Thursday, May 7, 2009

Not Just Your Ordinary Boat Ride










One of the most beautiful things a person can experience in Egypt is a faluka ride on the Nile. A faluka is a special kind of sail boat the Egyptians use to give tourists a ride down the Nile. One of the nice things about a faluka is, you can go on a ride as a small group or on a ride for a very large group. The most recent faluka ride I took was with my husband and two of my kids. If you know anything about Cairo, Egypt, you know there are lots and lots of people. Traffic is bad, there is lots of noise, and lots of pollution. But, when you get out on the Nile in a faluka you forget all of that. It is nice and peaceful, the air usually smells a lot better, and you are able just to sit back in the sun and appreciate you are on one of the most famous rivers in the world. You can also take a faluka ride at sunset or at night, but any time of day or night on the Nile is beautiful. Another nice thing about falukas is that the experience is fairly cheap. I think we paid about $7.00 for a half-hour to an hour. Usually the drivers of these boats are very friendly and funny. Above, you can see a picture of our youngest son Levi helping steer the boat. There is also a picture of some of the students and teachers from my kids' school. I wanted to include this picture to show you just how much room there is in a faluka.

2 comments:

  1. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Are all falukas the same size?

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  2. Dedene, I think there are smaller ones too, but since we tend to go to the same place to ride them, they are all this size. You can do a search for "faluka" and look at the images and you can tell there are some smaller ones. :o)

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