Egypt

Tuesday, 27 July Today we were picked up at the hotel by Gelal, the Captain of the felucca. At the boat we met Mustafa, his son and Bizou, his son-in-law. Bizou was a jokester and Mustafa was cranky because he had danced away the whole night on a wedding. We had a great time on the boat, especially because it was extremely peaceful and relaxing. Our first stop was Kitchener Island where Gelal dropped us off at the entrance of its botanical garden. Of course we had right away somebody tagging along claiming he was the sahib of the garden. "What do you mean you are the sahib?" I asked. Sahib can mean friend or owner of the garden and he didn't look like the owner for sure. So I had to make sure. "Yes, yes," was his answer so I decided that he meant friend. He showed us all kind of flowers and plants, like lotus, sandalwood and other interesting things. Then abruptly he said goodbye and left. It was a pretty garden which took us 45 min to go through. At the exit Gelal was already waiting for us and we continued to sail towards Gelal's village for lunch. Walking through the village was quite interesting because it seemed that Gelal was very popular, joking back and forth with people we met along the way and apparently the richest man in the village. His house was on top of the hill with the best view and it was the best and biggest compared to all the others. He was very proud of it and showed us literally every room of the house. Even the new air conditioner had to be inspected. He took off the back wall of the apparatus to show how it works from the inside with water. I had to feign interest stressing it with a lot of "uuuhhhs" and "aaahhhs." It was cute though how he got excited to show us everything. For lunch we had chicken soup, rice, roasted chicken, potatoes, watermelon and something Nille called snot because it was a sticky, clear sauce with green herbs. It was good food and we enjoyed the vibe of the house. Chatting with his family showed us how much love there was. He had four daughters and Mustafa, his son. The girls and the mother were extremely beautiful and were a little shy and giggling and laughing. When I made compliments to Gelal for his pretty daughters Bizou couldn't help but point out that I had forgotton to mention the dreamily handsome son-in-law. I had to disappoint Bizou because we three fell desperately in love with his daughter and were plotting on how to kidnap her best. She was just the cutest. Everything has an end and so we head off back to Aswan. It was already 6.00 pm and without really noticing we had spent 6 hours on this trip.