Ahhhhh…

6/20/10: Nile River, Egypt

Ahhhhh…

That’s the sound I make each time we come step foot onto our lovely boat. Here’s the first thing I do when we get back into our cabin:

I'm not dead, just motionless and speechless until my organs re-form from the mush they've dissolved into.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re loving the cruise. Not only does it give us a chance to get out of the heat, we can actually do things inside. Our last hostel that we stayed at had “air conditioning,” but the walls let in so much heat that we couldn’t do anything in our rooms (except nap) without sweating (I did a lot of napping).

Almost all Nile cruises boats bill themselves as a “five-star cruise” and ours is no exception. This greatly confuses me. Firstly, who’s giving out the stars? Is there some kind of association that goes around looking at all the boats and then gives them a rating? If so, who is it, and are they trustworthy? Secondly, if they’re all five-star cruises, why are some of them ten times more expensive than others? Thirdly, is this the same system as hotel ratings? Actually, scratch that, I know the answer to that last question. It can’t be. Granted I’ve never stayed at a five-star hotel, but I’ve seen pictures, and I’m pretty sure our boat wouldn’t match up. Don’t get me wrong – I love our boat – it’s clean and comfortable, our cabin is awesome (clean towels! clean sheets! our own bathroom and shower! a closet! a TV!), there’s comfy lounge chairs and a pool on the sun deck and we eat three buffet meals every day. It’s not the Ritz, but it’s at least a very good Holiday Inn.

Our usual table is extra-large to accommodate the number of plates Kevin brings back from the buffet.

The aforementioned lounge chairs.

The “GAMEROOM.”

What’s funny about the boat is that everything is in German. We’re pretty sure this boat is affiliated with a German hotel chain. So this means all the written announcements about activities are in German, the books and magazines are in German and all the board games are even in German. Everyone else was also part of a tour group with a tour guide, so we were the only ones without a set schedule. This was nice most of the time – we could stay in our cabin all day if we wanted to. (I don’t think I stepped foot outside the first day.) The only problem with not having any idea what was going on was that we didn’t know what time meals were, what time any of the shows were (or if there were any shows at all). We usually figured it out though.

Even with just a few short days on the cruise, we’ve fallen into a routine. Breakfast around 9. The morning is spent seeing temples (if there are any), writing (Kevin), napping (me) or playing Scrabble. Then it’s time for lunch around 12:30. After lunch, we would repeat the morning’s activities, except we’d add in sun deck/pool time. Then dinner, time to relax and in bed early for the next day.

A routine is one of the things that we crave on the road that we don’t usually get. It’s partly because we don’t spend enough time in one place to get into a rhythm, and even when we do stay in one place for more than four or five days, there are so many day trips and excursions that it’s impossible to start each day off the same way. But now that our trip is coming to an end, I’m starting to realize that there’s something really exciting about waking up and knowing that this day is going to be different from all the other days that came before it. And that’s something I’ll definitely miss when we get home.
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Picture of the Day: Truck…ATM?

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Heat: It’s Hot

6/19/10: Nile River, Egypt

I’ve never been hotter than I was today. I was taking a short nap on the top deck of our boat, and I woke up to find half of me had turned into a puddle that not even my beach towel could soak up. There was actually sweat accumulating on the towel to the point where you could float a rubber ducky on top of it. Here’s what Zhou had to say about it as we walked to the Kom Ombo Temple at 2:30 in the afternoon.

Z: “I’m melting.”
Z: “No seriously, I am.”
Z: “If you touch me you will spontaneously combust.”
Z: “DON’T touch me!”
Z: “I hate you, sun.”
Z: “I hate you too, breeze. You’re hot, you’re evil and you’re conniving and I hate you.”
Z: “I think my sweat is boiling.”
Z: “I think my toes are about to fall off.”
Z: “I can’t believe you talked me in to coming out here.”
Z: “Don’t take any pictures of me unless you want to die.”

I felt like the paparazzi trying to get a picture of sweaty Zhou.

Ha! Got one!

And really, I couldn’t blame her. The temperature was higher than Ricky Williams on a Saturday night. It was so hot that the shade offered no reprieve. The heat had infiltrated everywhere – it wasn’t just the direct rays from the sun that would get you. If being out in the sun was like being in an oven, then being in the shade was like being in the same oven with an umbrella over you. I estimated the temperature to be 924 degrees. At that point you don’t even need to qualify it with Fahrenheit or Celsius.

Usually when you walk into a cool room after being out in the heat, the cool air feels even colder. It could be normal room temperature, but it feels like a refrigerator from Heaven. Yeah, that’s a good feeling, one that we weren’t able to enjoy. We stayed out looking at the temple for about half an hour, but when we walked back into our room with the AC on full, and we still felt like we were being microwaved by the Egyptian god of heat. Here’s my theory:

In a normal summer heat, only your skin gets hot. It makes you sweat and want to eat ice cream, but it is only a surface heat. And surface heat is easily removed by a good air conditioner. In Egypt though, the heat actually penetrates deep into your body. It seeps in through your pores and warms everything. I bet if I gave blood after coming in from the outside that it would have melted the donor bag. No air conditioner on Earth can cool down a heat like that. The only remedy is time. If you’re an M&M, normal summer heat is your hand. You don’t melt because you’ve got that colorful outer shell. But Egypt summer heat is your mouth. You become this gooey, chocolatey (delicious) mess, heated through and through.

