So, yes, I survived. My feet are firmly on the ground and what a relief that is.
I'm sure that you will extremely pleased to hear that I continued my new braver Queenie crusade into my holiday. I am not the kind of person who likes to go back to the same place, year after year, I want to see as much of the world as possible and so I figured that I should live for the moment and try to experience as many things as possible, instead of being my usual wimpy self, recoiling at any possible hint of danger.
Here are some of the fears that I conquered over the past week:
Confined spaces - Day one of the holiday saw me travelling at the crack of dawn to the Valley of Kings and Queens, on the west bank of the river Nile. In the blistering heat, I managed to explore Ramesess III, Tutunkhamun and Queen Hatshepsut’s burial tombs. This involved walking through minuscule passages, which were often dug deep into the mountainside.
Precarious methods of travel - Throughout the week this fear was tested to its limit. Firstly, getting to Egypt meant a gruelling five and a half hour flight. The sweats, panic and complete hysteria were all constrained by an overdose of Bach's Rescue remedy and 1x tablet of Nytol at 11am, meaning that I was so dozy that I didn't care what happened on that plane. I simply purchased a blow-up pillow, ridiculously thin fleecy blanket and a fetching eye mask, all for the grand price of a fiver, and promptly feel into a dream-like stupor for the remainder of the flight.
Secondly, there was a boat trip. And by boat, I don't mean lovely, sturdy sailing boat, I mean dodgy, rickety, Egyptian boat with a failing engine. We had arranged to take part in an Egyptian night and part of this 'experience' was the boat ride up the Nile. Some of our friends had been on this boat the previous night and had told us, in no uncertain terms, that the engine had failed, leaving the boat veering in the strong Nile current towards an oncoming Cruise ship, while the young Egyptian coxswain promptly got out his spanner, fiddled around in the engine (all while petrol gushed out of the back of the boat) and eventually got the engine started, saving the lives of twenty-five very relieved holiday makers. Therefore, it is safe to say that I wasn't too confident that this would be the relaxing pleasure ride I had hoped for.
Prior to the boat tripped they handed out beautiful Galabeya's (an Egyptian style tunic), I choose bright pink with a tie in the middle, and I stepped down into the boat. Off we went, all twenty-five of us squashed up in this little boat, up the Nile and around a little island called Banana island. It was at this point that the little Egyptian man decided to turn the engine to 'as slow as physically possible' and we pottled along the east bank of the Nile. This trip took a gruelling 45 minutes, and for the entire 45 minutes I was rerunning possible scenarios through my head involving crocodiles, fish, sea snakes, sharks, large ships, drowning - you name it I thought it. When I expressed my slight concern to Gloucester his comforting comment was, 'well actually a boat capsized in the Nile yesterday and three girls got soaked,' followed by lots of laughter from him, and an increased heart rate from me.
The little boat continued up the Nile and then across and over to the West bank, which couldn't be more different from the East bank. On the east you have the hotels, Luxor and moored Cruise ships, literally across the Nile on the West bank are half built shacks with no roofs, young children swimming in and drinking from the polluted river, while their parents tend to cattle or wash their small number of pots and pans in the same dirty water of the Nile. What struck me was the stark contrast of the two worlds, juxtaposed but yet so far apart. I actually felt a twang of guilt as I sat there staring at these people, knowing that I would soon be returning to the comfort of a warm bed, fresh water and hot food. I did however learn how to say the word friend so i enjoyed shouting this to the locals who all waved and blew kisses - one even got into the river and tried to swim up to the boat!
With my boat adventure over, I proceeded to the large tent where the Egyptian evening was taking place. I consumed far to much food, washed down with beer and a good few puffs on the old Shisha pipe. It was then that I spotted Cleo the camel. A few people were asking to ride her and so I thought I'd give it a go. On I jumped and the lovely Cleo took me for a walk around the courtyard - fantastic! Although I must say I quickly learned that a short skirt is certainly not suitable attire for a camel ride, thank the lord for the modesty preserving Galabeya!
Snakes and Lizards - Of course being in the dessert you are bound to find both of these in abundance. Lizards were everywhere, however as soon as I discovered that they are infact far more scared of me than I of them, I felt fine. As for the snake, it is back to the Egyptian night.
During the evening there was a plethora of entertainment from some amateur gyrating belly dancers, to a magician and snake charmer. After the snake charmer had finished his act, he asked if anyone would like to have their picture take with the snake round their neck. now, I certainly was not the first in the queue but I did eventually stand on the stage, with this wriggling snake in my hands wrapped round my neck, much to the astonishment of Gloucester, who quite smugly bet me a fiver that I would never do it!
And so my friends, there is an insight into just a few of my accomplishments of the past week, of which I am very proud. My next dream/fear is to go in a hot air balloon, which I imagine is such an amazing experience and one that I will most certainly miss out on if I am not careful.
