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Night Location: Aswan, Egypt (on board Nile Cruiser)
Mummysode of the Day: Following our visit to Kom Ombo we had refreshments in a local coffee shop. Part of the entertainment was a Nubian band who walked around singing, playing drums and a strange violin type instrument. To entertain themselves they offered this 'violin' to members of the group. On Mum's turn she gritted her teeth, put her head down low and while shaking her shoulders and wiggling her bottom played so enthusiastically that the men wrapped a scarf around her head and gave her the thumbs up.
The Egyptian experience of the day was meant to be a short horse and carriage ride to the Temple of Edfu dedicated to the god Horus. This sounds brilliant in theory however when looking at the dilapidated carriages and being surrounded by shouting men the experience is somewhat less than idealistic. While riding to the temple one of the wheels on Mum and Gemma's carriage rolled off. The carriage jerked down on an angle, the driver jumped clear and they were left clinging to the sloping seat. Mum abandoned Gemma as she quickly evacuated out over the high side and twisted her dicky knee.
Aside from the size, towering papyrus columns and impressive wall reliefs the highlight of this temple was a small room located in a hidden back corner. From floor to ceiling, the walls of this room were covered with hieroglyphs telling the legendary story of Osiris and Isis. This is the only stone inscription of this story ever found to date and was only discovered in the last century as the room was walled off.
In short the legend goes that siblings Osiris and Seth had a terrible fight over Isis (the wife of Osiris). Seth defeated Osiris and cut his body into 42 pieces and scattered them across Egypt. Isis spent 1000 years (with the help of Ra) collecting the pieces of her beloved husband but could only find 41. As a reward for her loyalty and love of her husband, Ra recreated the last piece. She carefully wrapped his body in linen and brought him back to life. Through him she gave birth to Horus (the falcon god of Egypt as seen on the flag).
This afternoon we went on an excursion to the Temple Kom Ombo (crocodile temple). Two big highlights of this temple:
A small patch of stone depicting the ancient medical instruments and birthing stools. This is the only evidence of their 'modern' medicine techniques.
The only remaining Nile-o-meter used to calculate the height of the Nile and therefore help to predict the annual flood.
The evening entertainment on board our boat tonight was an Egyptian themed party. We all had to dress up in traditional Egyptian clothing including headwear. David looked like an oil magnate just back from Saudi Arabia and Amber looked like an Egyptian princess. She is the only one of the three girls that can pull off a head scarf.
Following an Egyptian feast, best food on the boat so far, we headed upstairs for some dancing. We all, including Mum, followed our guide's lead on the dance floor. Amber maintains that he could have been doing anything and we would have followed looking ridiculous but it was really fun nonetheless. Mum was singled out by our guide for some one on one dancing. After this morning's accident, Mum found this somewhat challenging with her dicky knee and had to rest shortly after.
Following the dancing the whole boat joined in together for some universal games. Because the majority of our boat is either Italian or Spanish, we were immediately disadvantaged as we are not only less competitive but the games were instructed in Spanish and therefore we had to self-translate and then attempt to join in. We worked out that the point of one game was to dance until the music stopped and a number was called out, and then form groups of that number. Go Gemma and Amber and their grasp on Spanish numbers! We were out several times and then pulled back in by enthusiastic Spanish teams trying to make the numbers instead of getting out. It was therefore the game that never ended. The longer it went on, the funnier it got. Our guide just said, "It's Egyptian, we cheat!"
The low point/highlight of the night was when Amber sneakily abandoned Gemma, leaving her to play an all female barefoot version of spoons, where you had to pick the spoons off a man lying on the floor when the music stopped. Amber is still laughing and Gemma is still upset. Those Spanish girls are really scary and the man was injured in sensitive regions.
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