Al Rehab and the Nile

After yesterday's excitements we start today slowly, taking pleasure from drinking coffee on the balcony before walking the route Tom took us on our first night but in reverse. First the mall, it is deathly quiet with very few shops open, maybe we're too early so we move on passing the food court and on into the Souk and on to City Square, here there are a few craft stalls setting up but very little else happening. We return to the Souk to have a coffee at a busy corner where we can indulge in people watching. There are several ladies smoking shisha, the car wash next door is doing a roaring or should I say spraying trade, washing cars, we are definitely the only white faces here. There's a boy who looks only 12 years riding round the souk on a motorbike with a pillion passenger and further round there's a car for rent but it has 4 very flat tyres! We move on to the food court for lunch at The Grand Café before returning to the apartment to wait for the Uber driver to take us to Tom's school and after a whistle stop tour of the very impressive facilities which include a full sized AstroTurf pitch and an Olympic sized pool, we catch another taxi back to Al Rehab, trouble is he doesn't seem to know the way and between his lack of English and our lack of Arabic, the journey is longer than necessary cutting down our preparation time for tonight.

Jan & Tom 

Whirling Dervish

Belly Dancer

Tom has instructed us to be ready to be picked up by 5.30pm tonight for a surprise, the only clue we have is that we should dress in smart/casual clothes. So by 5.25pm we're sitting ready and waiting as Tom dashes in heading for the shower telling us to stall the taxi if necessary, with our lack of Arabic that shouldn’t be hard! The drive is long and manic with lots of traffic, weaving in and out before we eventually reach the banks of the Nile. Tom has book us all onto a dinner cruise with entertainment for the night, what a great surprise. As the boat sets sail, the sun is just setting and there's a cool breeze blowing across the deck, fortunately the meal and entertainment are inside. The entertainment is a belly dancing show with a "curvaceous" belly dancer dressed in a bejewelled bikini which accentuates the shimmying. But the highlight for me is the whirling dervish that follows. How this man doesn't fall over or throw up with all the turning he does is incredible and then the lights go out and the costume lights up. Just as I think he can't have anymore surprises left, the costume is gradually shed in layers each one revealing another layer of lights, it's very impressive.