I'm sure that you will extremely pleased to hear that I continued my new braver Queenie crusade into my holiday. I am not the kind of person who likes to go back to the same place, year after year, I want to see as much of the world as possible and so I figured that I should live for the moment and try to experience as many things as possible, instead of being my usual wimpy self, recoiling at any possible hint of danger.
Here are some of the fears that I conquered over the past week:
Confined spaces - Day one of the holiday saw me travelling at the crack of dawn to the Valley of Kings and Queens, on the west bank of the river Nile. In the blistering heat, I managed to explore Ramesess III, Tutunkhamun and Queen Hatshepsut’s burial tombs. This involved walking through minuscule passages, which were often dug deep into the mountainside.
Precarious methods of travel - Throughout the week this fear was tested to its limit. Firstly, getting to Egypt meant a gruelling five and a half hour flight. The sweats, panic and complete hysteria were all constrained by an overdose of Bach's Rescue remedy and 1x tablet of Nytol at 11am, meaning that I was so dozy that I didn't care what happened on that plane. I simply purchased a blow-up pillow, ridiculously thin fleecy blanket and a fetching eye mask, all for the grand price of a fiver, and promptly feel into a dream-like stupor for the remainder of the flight.
Secondly, there was a boat trip. And by boat, I don't mean lovely, sturdy sailing boat, I mean dodgy, rickety, Egyptian boat with a failing engine. We had arranged to take part in an Egyptian night and part of this 'experience' was the boat ride up the Nile. Some of our friends had been on this boat the previous night and had told us, in no uncertain terms, that the engine had failed, leaving the boat veering in the strong Nile current towards an oncoming Cruise ship, while the young Egyptian coxswain promptly got out his spanner, fiddled around in the engine (all while petrol gushed out of the back of the boat) and eventually got the engine started, saving the lives of twenty-five very relieved holiday makers. Therefore, it is safe to say that I wasn't too confident that this would be the relaxing pleasure ride I had hoped for.
Prior to the boat tripped they handed out beautiful Galabeya's (an Egyptian style tunic), I choose bright pink with a tie in the middle, and I stepped down into the boat. Off we went, all twenty-five of us squashed up in this little boat, up the Nile and around a little island called Banana island. It was at this point that the little Egyptian man decided to turn the engine to 'as slow as physically possible' and we pottled along the east bank of the Nile. This trip took a gruelling 45 minutes, and for the entire 45 minutes I was rerunning possible scenarios through my head involving crocodiles, fish, sea snakes, sharks, large ships, drowning - you name it I thought it. When I expressed my slight concern to Gloucester his comforting comment was, 'well actually a boat capsized in the Nile yesterday and three girls got soaked,' followed by lots of laughter from him, and an increased heart rate from me.The little boat continued up the Nile and then across and over to the West bank, which couldn't be more different from the East bank. On the east you have the hotels, Luxor and moored Cruise ships, literally across the Nile on the West bank are half built shacks with no roofs, young children swimming in and drinking from the polluted river, while their parents tend to cattle or wash their small number of pots and pans in the same dirty water of the Nile. What struck me was the stark contrast of the two worlds, juxtaposed but yet so far apart. I actually felt a twang of guilt as I sat there staring at these people, knowing that I would soon be returning to the comfort of a warm bed, fresh water and hot food. I did however learn how to say the word friend so i enjoyed shouting this to the locals who all waved and blew kisses - one even got into the river and tried to swim up to the boat!
With my boat adventure over, I proceeded to the large tent where the Egyptian evening was taking place. I consumed far to much food, washed down with beer and a good few puffs on the old Shisha pipe. It was then that I spotted Cleo the camel. A few people were asking to ride her and so I thought I'd give it a go. On I jumped and the lovely Cleo took me for a walk around the courtyard - fantastic! Although I must say I quickly learned that a short skirt is certainly not suitable attire for a camel ride, thank the lord for the modesty preserving Galabeya!
Snakes and Lizards - Of course being in the dessert you are bound to find both of these in abundance. Lizards were everywhere, however as soon as I discovered that they are infact far more scared of me than I of them, I felt fine. As for the snake, it is back to the Egyptian night.
During the evening there was a plethora of entertainment from some amateur gyrating belly dancers, to a magician and snake charmer. After the snake charmer had finished his act, he asked if anyone would like to have their picture take with the snake round their neck. now, I certainly was not the first in the queue but I did eventually stand on the stage, with this wriggling snake in my hands wrapped round my neck, much to the astonishment of Gloucester, who quite smugly bet me a fiver that I would never do it!
And so my friends, there is an insight into just a few of my accomplishments of the past week, of which I am very proud. My next dream/fear is to go in a hot air balloon, which I imagine is such an amazing experience and one that I will most certainly miss out on if I am not careful.
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