After a short half day hectic tour of Abu Simbel, it was time to get on with our next experience: a Nile cruise! Princess Eman was docked and waiting for us when we arrived at Aswan, and she started sailing towards Luxor as soon as we boarded! Sailing was a new experience for us and it is definitely something worth doing at least once in a lifetime. The boat had small but adequately furnished cabins, sun-bathing deck, bar, restaurant and shops. Boats can be found to suit all sorts of budgets, from modest to gaudy. Boat life is pretty much closeted: you get to know your fellow travelers quite well, and games organized on board like jalabeya parties, treasure hunts and music and dancing, serve to break the ice quite well.

Of course, out of the 72 hours we stayed on the boat, it sailed for hardly 10-12 hours! One does feel a little disappointed, especially if all the sailing is happening in the night, and you don't get a live experience. The worse part however is being docked at a touristy place like Luxor which has a huge boat crowd; for then, the engine oil smells from other boats are enough to chase you off the roof deck of your own boat, into your cabins! Also, the air feels a little more stuffy when the boat is stationary.

But we are "sailing" ahead of ourselves here. The first few hours of the cruise were pleasant enough. Our new experience of life in a boat was interesting, from the crash of the glass that we placed on the bathroom shelf thinking it was a stable base, to the charming practice of ringing the lunch, dinner and tea gong, and serving tea and cake on the deck at 5:00 pm! The deck was full of sunbathers trying to get themselves a tan (and succeeding: the sun was intense). Before we could get used to the concept of a gracious float down the Nile, we had already docked at Kom Ombo! No sooner did we dock, than we saw a strange sight. Little children in their jalabeyyas were throwing film roll cases into the boat from the shore! Apparently, it is customary for tourists to insert some money into those boxes and throw them back to the children. Pencils and pens were other favorites with the children. Of course, there is a free for all as some of the more "adventurous" children scamper to stake claim to boxes they never threw... a flourishing shore-boat trade carries on in this fashion, with sellers throwing their wares into the boat, and buyers throwing back money for those wares!!!! Creative way of boosting GDP, huh?

Soon it was time to get off the boat for some sight seeing. The process of stepping onto shore involves walking across scores of other boats moored alongside, which can be quite an educative experience in the sense of getting a good idea of the wide variety of boats available to suit all budgets. We were told that there are as many as 300 boats doing the Nile cruises!!!!