Egypt February 2-17, 2025 |
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Wednesday, February 12, 2025 - Dahabiya Nile Cruise: Bisaw Village, Gebel SilsilehCraig woke up and noticed that the boat was moving. From our beds, it was subtle; you couldn't hear the engine of the tug boat, and our curtains were drawn, so you couldn't see that we were moving. But you could slightly feel the movement of the boat. Craig woke up still a bit stiff after last night's dancing, but he got up bright and early nonetheless.We went up on deck and watched sunrise while we sipped cups of coffee. It is always a bit chilly in the mornings, so we wore our jackets for the first part of the day. At 7:30 this morning, we disembarked the dahabiya at Bisaw Village (on the East bank of the Nile) to have breakfast in the home of a local family. The patriarch of the family is named Abd Elreheem. We were introduced, and as we approached the family's compound, a pair of toddlers (a boy and a girl) came over to us. The boy approached with his arms wide like he wanted a hug. Then he approached Craig with arms in the air as if he wanted Craig to pick him up. His father intervened, thinking that he was bothering us, but it was just the opposite. He was so adorable! I got a photo of the kids with Craig. Mr. Elreheem led us to his family's kitchen. This is a mud brick and stone structure separate from the main house. It has two-thirds height walls and a corrugated metal roof with thatching on top. There were benches along the perimeter where we all took a seat. In one corner of the kitchen was a large clay oven. Mr. Elreheem's mother was seated by the oven baking sun bread. This bread, which is left out in the sun to rise, was placed in and out of the oven with a metal paddle, similarly to how you would put a pizza in a pizza oven. A young lady from the family was seated rolling out dough to make fatir, an unleavened bread. She rolled out the dough with a small thin dowel, then wrapped the dough around the dowel and rolled it out again to make it larger and thinner. She then folded it over the dowel and waved it around like a flag to stretch it. The dough was very thin and delicate, like phyllo dough. She called Jeanne over to give it a try. Jeanne kneeled down on the rug which covered the dirt floor and expertly rolled out the dough. When she was done, they called me over to try. I did my best, but I am not a baker. As I carefully rolled the dough, it got stuck to itself and the young woman had to help me. Still, it was fun to give it a try. After the bread demonstrations, we got a glimpse into the clay oven to see the sun bread that was currently baking. They led us to their house, just a few steps away from the kitchen. We climbed up to the third floor, and as we passed each floor we caught a glimpse of family members in various rooms watching TV. Even though they may use time-honored traditions of making bread by hand and cooking in a clay oven, they still have many of the modern conveniences. We got to the third floor roof deck, which was set up for tourist visits. We sat at a long table. We had gorgeous views down at the Nile from the windows in the brick walls. There was a wooden roof above us so that we were not in the direct sun. Mr. Elreheem's wife (we don't know her name as in Upper Egypt, it is not customary to reveal a wife's name to strangers) served us a wonderful breakfast, consisting of a fried egg, beans, falafel, fries, fatir bread, sun bread, white cheese, fried eggplant, and dipping bowls containing molasses and tahini. We had tea to drink. Everything was delicious, and there was plenty so that we could have seconds of anything we wanted. Several cats appeared, and we all gave them a bit of food. We all stopped to use the nice clean rest room before continuing our tour. Next, we went for a walk through the family's farmland. They own 2 acres here on Bisaw Island and an acre on a neighboring island which gets flooded for several months a year when they open the Aswan Dam. We walked past some loaves of sunbread rising in the sun. There were about a dozen cats sunning themselves on the thatched roof of a neighboring kitchen. We passed a hand-operated water pump as we walked towards their fields. There were palm trees and banana trees growing on the property. One of the banana trees had a huge bunch of bananas hanging from it, with a big banana flower. We had eaten banana flower at the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, and know that it is quite tasty. In addition to growing fruits and vegetables, the family raises cattle, donkeys, chickens, and ducks. We admired the animals and walked through the fields. We saw canals which had been dug to provide water to the fields. They were dry now, and we crossed them via a makeshift bridge made out of a palm tree trunk. After our walk, we went fishing with the locals. We put on our lifejackets from the dahabiya, and each pair of us got teamed up with a local man who took us out into the river in a small wooden fishing boat. The oars were nothing fancy; they were basically two-by-fours. Some of the fishermen knew English. It seemed that ours didn't; he seemed like he might be new to the whole "take a tourist fishing" thing. But he was quite friendly, smiling a lot. He rowed us out to where a man was standing up in one of the small fishing boats, slapping the surface of the water with a wooden pole. The other fishermen were making noise as well, tapping metal chains against the wooden boats. This apparently coaxed (or frightened) the fish into a net that had been set. The man standing in the boat then took in the net. Along with some aquatic plants, there were several small tilapia caught in the net. After untangling the fish from the net, they rowed us back to shore. The family gave the crew some freshly baked sun bread and fatir to take back to the dahabiya to serve with our next meals. As we walked back to the dahabiya, the litle toddler who had greeted us on arrival, named Hassan, came over and held my hand to escort me toward the boat. He was a little gentleman! I wish I had a photo of it, but I was carrying my phone at the time, so nobody was able to get a picture for me. This village visit was a highlight; we love to see how locals live! So much of this trip has been about Pharaonic Egypt that it is nice to see how modern-day Egyptians live along the Nile. We got back onto the boat, washed our hands with cool towels, drank lime/mint/soda drinks, and put our