We got up and wandered into the restaurant for breakfast. Fares was in the freshly cooked area again so when I went in over for an omelette he also made me a pancake with fresh banana this time so we shared both of those. As we were packing a few rolls of bread and cheese for snacks during the day, Fares cooked some felafels and arranged them with some vegetables and sauce and gave them to us as a traditional breakfast. It was tasty but we felt bad because we had to go so we had to wolf it down a bit.
We boarded another motor boat to head towards the shore and had the awesome plank and handrail again. This time when we got off, there were wild watermelons on the shore... Awesome!
We visited the temples of Dakka (built by the Greek Romans), Wadi El Seboua (built by Ramses II as a test run for Abu Simbel) and Meharakka which was rescued because it had the world's earliest spiral staircase. We had to do some desert trekking again to get to each of the temples but it was nicer than yesterday because it was early morning so the sun wasn't quiet as high or as hot. We did almost get run over by some run away camels which was kind of amusing.
For all of our offshore visits, we had armed guards accompanying us. Dudes in white with machine guns. I asked our guide if they were to protect the ancient temples or us. He said both...
As we headed back to the motor boat, there was a little Egyptian man waiting with some baby crocodiles! Steve's dad got a photo holding one and as we left there was a lady taking a photo with the baby croc on her head. They were pretty cute, mainly because their mouths were also bound so they couldn't bite you.
We boarded the motor boat and headed back to the ship before setting sail for Aswan. There were no more excursions until tomorrow so we were forced to have to relax and do nothing for the rest of the day apart from eating and drinking and whatever we felt like - terrible isn't it?
Like the other boat, we had 'towel art' waiting for us in our cabin. This one was a dude riding an elephant. I have to admit, even though the art was better on this boat, it didn't have as much of an impact as the first boat because it was 'already done'. But we still liked it.
We went on the managers tour of the ship where we visited the kitchen - all the poor chefs had to line up for inspection (except Faris, who was busy cooking) - and then headed upstairs to visit one of the grand suites (which was what we were in so no biggy) and the massive royal suite! The bathroom was about the same size as our bedroom at home. Nuts! We found out that it costs 350 Euros per night to stay in a grand suite and 900 Euros per night to stay in the royal suite. Now, I don't know about the other people but we totally did not pay that much money for our room...
After the rooms we headed to the bridge where we met the captain and his second in charge, his brother. Turns out that around 95% of all the boat captains on the lake come from the same 3 families. These guys spend all their lives on the lake, and know it well. So well in fact that they do not even use the radar. They also don't use it because they don't know how...
On the bridge, we all took turns driving the boat. At first, this sounds like we all took turns making it do donuts and fish-tails, but it really was just us grabbing the knob (yes, not a wheel. Damn new boats) and looking out to the water. This is where the tour left off.
The rest of the day involved simply chilling out on the luxury boat... Oh yeah!
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