This morning we could sleep a little longer before boarding our feluccas. A felucca is a traditional Egyptian sailboat on the Nile (see pictures). Before that, we just had to survive a crazy taxi ride to the harbour. Our hotel manager drove some of us - a load of pretty young girls to be precise - and used every occasion to show off: Not only did he drive like hell but he also honked the horn in tact with the song he was singing out loud, made us all give 'high five' around the car, stopped to ask tourists if they needed a (full) taxi, grabbed other people's arms in their cars through the open windows, all while driving a speed that could get you dizzy! Well, it was quite funny and some of the girls in the car were squeaking so loud that I'm sure it encouraged him even more. Anyway, we arrived at the harbour and had to divide into two groups for two different feluccas. I went onboard the smaller one, together with Mathieu and Rachelle, a very nice Canadian couple about my age, and Erin, Sarah, Jess and Alyson, four girls from Canada in their early twenties. Our captain was called Farah and he was in charge of our felucca, together with Mahmud, the skipper, also called "cheeky monkey". Both were rather small and thin but watching them work, they proved to be extremely muscular. Mahmud was a shy guy and hardly spoke any English but it was no problem talking to Farah. I tried to spend some time with him over the coming three days and get to know him a little, just because I was curious how life on a felucca was like. Farah told me that he was 27 years old, although I thought he looked almost 10 years older. Mahmud on the other hand said he was 20 and he only looked like 16. Well, apparently it's hard to guess ages here. Farah is working on the Nile for 11 years now, after having sailed with his father ever since he was a child. His father has reached the age of 65 and will soon retire to be a farmer on one of the many Nile islands. Farah's felucca is owned by his cousin until he can afford to buy one himself. The price for a felucca is about 25.000 Egyptian Pounds which equals around 3400 Euro - a lot of money for the people on the Nile. For now, Farah is saving to complete the house he is building for himself, his parents and his three sisters. At some point he hopes to get married and have his own family. Until then, he will continue to sail up and down the Nile about three times per month, shipping tourists between Aswan and Edfu. Mahmud is from another village close by and Farah is very happy with him as skipper. When he finished talking about his job as a felucca captain, Farah smiles and concludes "I like it" and the best is - you believe him immediately. When asked if he had a free wish what he would be asking for, he didn't even know what to say! God bless such modesty.

Compared to many other locals we met, Farah, Mahmud and the crew from our second felucca, were extremely friendly, outgoing and seeking contact with us foreigners. They asked a lot of questions about our home countries and lots of them wanted to travel too but being Egyptian, it is very difficult for them to leave their country. They need to prove that they have at least 30.000 Egyptian Pounds on their bank account in order to ensure that they will come back once they left the country, not to speak about the trouble of getting visas for wherever they want to go. Farah for example has never left Egypt and the furthest he ever went was to Cairo a couple of times in his life. Although he prefers spending his time on the Nile, he said if there was one place he would like to visit in the world then it was Alaska - the name of his felucca.

Well, here we were on board of Farah's "Alaska" cruising down the Nile. We had lunch onboard, cooked by Mahmud and you could only wonder how he could prepare something so delicious with just very little equipment and hardly any kitchen space! For the rest of the day, we were getting familiar with what would be our 'home' for the coming three days. A felucca is basically a very small piece of wood, shipping on the water without engine, just being supported by the wind or the natural flow of the Nile, having neither electricity nor bathroom facilities onboard. You basically sit, sleep and eat on mattresses all over deck, supported by heavy comfortable pillows. The luggage is stored under deck and it is as good as inaccessible during the three days. Everything you need should be kept in small bags on deck, pretty much in the middle if possible, because the felucca can tilt easily from one side to the other while sailing - something we all had to get used to without holding our breath each time the boat moved a bit too much… Otherwise, there was deck space for the captain steering the boat, and a little bench for the skipper in front. Here is also where he would prepare our meals and where we had a small cabin under the front deck in which we could change clothes, for example. The fact that this room was not even a meter high, however, made every changing attempt quite challenging… After all, this was it. Altogether maybe 10 square meters of space. In the end, the good news is that you quickly discover that you don't need any more…

Later in the afternoon, when it got too hot, a kind of tent roof was rolled out to provide us with some shade. Thanks to Jess, we also learned our first felucca lesson today: Do not get up to take a cookie without fixing your shirt to anything the wind cannot blow away! Otherwise, we just laid around, slept and relaxed, watching the shore passing by. In the evening, we stopped at an island we pretty soon called "crap island" because it was obviously not the first time that felucca tourists had used it to follow their call of nature… at least, we were instructed to burn our toilet paper or to collect it in a plastic bag onboard. Unfortunately, other people just left their traces behind which was pretty disgusting. Our tour organizer also provided a kind of toilet tent for those who did not like to go behind a bush. I must admit I first had my doubts as well, especially because the island was home to some cows who wandered around freely and I wouldn't have liked to get disturbed by a wild beast while doing my business! Well, in the end using the tiny tent was not much easier and if you want some advice: Never use a provisional bush toilet while wearing trousers and a swimming suit!

Later that night, Farah and his colleagues made a fire, played their drums and sang. Like with the Nubians, we learned to sing along quickly and it was a great experience.