shoes onto the shelves. When we got back to our cabin, we found our towels had been fashioned into a crocodile, with plastic bottlecaps for eyes and the air conditioner remote control propping open its mouth. We were delighted and we thanked the crew member responsible for these daily creations. Next, the crew helped us onto our companion tugboat, which would bring us to Gebel Silsileh, a sandstone quarry used since 2100 BC. There were places to sit on the main deck of the tugboat, but they were right next to the engine. We didn't know how long the ride would be, so we chose to go to the upper deck and sit comfortably in the sun. The ride only turned out to last about 10 minutes, and we pulled ashore at a sandy area with sandstone outcroppings on the West bank of the Nile. There are large and small chapels here carved into the sandstone cliffs. The largest is called the Speos of Horemheb. It is a temple dedicated to seven deities: crocodile god Sobek, goddess Tawaret, Thoth, Amun-Re, Mut, Khonsu, and King Horemheb himself. Their statues can be seen in the sanctuary. The Speos dates back to 1400 B.C. Inside the Speos of Horemheb, there are many carvings and the remains of statues, but none of the paint coloration has survived. After exploring the Speos, we then walked a short distance and saw three royal stelae, dedicated by Ramesses V, Sheshonq I, and Ramesses III. We walked along the sandy shore of the Nile and saw areas where sandstone blocks for temples and other ancient buildings were cut. These were usually several feet above ground level since the sandstone at ground level is weaker due to bring compromised by flood waters. These stones were quarried close to the river for easy transportation to building sites around Egypt. We entered several other small chapels which had been dug into the sandstone. Some of these still had painted ceilings and wall carvings. One of the other small chapels has statues which used to sit side by side but are now separated by several feet due to an ancient earthquake. Amr asked if we wanted to walk around some more, but the sun was getting strong and we had seen what we had come here for, so we opted to go back. We got back onto the tugboat and this time opted to sit on the lower deck, since we knew the ride was short. When we got back to the dahabiya, it was moored at a small beach. We had the option to swim or kayak, and we chose to swim. We went back o our cabin and changed into our bathing suits. The low humidity had meant that they had completely dried overnight since we wore them in the jacuzzi yesterday. The river water was cold but the sun was strong and the air temperature was around 72 degrees. Craig's legs, which had been stiff after dancing last night, felt much better after some time in the cold water! There was another dahabiya moored next to us, and passengers were jumping off the upper deck into the river. One of the crew members was sitting at the bow of our boat and graciously took my phone and got some pictures of us swimming in the Nile. Jenn and Mark sat on a blanket in the sand playing Uno. As Craig and I were standing on the shore drying off, I found a tiny white shell in the sand. Jeanne, Karim, and their boys enjoyed a swim also, and even tried kayaking. There was a cute and friendly dog who came up next to all of us and laid down with its head in the shade of a small table that the crew had brought ashore. They had a bucket of water to wash our feet before we got back onto the dahabiya. We changed out of our wet bathing suits and reconvened with the rest of the guests in the dining room for lunch. The staff brought the food from the downstairs galley and arranged it on the buffet. As usual, Emad explained what each of the dishes were. And as usual, nobody wanted to go first and destroy the artful presentation of the food. After the obligatory "After you" "No, after you", we usually all insisted that Jeanne and Karim's boys go first. We loaded up our plates with calamari, babaganoush, tuna salad, sun bread and fatir from this morning, tomato salad, shrimp, tilapia, and curried rice. Craig and I each had pineapple soda to drink. We set sail once again, bound for Kom Ombo, our cabin's namesake. After lunch, I relaxed on the deck, posting to Facebook and Instagram. Craig went back to the cabin to take a shower. When he was done, I took a shower as well. We had tea time again at 4:30. We enjoyed sweetened mint tea and fig cookies. We watched the sun set as Karim and his sons tried their hand at fishing off the stern of the boat. They didn't catch anything, but they had fun trying. Tonight was the full moon, and it looked beautiful over the Nile as we moored on the Eastern shore near Kom Ombo. We chatted with the crew and Amr. Before we knew it, they were ringing the dinner bell. Dinner was tomato soup, pasta, meatballs, fried chicken cutlets, fries, bread, tukey breast slices with lettuce, and rice pudding. We love our whole group and had a lively and fun conversation that ran the gamut from current world politics to Jerry Springer "Too Hot for TV." It's hard to believe our time on the dahabiya will soon be coming to an end. We will miss the hospitality of the crew and the camaraderie of the group. Can’t recommend this boat enough! We all stayed around the table later than usual tonight since the conversation was so engaging. But at one point, Amr looked at me and said, smiling, "Stephanie is sleeping. She needs to go to bed." He wasn't wrong; my eyelids were heavy and it had been a long day. As much as I would have liked to have continued the lovely conversation, I did need to get to bed. The party broke up at that point, and we all went back to our respective cabins. We got back to our room and I tried to post about dinner, but the wi-fi wasn't working. This was probably for the best, as I needed to get to sleep. I could deal with it tomorrow. Bisaw Village Gebel Silseleh |
 Disembarking at Bisaw Village  Toddlers welcome us to the home of Abd Elreheem at Bisaw Village  The family of Abd Elreheem prepares fatir and sun bread  Breakfast on the Elreheem family's roof deck  Fishing in the Nile at Bisaw Village  Riding the tugboat to Gebel Silsileh  Speos of Horemheb, Gebel Silsileh  Sandstone-hewn chapel, Gebel Silsileh  Swimming in the Nile  Sunset on the Nile See all photos from February 12 |
 Gebel Silsileh  Gebel Silsileh  Inscription above the entrance to the Speos of Horemheb, Gebel Silsileh |
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