Spending the Night in the Middle of the Nile in a Felucca Cruise boat | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 4 (Part 32) 03D19

Felucca Sailing Cruise on the Nile Under the Stars – Part 3 | Aswan

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Once we settled down on our spots reclining on the side of the boat, the crew started to cook our lunch. I watched the cook cooking in traditional ways sitting on the floor.

I was shocked to see how many items he was able to cook in such a short time. All together, there were 8 to 10 items. There were fried fish, fried eggplant, bread, and other Egyptian items I didn’t know the names of and there were even salads.

All the items were arranged in the middle of the boat on cushions set beside each other. We all sat on both sides surrounding our food and started to eat.

I don’t know what it was, whether it was the fisherman’s style of cooking or the fresh items, but everything was too delicious. I kept eating and eating and tried each item available. There were even sweets served at the end. These were some common Egyptian sweets such as Basbousa, Kunafa, Baklava, etc. There were also teas, coffees, beers, and soft drinks. I’m not sure how they managed so much food.

After eating, the crew raised the sail and we started off. As we were moving away further from the dock, the shoreline opened up with nice views with lots of boats, luxury big ferries, and small fishing boats.

Some people moved to the rooftop for better views and winds. I stayed a while on the roof. There was a round low table and small round cushions to sit on. Two girls from our group took the opportunity to sunbathe. By now, we in the Tour Group became friends and comfortable with each other.

Some guys were going heavy on beers. Beer was not included, but available to buy. The price was very cheap compared to Canada. The surrounding sceneries, warm weather, sweet breeze … it all made those moments unforgettable. Soon, we would land on the other side of the Nile to swim and walk.

Spending the Night in the Middle of the Nile in a Felucca Cruise Boat | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 4 (Part 31) 03D19

Felucca Sailing Cruise on the Nile Under the Stars – Part 2 | Aswan

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Our designated felucca is a medium-sized boat, good enough to hold 15-20 people comfortably. Like a traditional felucca, it had only a canvas sail and no motor.

The main floor or deck of the boat had cushions and pillows where we would sit and spend the day and night. The roof was like a half deck where we were able to sit or lie down to get the sun and Nile breeze while relaxing with a beer and enjoy the open views.

Between the main floor and the roof, there was no shade during the day, so you would touch the water from the main deck while sitting on the side. There was also a bathroom.

The boat had 3 to 4 people who would be with us on the boat. They spoke fairly good English to carry on basic conversations. It looked like they live on the boat permanently and the boat earns them money by providing services to tourists.

On the front deck, they set up a nice mini-kitchen to cook and serve us food. The cooking had to be done in sitting as was low and there was no way you could stand and cook. I was surprised this small boat managed to stack so much food and drinks to feed all of us for almost 24 hours.

Our full trip on the boat was not that far. We would go up to the white bridge, which we could see from far away. We would stay in the middle of the Nile at night and would stop over at the banks to swim or just walk along the riverbank at dusk.

Spending the Night in the Middle of the Nile in a Felucca Cruise boat | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 4 (Part 30) 03D19

Felucca Sailing Cruise on the Nile Under Stars – Part 1 | Aswan

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

On Day 4, we were to spend most of our day and night on the felucca. A felucca is a traditional Egyptian (also widely used the Mediterranean region) wooden boat with a canvas sail, without motors and powered by the wind. Feluccas come in different shapes, sizes and colors. Aswan is the boarding point for most felucca cruises in Egypt.

After breakfast at the Basma Hotel (see previous post), our tour mates all gathered in the lobby and our guide picked us up in a van to head towards the felucca port. I took some videos of the hotel lobby before leaving.

We were driving through Aswan city, in what looked like its downtown or main street. I recorded roadside scenes for most of the part. The road ran along the Nile River. This side of the Nile is a bustling city, but the other side looked very different with mountains and sand dunes.

Finally, we arrived at our destination, which looked like a docking place for lots of motorized ferries and traditional feluccas.

There were various types of ferries and feluccas. Some of them were huge and some of them were mid-sized to small. Some had several decks and some had just one.

We were directed towards our feluccas. I saw a gate-like structure, but the roof or shed was made of bamboo or some kind of plant that looked really good.

And then I saw our designated felucca, which I will describe in the next post in detail.

