We boarded the ship to eat a buffet lunch after our visit to Abu Simbel.  All the cruise ships look the same from the outside. They are docked together and you often have to walk through at least one, if not two or three, to get to yours.  The insides of the ship are totally different.  Ours is middle of the road. It’s not extravagant like a few we walked through, but it’s not terrible.  The bottom floor is the dining room.  The second floor is the lobby. The third floor has rooms and two shops. The four floor has rooms, two stationary bikes and two treadmills, a lounge/bar and seating on the back outside. The top level has a pool and another bar.  

The buffet was fine.  The food was good.  You need to pay for anything you drink at meals, except for breakfast when they give you juice and coffee or tea.  Our room is a good size.  It has a tv (which only worked the first night).  We have a big window, but no balcony.  You cannot put toilet paper in the toilet.  You have a waste basket for it.  

We rested for a bit and then went out for a sunset sail on the Nile in a felucca.  It had no motor at all.  It was really neat. The ride was very peaceful and relaxing.  They gave us sodas or water for free.  A boy paddled up to us on a paddle board and sang Guantanamera, Macarena, and Happy Birthday (it was one of our group member’s birthday). We gave him a tip and he paddled off yelling Bye!  Bye! Then he yelled/sang happy birthday as he floated away. 

After our sunset sail, we boarded the boat and had a buffet dinner.  That night they had Nubian dancer perform in the lounge.  Of course, Jef had to sit right in the front, so after two dances, one of the guys grabbed my hands and pulled me up to dance.  They pulled up most of the room.  Even though I was pretty tired, it was very fun.  The last guy they had pulled people up and was speaking gibberish to them and asking them to repeat it.  It was very funny.  Of course he took the most reticent of our group members up to do it.  The other people had a Spanish accent to their gibberish.  

The next morning we finally got to sleep in and enjoy breakfast at 8-9am. After breakfast we had all kinds of free time.  We returned to our room to find the best towel creation I have ever seen. The guy was hanging outside to see our reaction and he was so pleased with himself.  I loved it. 

We were going to just lounge about for a few hours, but a couple members of our group were going for a walk and invited us along.  We walked along the river and realized we were going away from town, so we headed back.  My leg started to hurt (I was still sore from the pyramid climb) so we headed back and stopped at a grocery store. We love checking out local grocery stores. We loaded up on juices.  We bought seven juice boxes, one big juice for me, three small sodas, and a box of tea for $5.  If we get a soda at dinner it’s $3.  They give you two bottles of water a day in your room, so we bring one to dinner and Jef drinks soda later.  

After lunch, we started cruising up the Nile.  We went to the top deck to check out the scenery and stayed there until after tea time just chatting with other group members. They had afternoon tea with what looked like donut holes with honey on them.  Jef said they were delicious.  I had mint tea, which I love. 

At 4:30 we met our guide in the lobby because we docked at Kom Ombo temple. Our boat was the third one.  Two of our groups members were late and Mohamed was not happy.  He said we only had 75 minutes to see the temple, we would have to keep up and if we got left behind he explained where the boat was, then told us it might move!  We were all rushing to keep up with him, but he is the fastest walker I have ever seen!

As we rushed to the temple, a ton of people surrounded us to try and get us to buy things.  A good number of them were children from the age of 6-7-12.  One little boy said to me “Maybe later?” I said, “Maybe”. He said, “my name is Mohammed. What is your name?” I said, “Heidi”. He said, “Oh, Heidi Klum.  I am Mohammed.  Yell for me.” Then I thought, well if he sees me again, I’m going to have to buy whatever it is he is selling.  He was too cute.  He was probably 7. 

Kom Ombo temple is one of the only temples dedicated to two gods: Horus and Sobek (the crocodile headed god).  It is split down the middle between the two gods.  There are sections in which you can still see the vibrant colors from over 3000 years ago.  

Part of the temple was also a hospital.  This is the section of the hospital area. There are hieroglyphics that show the different instruments that they used.  I heard other guides telling their groups that some of the scenes near the hospital depicted different ailments.  Our guide brought us to a quiet section and showed us the first carving showing a stethoscope.  

We also saw one of the only calendars that is still intact in a temple.  Mohamed showed up how to count the numbers. 

There was also a scene depicting prisoners that had one arm missing.  Then it showed a lion eating arms! 

I also enjoyed the carving of the god of the Nile.  He is pregnant with a saggy breast to show his fertility.  

We had ten minutes on the way out to check out the Crocodile Museum.  They found many mummified crocodiles in the Sobek section of the temple.  Some of the crocodiles were unwrapped and some were left in their wrappings.  Our guide had me so nervous that we were going to take too much time, I sped through the museum (as did most of our group), not reading anything, just taking pictures. 

We returned to the boat and it had moved so I was happy no one got lost.  Some of the boats we had to walk through to get to ours were pretty fancy.  I’m guessing that is why we were third or fourth in line.  We had a supper that I didn’t find too much to eat and decided to go to our room to relax instead of attending the Egyptian dance party.  A bunch of people on the boat dressed in local attire.  Our room is directly under the lounge and they had the music so loud that our doors were vibrating.  Needless to say, we did not go to bed as early as we had hoped.