Twitchy man in the boat

Went on a boat ride on the Nile recently with some hasher friends, in a sailboat called a felluca. They're one of the signatures of the Egyptian Nile in my mind, and some of the only boats that cruise around the city sections of the river. Not many drawbridges that I know of around downtown at least, so there are few big ships that use the river as a thoroughfare.

Heck of a good time to meet up with friendly faces to down some beers and snacks on a silent boat, lazily cruising up and down the river away from the incessantly honking cars and yelling pedestrians. I actually did this 1-2 months ago when the weather was cooler, so it was pleasant to spend a Saturday afternoon in the shade of the boat with the (generally non-sewage-y) constant breeze. It was nice to just close my eyes and face into the wind, kinda like the content dogs with their heads poking out car windows on the road, with minimal cranial processes getting in the way of a good time. The beer, kebab-flavored chips, and caviar (!) certainly didn't hurt either.


I've been under the impression that swimming in the Nile was a generally ill-advised activity, but saw many a child and even a few water-skiers cooling off the in the water, and had some discussions with my fellow hashers about how the little water-nasties only tend to be found in stagnant water. Still, I didn't feel any urges to strip down and dive into the Nile.

A few beers later, I realized one of the limiting factors for felluca-enjoyment time; there are no restrooms of any sort on the boat. It's really just a basic single-deck sailboat, generally not designed for multiple-hour trips by beer-swilling foreigners. Hmm.

A few beers later, I realized that we were surrounded by water, the boat was full of hashers that I knew (well enough at this point), and that everyone else in Egypt was at least a few hundred meters away.

A few minutes later, I realized that the breeze I was enjoying before can also have other effects. Oops.