What to Look for When Buying Chromebooks

What to Look for When Buying Chromebooks

Features You Need for Your Chromebook

If you are shopping for a Chromebook, look for these features first. Chromebooks offer portability and a user-friendly experience, but without these features you won’t enjoy using your Chromebook as much.

Storage – If you find a Chromebook that is very cheap, it most likely has very little storage, such as 16 GB. Do not go below 32 GB storage on your Chromebook. 16 GB will fill up very fast after installing a few apps from Google Play. Running apps from a memory card is not convenient, so the lowest storage I recommend is 32 GB and go higher if you are able to.

USB C Ports – Stay away from Chromebooks if they are not USB C. It offers universal compatibility and you can charge via a USB C port without any additional power adaptor. You don’t want to go back to the old days with a Micro USB port and these old Chromebooks usually have a separate power adaptor input, which is a lot of hassle.

Convertibility - Convertible Chromebooks or Hybrid 2-in-1 Chromebooks offer various modes, such as laptop, tent, presentation and tablet modes. These modes can come in handy when you travel, need to do a presentation or just use as a tablet. The extra cost incurred from buying a Hybrid Chromebook could be worth it if it serves your needs.

Touch Screen – I don’t mind not having a touchscreen for a Windows laptop, but a touchscreen comes in handy on a Chromebook because Chromebooks are meant to be versatile and travel friendly.

Besides, with its capability to install apps from Google Play it makes sense to have a touchscreen feature because these apps really come alive on a touchscreen. Touchscreen Chromebooks might cost a little more, but it’s worth having a look.

The above article is available in video on my YouTube Channel here:

Do Not Buy Chromebook without These 3 Features | Chromebooks Tips & Tricks

At The Basma Hotel, Aswan | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 3 (Part 29) 02D19

One Night and Dinner in The Basma Hotel | Aswan

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

After arriving at the Basma Hotel, our tour guide handed over our keys and room numbers. Something I loved about being with a tour group is that the tour company pre-arranged everything and I didn’t even have to go through the hassle of checking in while in a foreign country.

Basma Hotel is located on very high ground, possibly the highest point of Aswan. Basma Hotel is a huge hotel complex with 200 rooms and a very big swimming pool. I saw a huge piece of artwork hanging on the entrance door wall that looked like it was made of mosaic or marble. The front of the hotel gives access to amazing views overlooking the beautiful greenery, the city of Aswan, mountains, yellow sand dunes and the amazing Nile River.

Basma Hotel, Aswan, Egypt

It looked like rooms can have 2 different types of views. Rooms on one side will have the Nile view and on the other side will have the city view. Regardless, you get to see the surrounding mountains and yellow sand dunes.

My room got the city mountain view. The problem with this hotel was that it was too old and crying for a renovation. My room had 2 beds. Ultimately, I was OK with my room. It felt clean and tidy, except everything was old. The bathroom was nothing fancy, but acceptable.

I even had a balcony, but a weird thing made my balcony and views feel weird. It looked like square blocks of concrete structures on the floor level outside my balcony. I was not sure what those were or why they were in front. They could be structures to support the building or something else. They were not directly blocking any views because they came up from the ground up to my balcony floor level. But if I looked from my high floor to the ground, then they block the view. The presence of these concrete blocks made me not like my room as much as I could otherwise. So, I didn’t get to enjoy the balcony and full city view with the mountains beyond.

In the evening, some of my tour members went for an extra tour to the Nubian village, which I skipped. Instead, I took a stroll around the hotel vicinity. I took my time to walk the whole complex and took some pictures and videos. I even exited the hotel boundary to mingle in the local busy streets and browse the shops right next to the hotel, but didn’t stay outside the hotel for too long.

In the evening, I had my coffee inside my suite. I used the hotel-provided instant coffee, although I had my own backup coffee. After coffee, I took some time to write down my travel details and back up SD cards to my portable hard drive. I had been taking notes of my travel details daily to help me write later on.

At night, I headed for dinner at the hotel restaurant. I had a beef curry with rice. The price was 150 LE, which would be $12 CAD. I found the food here was good and they were more attentive than the Oasis Hotel in Giza. The prices were cheaper also with greater quantity. 

The next day we would spend the night in the middle of the Nile in a Felucca Cruise boat.