Floating on a Mattress Down the Nile

Being a student traveler on a budget you find some unique ways to spend the night. Hostels, airports and trains become a standard we expect, and anything beyond this is generally due to ‘extravagant’ spending or some incredible luck.

At the tail end of a whirlwind summer traversing the European continent on such a budget, I found myself one of the coolest and cheapest ways to spend the night: sleeping on a felucca while sailing down the Nile River in Egypt. This is a tale of the sights and sounds I saw along the way.

 

Our journey began in Aswan, half way through a 9 day Top Deck Tour of Egypt. A felucca is a sailing boat about 10-15 metres long with one massive sail. The living space was just a wooden floor covered in mattresses. This is where we ate and slept…and that’s pretty much all we did.

The crew of 3 Nubians did all the sailing and cooked all our meals, which generally involved a lot of pita bread and then a rice or pasta with some sort of stew. It was kinda like the budget equivalent of a cruise. Very, very budget.

We docked for the night on the bank, had a few refreshments and sat around a campfire. There wasn’t a lot of wood around, however, just dead palm leaves. We were very close to a little village and a bunch of kids came over to the fire with their drums and sang a whole bunch of Nubian songs and danced.

It was really cool, different cultures, different ages, different languages and completely different lives, all having a blast together. They were obviously singing songs they learnt as kids and this is what they do. They must just love it when tourists stop by because they receive so much attention.

Next morning I awoke to the warmness of the sun and my friend asked if I wanted to go for an early swim while the rest slept: this was not a hard sell. Once we were finished swimming my ‘to do’ list for the day was complete.

Much relaxing on the felucca ensued and at the place we docked for lunch there was a large group of Nubian teens dancing and singing with drums in the water. I began to sense a common theme.

Our group went over and joined the party, which the locals absolutely loved. Though I think they especially liked the girls in their bikinis. They must have just thought all their Christmases had come at once, what with all these pretty, young, white girls dancing with them in next to nothing. The boys had a lot to learn in terms of subtlety though, and even that is a complete understatement.

We sailed further down the Nile for another hour or so and stopped at a place for the night. We played some football with people from other feluccas and it was great to have a kick around. The sand was so hot from the harsh Egyptian sun though, so every break in play everyone ran into the water to cool their feet down.

After the game I had a beer in the Nile. It was one of the coolest things I did in my 6 months in Europe. How many people can say they’ve done that? Especially since the country is predominately Muslim and alcohol is largely forbidden.

A few more amber beverages later and the sun began to set on a magical day floating down the Nile. The night was filled with more entertainment from the locals before curling up in my sleeping bag on the mattress of the felucca.

This will be Part 1 of a series on Egyptian experiences that will be as sporadic as they are un-chronological. You can read Part 2 here. Hope you can join me on my next journey. Meantime, I’d love to hear about your Egypt experiences. Comment below or link me to your blog!

 

Did you enjoy this post?

Plenty more where that came from. Make sure to sign up for the mailing list to never miss the next one.

Need to spruce up your Pinterest boards? Pin these, just hover.