Saturday, January 15, 2011

Five Stars?

Having settled into our room on the "five star" cruise ship, we realise that although our accommodations were an upgrade on the Nubian village, the Egyptian star rating system is perhaps a little exaggerated compared to other countries. A five star cruise is more like a 3 star cruise.





Early in the morning, the boat left Luxor and began a sail to Kom Ombo.  After breakfast we got off for a visit to the Kom Ombo Temple which is really a combination of two temples dedicated to two gods - Sobek which had a crocodile head and Horus who had a falcon head.

Some of the original colour is still there.





After rejoining the cruise boat and eating lunch we took sail to Edfu where we visited the Temple of Horus who this time had the whole temple to himself.  As the sun set and it got darker, there were many errie, dark places in the temple and as I explored down some dark stairs, I suddenly appeared before a tour guide who must have imagined I was the reincarnated body of the God Horus - he screamed and jumped up high in front of his tour group!








Returning to our cabin that night, we found the first towel creation made by the room service staff - this time, a crocodile. For the evening entertainment, we were required to dress up as Egyptians and join in games where we seemed to be caught up in a war between India and Japan (the main the nationalities on board). Both sides played agressively, and frequently refused to "get out" when they lost a round.  This competitive spirit had already appeared at the restaurant buffet at every meal when the Indians refused to queue up and pushed/shoved in wherever they liked while the Japanese dutifully waited patiently in line.


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