Egypt - an education - part 6
Let me now tell you about the river boats.
Each boat is almost a duplicate of all the others, it differs only in the internal design of the lobby and lounge areas as also the cofiguration of the upper sun deck with the swimming pool and jacuzzis that I could see from the deck of our boat named "Orchestra" - perhaps also in their dining and recreational rooms (which were not visible to me). At each location there were anywhere from 30 to over 50 boats tied up and down the shore at one time. The boat nearest the shore has to allow all the passengers of the other boats tied to it in parallel to pass through it. At one time we were number 7 and thus had to pass through the lobbies of the other 6 boats to get to ours. At another time we were number 2 and had a constant train of interesting passengers parading through our lobby to and from the city tours. The whole world seems to have moved to these boats - all countries and races from far and wide speaking a Babylon of languages.
The boats are 3 storied with an upper deck, and dining area just bellow the water level - on the floors in between are the two passenger cabins (by the way I was always alone, but for an additional fee - on the boat, on the train and in the hotel). These boats have a very shallow draft (the river is no more than 3 meters deep on average), and are just barely able to pass under the bridges, and when passing through the locks (there were two of them on our northbound voyage), just narrow enough to leave a foot clearance on either side. Thus, because of the limitations by the bridges and locks, the boats are almost clones of each other.
I chose not to go swimming in the pool (though I did bring swimming trunks with me) and just enjoyed lounging around, watching the girls cavorting in their flimsy suits or sunning themselves. Actually, there was not much sun to be seen (which did not prevent some people from getting a bad sunburn). To my disappointments regarding the present situation in Egypt, was added the appalling air pollution - and I mean throughout the length of the Nile river (which is virtually the entire populated area of Egypt). Wherever you have factories they belch through their smokestacks a continuous thick column of black soot and what have you. The trucks and the boats just add to this with their own diesel exhausts. The field burning was also there but not as bad smelling. Most of the time, when resting, I preferred to stay in the air conditioned and filtered cabin or hotel room. Though there were never any clouds in the sky, the hazy sun could barely be seen through the thick smog (the exception was on the last day in Cairo - perhaps that day the wind was blowing it away from us).
I'll call it a day for now and will continue after my guests tomorrow continue on their vacation trip.
Perhaps the next installation will be on Monday or Tuesday next.
Ata.
P.S.: I hope that this is not boring to you.
Each boat is almost a duplicate of all the others, it differs only in the internal design of the lobby and lounge areas as also the cofiguration of the upper sun deck with the swimming pool and jacuzzis that I could see from the deck of our boat named "Orchestra" - perhaps also in their dining and recreational rooms (which were not visible to me). At each location there were anywhere from 30 to over 50 boats tied up and down the shore at one time. The boat nearest the shore has to allow all the passengers of the other boats tied to it in parallel to pass through it. At one time we were number 7 and thus had to pass through the lobbies of the other 6 boats to get to ours. At another time we were number 2 and had a constant train of interesting passengers parading through our lobby to and from the city tours. The whole world seems to have moved to these boats - all countries and races from far and wide speaking a Babylon of languages.
The boats are 3 storied with an upper deck, and dining area just bellow the water level - on the floors in between are the two passenger cabins (by the way I was always alone, but for an additional fee - on the boat, on the train and in the hotel). These boats have a very shallow draft (the river is no more than 3 meters deep on average), and are just barely able to pass under the bridges, and when passing through the locks (there were two of them on our northbound voyage), just narrow enough to leave a foot clearance on either side. Thus, because of the limitations by the bridges and locks, the boats are almost clones of each other.
I chose not to go swimming in the pool (though I did bring swimming trunks with me) and just enjoyed lounging around, watching the girls cavorting in their flimsy suits or sunning themselves. Actually, there was not much sun to be seen (which did not prevent some people from getting a bad sunburn). To my disappointments regarding the present situation in Egypt, was added the appalling air pollution - and I mean throughout the length of the Nile river (which is virtually the entire populated area of Egypt). Wherever you have factories they belch through their smokestacks a continuous thick column of black soot and what have you. The trucks and the boats just add to this with their own diesel exhausts. The field burning was also there but not as bad smelling. Most of the time, when resting, I preferred to stay in the air conditioned and filtered cabin or hotel room. Though there were never any clouds in the sky, the hazy sun could barely be seen through the thick smog (the exception was on the last day in Cairo - perhaps that day the wind was blowing it away from us).
I'll call it a day for now and will continue after my guests tomorrow continue on their vacation trip.
Perhaps the next installation will be on Monday or Tuesday next.
Ata.
P.S.: I hope that this is not boring to you.
posted by Okorn Family at 10:17 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Jaka! Thanks for leting me see your blogg! Ironically, your surprise about the air pollutiion in Egypt sounds like a desa-vous all over agian! Its exactly my major reaction to all of cnetral Europe as seen in 1993. Smog, and gray skies. No alpine moutains anywhere. In all of Switzerland I never saw a mountain, the whokle distance, from France to Austria! You imagine that the Rockies are any better still?
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