April 22
At 6:00 a.m. we embarked the local pilot and navigated through the shallow waters of the harbor. We were docked at our pier by 7:00. Safaga is merely an industrial pier, no town nearby. This port is the gateway to Luxor, Karnak and the Valley of the Kings. We have done all three in the past so we stayed on the ship as the tours are very expensive and you spend 7 hours on a bus. The dock we are at is probably the worst we have ever seen including the one in Chennai in 2008. Nothing here, no welcoming party, no shops, just sand and dust from nearby work being done.
We are in port until 11:30 p.m. tonight as the tours are 14 hours long. It was actually nice on the ship today. Some people took the shuttle to the port gate and were harassed by cab drivers so they just took the shuttle back to the ship. We played trivia, then had an excellent lunch of Corned Beef, cabbage and potatoes. Dinner was good also as we had Irish Stew. Not bad from a bunch of Italian chefs. After dinner there was the Safaga Oriental Show of Egyptian Folk dances. Betty went early and got seats in the front row. When the show started, Betty said to me, the one time I get the front row the show is terrible and we just can’t walk out. Lucky for us the show improved tremendously as two of the men came out and performed the Whirling Dervishes dance for approximately 10 minutes without stopping. How they did all this without getting dizzy is amazing. I wish I brought my camera and took a movie of it. The Whirling Dervishes were originally a sect of Islam in Turkey taught to love everything.
When they finished, one of the young woman came out and did three different belly dances. She was a beautiful, had a nice body and a belly dancers belly. Glad Betty got the front row seats, but again, wish I had my camera.
We left the dock at 11:45 and cleared the shallow waters of the harbor. Once clear we disembarked the local pilot, and altered our course towards the north. We will continue on various northerly courses throughout the night as we steam towards the Suez Canal.