You know how Zhou said her toes were about to fall off? She wasn’t exaggerating – my toes felt like they were going to fall off too. I often looked down to make sure they were still there. At one point I was pretty sure that the devil had taken all ten toes and replaced them with burning coals, and then replaced the burning coals with balls of fire.

The weird thing is, I loved it. That’s why I went up on the deck after we had returned from the temple. I even convinced Zhou to come up and join me in the pool (yes, the same Zhou who had threatened my death earlier). Just as I loved the fact that it was snowing for the two days before we reached the Thorong La Pass in Nepal, I loved the heat here. It really gives me a feeling of authenticity, like I’m experiencing the real Nepal, the real Egypt.

We’re still heading further south toward the Equator, so heat, I’m ready for you. And audience, I’ll leave you with some pictures of the two temples we saw today.

Edfu Temple (in the background): it's huge.

It was still early in the morning, so the heat was manageable.

Kom Ombo: not as big, but still pretty darn interesting.

The heat was beginning to take its toll.

So artsy.

Ha! I snuck another picture of that elusive Zhou.

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Pictures of the Day: Of all possible times for a camera to run out of battery, mine did during Zhou’s Nubian dancing tonight. Yes, she was invited up during the show to dance with a stick balanced on her head with the guy below, and I didn’t get any pictures of it.

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DENIAL: Not Just a River in Africa

6/18/10: Nile River, Egypt

[Editor's note: I wanted to actually make the title relate to the post, but I couldn't figure out a way to work it in. “Why didn't you just change the title then?” you ask. Very astute question, dear reader. The answer is: I didn't want to.]

Yesterday morning, we attempted to wake up at 5:45am in order to get to Karnak Temple as early as possible to avoid the sun as much as possible. Here’s what happened:

5:45AM
Z: bolts upright, shakes K awake Hey, it’s time to wake up.
K: Mmph…mmm…mmm…smacks lips, wipes drool from face
Z: You want to sleep another hour?
K: Mmm…so…tired…
Z: Ok, I’ll reset the alarm.
K: snore
6:47AM
K: realizes alarm is going off and Z is still asleep Hey, it’s almost seven. Wake up!
Z: Nooooooooooooo…
K: Don’t you want to go to the temple? If we go later it’ll be too hot.
Z: No…go…temple…tomorrow…
K: Ok…if that’s what you really want.

We then slept in until after 10. Hey, it was an accident. But wait! Today we successfully woke up and left our hostel at 6am for Karnak Temple.

Blending in.

The invisible man.

The reason we decided to get there so early was a) to avoid the heat and b) to avoid the crowds. We were successful on both fronts. I think I could get used to this waking up early stuff if it’s always going to be this cool in the mornings.

Sphinx...goats?

Good morning sunshine.

Ridiculously tall columns.

Here, have a seat.

Momma Zhou, Poppa Kevin and three future little Currys.

This obelisk is in good shape for its age.

Second try on the Gorillapod.

We spent an hour wandering around the temple – by the time we left around 7:30, crowds of tour groups were starting to arrive and the day was getting much warmer. Luckily for us, guess what the next thing was on our itinerary for the day?

The Nile Style.

Embarking on our cruise boat! We hadn’t planned on doing a cruise since it would be way over our budget, but when we found a good deal on a three-day trip to Aswan, we jumped on it. Air conditioning, buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner, our own shower, nice towels, and oh, did I mention AIR CONDITIONING? It’s funny, because I never really thought of myself as high-maintenance before this, but I’m realizing that I really am. I’m the same person who spent seven weeks camping in Africa, went trekking without a change of pants for eighteen days in Nepal, slept many nights in various airports, spent several (extremely) uncomfortable nights on buses, etc. and all of that was bearable. But turn the thermostat up to 110 degrees, and I wilt. Physically and mentally. So now you know the dirty truth – I voted yes on the cruise for the AC. I’m not ashamed.

At 10am, we boarded our boat. The cool air blasted us as soon as we stepped in the door. It was heavenly. When we were shown to our cabin, the first thing I did was look for the temperature control. I immediately turned the AC on as high as it would go, collapsed on the bed and fell asleep. I have never felt so calmly thrilled in my life. It was sublime.

There’s not much to say about the rest of the day. We played a couple of games of Scrabble, did a little bit of reading – pretty much just relaxed. (Crazy) Kevin went up to the sun deck in the afternoon (for FUN!) to sweat. I shook my head as he left and stayed in the cool, dark cabin and got ready for my second nap of the day.

One of the greatest gifts that this trip has given me is that I’m now so much more aware of the things that I don’t need (fast food, fancy toiletries, TV, lots of clothes, lots of STUFF in general). It’s also shown me how much I take for granted all of the things that make my life more comfortable (real toilets, drinkable tap water, ice cubes, clean towels). There have been countless times when it just hits me – how incredibly lucky I am – and I feel so intensely grateful to be living the life that I am. I just really hope I’m able to take this lesson home with me.
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Pictures of the Day: Tough Kevin. Demure Zhou.

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