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Saturday, 14 April (continued). We were back at
the ship by 12:15 and had lunch soon after. Meanwhile, the ship sailed north
toward Qena. It was a beautiful day and we sat on the sun deck in the shade of a
canopy until 15:30. This was our first extensive view of life along the Nile,
and it was very interesting.
There were frequent villages and towns. A lot of
people were outside, and many waved vigorously at us, especially the young boys.
We saw several groups of women washing clothes in the river.
There also were flat low fields, barely inches above the level of the river, that I would expect to have been very marshy, soft and wet. Yet they were thickly covered with grasses or crops, cattle grazed there, and farmers walked across them, all as if they were on solid ground. It was a common sight in the larger villages we passed to have a church steeple, topped by a prominent cross, right next to the mosque. In one town there were two churches near the only mosque.
Our ship finally arrived at Qena at 17:30. This is the provincial capital and an important commercial city, having both a bridge over the Nile and a rail connection to the Red Sea. It is also known for its pottery, especially the porous clay water jars (kulal) still used in most Egyptian households to cool water by evaporation. All the passengers were invited to the lounge for a welcome drink (including Egyptian wine) at 16:15 while the crew (Captain and supervisors only) was introduced. This was followed by the evening port talk, then dinner at 19:00. At 20:30 we all boarded "chou-chou trains" that were to take us into Qena for folk dancing show. We noticed several small trucks loaded with tourist police, somewhat more conspicuous here than those in Cairo had been. At least four trucks joined the convoy of little trains: one led the convoy, and one followed each of the three trains. Every single street we crossed (and there were dozens of them) was blocked on both sides by a policeman. Some tourists were attacked by terrorists here in 1992, and I guess they've been protected like this ever since. Even aside from the small army protecting us. it was an interesting ride. Along much of the route the street was lined with local residents, mostly young boys, wildly cheering us as we passed. Even as we drove through the heart of downtown, the shoppers on the sidewalks waved energetically. The drive also took us by several beautiful fountains and some very attractive buildings.
The show was to be at a "girls school" and we arrived there shortly before 21:00. The setting resembled a night club, with perhaps fifty tables lined up in front of what appeared to be a dance floor rather than a stage. Most of the performers were men, perhaps a dozen, but there were four young women, too. The costumes were colorful and the dances lively, but not like any folk dances we'd seen before. Apparently most of the dances were telling a story, and we could see that the last few tied together to depict events leading up to a wedding. We enjoyed the evening very much.
The show lasted an hour, then we boarded our trains again for the ride back to the ship. By now it was after 22:00, and there were few people on the streets besides the ubiquitous tourist police. The night was pleasantly cool, but still much warmer than it had been in Cairo. We were back at the ship in less than 15 minutes. | |||||||||||||||||||
