Nile Cruise from Luxor to Aswan – 5 Star Deluxe Cruise – Esmeralda

After a day sightseeing in the West Bank of Luxor (I have written a blog post about the sights here), we boarded our Nile Cruise. The boat is called the Esmeralda and it is in the 5-star deluxe cruise category. I would say it is an older but well-maintained boat. There are luxury cruises that were far more expensive than the Esmeralda and also much cheaper boats for the more buget conscious. My family has happy memories from cruises. When my brother and I were in high school, my family went on a cruise to Alaska. Leo and I haven’t been on a cruise in more than ten years, since RY was one or two and apart from RY, it was the first time that our kids have ever been on a cruise. We were looking forward to experiencing a cruise all together.

To board the boats, we had to walk through the lobbies of other cruise boats that are docked one beside the other. We were able to take a peek at the lobbies of several other boats. Some looked better and some looked worse. When we reached our boat, we were met with welcome drinks in the lobby. The drinks were fantastical with multi-colored layers of juice suspended one on top of the other. They looked like the concoction of a mad scientist, so of course this presentation delighted the kids.

We proceeded up three floors to our rooms on the 4th floor. When we met our friends TW and MW in Cairo, they gave us the great tip to request rooms on the top floor. I was glad that we did this because the rooms on the top floor had better views. We walked up the grand staircase that circled the lobby and reached our floor. Our family had three rooms – one for my parents, one for Jiu Jiu and the two boys, and one for Leo, me and the two girls. It was a tight squeeze, but the rooms were larger than we expected and the bathrooms were full bathrooms with enough space to maneuver.

Most of the cruise boats on the Nile have a capacity of about 200 people. Besides our own rooms and the dining room, the area that we spent the most time in was the upper deck with the swimming pool and lots of seating areas. This outdoor area afforded the best views of the river and surrounding countryside.

All of the meals were served buffet style in the dining room. Breakfasts and lunches were usually more or less the same every day with a spread of breads, yogurts, fruits, salads, soup and 7 or 8 Egyptian and western hot entrees and ofcourse a variety of desserts. Dinners were themed differently each night. The themes were black and white, Italian, seafood and Egyptian. Guests were encouraged to dress in accordance with the theme but we just wore the clothes that we had. Overall, we enjoyed the food on the cruise though we did notice that the soup seemed to taste strangely the same regardless of whether it was lentil, vegetable, mushroom, or cream. Some of our favorite dishes were the fried fish, roast lamb, fresh fruit and baklava. On Thanksgiving, they even served roast turkey and mashed potatoes which I thought was a nice touch.

In the evenings, there were various performances. We attended a whirling dervish performance on the first night with a dancer wearing several layers of skirts twirled dizzyingly while using one of his skirts as a prop, twirling it above his head like an umbrella. We also watched a part of the belly dancing performance. Jiu Jiu was a good sport and when recruited to dance with the performer, put on a great show.

While we were on the cruise, we celebrated two important occasions, Leo and my 16th anniversary and Wai Po’s 75th birthday. Leo and I had a very low-key celebration, mainly the children made us some gifts. DY’s and AY’s gifts were very special. The day before, we had gone to an alabaster shop. The craftsmen gave them some scraps of alabaster and they made gifts out of it. DY made an alabaster “friend” for me. AY colored her alabaster and made two dice, one red for me and one blue for Leo. Each face of the dice has a face with a different expression. Leo and I are meant to roll the dice each day and the faces are to determine how our day will go. We win when we both roll the “happy face”. I loved the presents.

Wai Po’s birthday celebration was a memorable one. On the first night, while the boat was still docked in Luxor, Leo, AY and I snuck off of the boat to find Wai Po a small present. Leo and AY had been browsing in the shops along the dock earlier in the afternoon and had spotted a jewelry shop that had some interesting pieces. They brought me to the jewelry shop and we browsed carefully to find the perfect gift for my mom. It would be an understatement to say that it is difficult to choose gifts for my mom. She is very frugal and prefers second-hand items to new things. She is very practical and doesn’t see much use for gifts that don’t serve a particular purpose. Despite that, we still wanted to find something for her to celebrate her birthday and as a memento of our month together in Egypt.

There were all kinds of jewelry in the display cases – rings, bracelets, necklaces, Egyptian iconography like the ankh, cobras, hieroglyphics, Ancient Egyptian style gold jewelry, and rings with precious stones. I quickly homed in on a few lotus flower pendants. The lotus flower is a motif found in the temples in lower Egypt like Karnak and Luxor temples, used as a decoration at the top of columns. It symbolizes creation and rebirth because at night, the lotus flower closes and sinks beneath the water. In the morning, it rises above the water and opens again. The lotus flower is also found in the Chinese culture and symbolizes purity and beauty because the plant grows in the mud but the flower blooms above the mud, clean and unsullied. It was a simple silver pendant with a matte finish and we paired it with a silver chain. AY and I both thought Wai Po would love it.

The night of her birthday, the waitstaff and the kitchen staff all came to the dining area with an Egyptian hand-held drum and sang a boisterous rendition of Happy Birthday in the western and Egyptian traditions. They brought over a chocolate cake over that reminded me of the cake that Hagrid made for Harry Potter in The Sorcerer’s Stone. The cake said “Happ Birtday” with a long squiggly line under the “y” and I thought it was just adorable. When we got back to the room, the room attendants surprised Wai Po by decorating her room like a disco. It was all in good fun and it was such a memorable way to celebrate Wai Po’s birthday.

The unexpected highlight of the cruise was meeting a family from Florida. They have three boys, similar in age to our children and like us, were also traveling with three generations of family. Without missing a beat, the children immediately began playing with each other and we parents immediately connected. Even though we just met, it felt like we had been friends for years. We spent a couple leisurely afternoons on the deck chatting away. Rural scenes of farmland and villages beside the river drifted by as the kids played under the golden afternoon sun or frolicked in the swimming pool. Maybe the lovely scenery distracted the other guests from the children’s loud voices, crazy laughter and occasional high-pitched screams. We joked that anybody on their honeymoon would probably not want to have kids after this cruise. But it was obvious that they love their wonderful boys just as much as we love our kids and like us, wouldn’t want any other life besides this chaotic and crazy one. And we were happy to have their company for a few days.

Our Nile Cruise experience was unforgettable. We had peaceful moments, mesmerized by the tranquil views of the Nile River and surrounding countryside. We had exhausting moments, as we rushed from one temple to the next and tried to cram thousands of years of history into our brains, at the same time trying to appreciate the jaw-dropping splendor of everything we saw. The kids said that they thought a cruise should be relaxing, like a vacation on a boat. I reminded them that we are not on a vacation. We are on a journey, a journey of growth and learning and it might take a lifetime.