I remember being written on our voucher for checking in so, "Yes!" Next thing I know the porters are hauling the luggage out and another guy jumps in the van and we're like, umm, ok? We start to get off the minibus and the new guy says "No" and points further down the hill. So, we sit back down, our luggage gets taken out and then we drive another couple of hundred meters were all of a sudden we see a huge ship docked in a small bay with a large staircase leading down to it. Right, this is it!
As we file off the bus the new guy says something to us like, "I'm calling reception to let them know that you're coming. Just go down the steps and when you arrive, tell them your with " insert random name that starts with a V. Umm, ok. So, we walk down the stairs, board this ship and enter the plushest reception area. We had some issues with the name at first but I finally remembered that I'd been given a voucher and handed it over to the reception. We were told to have a seat and then filled in some forms before being given the keys to our room and advised that lunch was currently being served.
Now, the tour representative had told us the day before that we were on a very good boat on this cruise and that we had been upgraded and were in suites rather than cabins but I hadn't realised how good he meant by very good. Our room was twice the size of our room on the Dolphin. We had a giant bed, a desk, a sitting area and there was a bottle of water and fresh fruit platter waiting for us. There was a huge bathroom that had a shower and a bath and two hand basins and a sliding door that led to a little sitting area outside. When we went to the dining room for lunch we were whisked to a specially reserved table and were given silver service. There was a great variety of food and a little area where the chefs cooked fresh food in front of you. For lunch it was macaroni (pretty boring) and freshly battered fish which was delicious!
We found out later that the MS Omar El Khayam is the newest (built in 2008) and largest Lake Nasser cruise ship and had been designed for travellers who enjoyed luxery and being treated like royalty. Whoa. So, we had not just been upgraded up one class as per the previous cruise, we had been upgraded to the best and biggest boat on the lake! This ship was bigger than our previous ship! We spoke to our guide about it later and he said that the ship that we (the four of us) were supposed to be on was currently being refurbished and the ship that the other two ladies was supposed to be on was probably full so they probably had to upgrade all of us to this ship as it was the only other one sailing on the dates that we had booked. Score! I felt very fake being in these fancy pants suites and being waited on almost hand and foot - I didn't pay for this! But I figured I may as well try to enjoy it seeing as we were going to be on this ship for three nights.
We met our tour guide Mina over lunch. He informed us that we would be going to visit the temple of Abu Simbel at 3:30 so after lunch we decided to explore the ship. We found the following:
- 1st floor - Health and beauty spa with a gym, sauna, spa and massages and a night club/bar
- 2nd floor - Reception, four grand suites (our rooms) and two royal suites
- 3rd floor - shops, cabins and another four grand suites and two royal suites
- 4th floor - cabins and a casual lounge bar with board and card games for passengers and a billiards room
- 5th floor - cabins and a more formal lounge bar
- Up top - outside bar, shaded lounge area, shaded sitting area, deck chairs with umbrellas and, once again, a pool!
Somewhere along the way our luggage had miraculously made it to the foyer so we got it brought into our room. We met Mina in the reception at 3:30 and headed up the stairs that we had descended earlier today to reach the ship. Turns out that the ship was just over the hill from the temples so all we had to do was walk up the stairs, through a gate and we stepped into the arrivals area. Mina gave us our tickets and we went down. This temple was amazing due to the sheer size of it and also the intent of it. It was built by Ramses II who was determined to prove himself the equal of the gods. He dedicated his temple to worship three gods and himself. Nice. He also built a smaller temple to the side for his favourite wife, Nefertari. How sweet.
Mina informed us that these temples had also had to be rescued due to the construction of the High Dam in Aswan and were now located 60 metres above their original location. We were given 45 minutes to wander around the temples by ourselves once he had finished with his explanations and then we wandered back up to the cafe.
We decided to get an ice cream and had an interesting conversation with the shop keeper. It went something along the lines of this:
Me: pick up the ice cream and go to the shop keeper - "How much is the ice cream?"
Shop keeper: "25 pounds"
Me: "I only paid 15 pounds in Philae" - which I knew was still over priced but at least an acceptable over priced, not ridiculous over priced
Shop keeper: "More expensive here because it's further away"
Me: "It's too expensive" - start walking to put ice cream away
Shop keeper: "20 pounds"
Me: Pause and think about it before putting the ice cream into the freezer - "No thank you. Too expensive"
We start to walk away.
Shop keeper: "Ok, 15 pounds!"
I'd kind of given up at that point and was pretty unconvinced but Steve said that he'd buy it for me so 15 pounds later we were enjoying our expensive ice cream. We talked to Mina and Steve's parents about it too and Tina mentioned how she had a similar experience with the same shop keeper just a few minutes ago regarding some mints. Ah, Egypt.
We sat in the cafe and finished our ice cream before heading back to the ship. The other two ladies with us were going to the sound and light show at 6 so they stayed at the cafe along with Steve's parents who were keeping them company. We decided to go for a quick dip only to find out that the pool is actually really cold! Not freezing but there are lines painted along the bottom so I suspect the pool was designed to be a lap pool, hence the cooler temperature. Steve just stuck his feet in while I went the whole hog and jumped in.
Dinner wasn't until 8 so we came back to the room and hung out in our bath robes (life is so tough) before making ourselves decent to go to the dining room. We had a nice relaxing program the next day with nothing scheduled until 11 so we could have a bit of a lie in. Some of the others went up to the lounge to have a cuppa after dinner but we were so tired that we just came back and crashed in bed.
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