Our fourth day brought with it a more relaxing start with a half seven breakfast followed by a calming sail boat ride to Kitchener Island to see the Aswan Botanical Gardens. Botanical Gardens were not the reason I went to Egypt, but still a nice little excursion along the Nile.
In fact it wasn’t the best day for sailing and to begin with we didn’t think we would make it to the Island, alas the experienced two man crew managed to find a breeze and sail us up river.
Kitchener Island is of course the island where Kitchener planted many types of plant he discovered on his expeditions and the perfect place for Aswan’s Botanical Gardens. It wasn’t really Kew, but quite nice never the less.
Once we had wondered through the gardens we were presented at yet another bazar, shocking! Although today was different as my Father was going to have a go at bartering for a paper weight or something. And barter he did! He tried one of the main places in the bazar first , tried to barter the price of some metal cross thing, but failed slightly and ended up with a smaller version which really wasn’t quite as good. Point to the Bazar I think!
Next up as we headed down some steps to the sail boat, we were asked to buy all kinds of gifts, but I said no. However, something caught my Dad’s eye and he began again! This stating his price, but then the salesman went higher. My Dad stuck to his guns, offering only £3 to the man. The salesman tried a little confusion by altering the price and currency from Egyptian to Pounds Sterling a few times. However, my Dad stuck to the £3. By this time we were on the boat and my Dad was taunting him telling him his sale was leaving, well pretty much. In the end he folded and my Dad made the deal at £3, although he gave him £2 and two fifty pence pieces, which he didn’t seemed pleased about.
As the boat sailed quietly across the Nile to the Viking Princess our crew sprung a little gift shop with set prices on us from under a towel. So, I brought a couple of things for the kids, knowing they would last five minutes. I didn’t want to return home empty handed though.
On our return we had some lunch and spent the rest of the day relaxing on board. Following Dinner we headed to the lounge and caught a little of the nights entertainment, which was a traditional belly dancer no less. Although in my opinion she didn’t seem that impressed or happy with her career choice.
My Father and I finished off the night up on deck generally chatting about things, a fitting end to a relaxing day on the Nile.
Ashley Knibb 