Nile Cruise Costume Party

Dinner on the Nile crusie boat was an "Egyptian Dinner"-themed buffet. The buffet featured a tastey okra dish, some kind of kabab, and chicken in a pita. Not bad at all.

After the main course was finished, they dimmed the lights and began to sing and beat some drums. The hotel manager was leading the procession of singing and drumming staff, pushing a cart with a cake on it, with a single blue candle. They stopped when they arrived at our table, and invited Michelle and I to stand and join the procession around the tables. We stopped in the middle of the tabled by the buffet. The manager asked me my name, but I did not hear him very well. Someone told him that my name was Mark and that my wife's name was Michelle. He misheard "Mark" or "Mike" and not ony that, he thought Mike was our last name. Thus, he announced that it was the honeymoon of "Mr. and Mrs. Mike". The cake said "honeymooner" on it and we blew out the candle and ate some cake. They also gave us a papyrus painting and beaded necklace.

After the dinner was the costume party, in which all of the guests wore their Galibayas and hats. When we arrived, they had some of the male guests playing a game in which they had tied a potato by a string around their waists. The object of the game was to swing the potato back and forth to move another potato across the dance floor. A guy from our tour was the winner. Then there was a dancing competition for the women, in which they would dance to traditional Egyptian music. I don't think they declared a winner. Finally there was a competition for couples, and Michelle and I participated. Each couple was to hold and orange between their foreheads while dancing, without dropping the orange. We won, and received another papyrus, which we forgot and left in the lounge.

After that, we went up to the top deck to see if we were about to enter the lock, as the boat began to move for the first time in hours. We waited for another 2 boats to leave the locks, travelling in the opposite direction. The we enter the lock and waited as the water began to rise by as much as 10 metres. After that, we exited the loack and then realized that the next lock was immediately ahead of us. We decided not to wait and went to bed.