Virtuoso Insights - August/September 2008 - (Page 42) T Feluccas form a floating souk on the Nile. Photo ©Joel Puglisi Photo ©Joel Puglisi he next morning, after visiting Madinat Habu — the funerary temple built by Ramses III and the site where the sun god Amun-Ra first appeared — we continue upstream for Edfu and the vast plazas and secret chambers of the Temple of Horus. The six-hour sailing allows time for an indulgent Thai massage, and, after emerging entirely renewed from the ship’s spa, I return to the deck for an additional infusion of Egyptian sunlight and the sweet slowness of watching the river flow. Water buffalo, cornfields, kingfishers, banana plantations, sparks of magenta bougainvillea, men clad in galabeyas and skullcaps tilling the earth, and occasional, somnolent villages pass. Every village has a mosque, and every mosque, a minaret. And behind the fertile farmlands and villages and vivid green banks where great blue herons wade, sandstone cliffs rise up and stretch into endless expanses of desert. As we sail into the “golden hour” of late afternoon, I meet Tarek Lotfy, an executive with Oberoi and a veteran of Nile cruising for whom the mystique and curative powers of the river seem to have lost none of their draw. Though he’s sailed the Nile countless times, Lotfy also has spent much of his day watching the vibrant scenes of the river pass, and when I ask him what repeatedly lures him to these waters, he confides: “When I want to heal myself, I cruise the Nile. And when I want to return to myself, I cruise the Nile.” Later that evening, seated in the ship’s atmospheric restaurant, my group feasts from a regional mélange prepared by Chef Siddhartha Chowdhry. Complemented with fine wines from Egypt to Chile, our meal includes wark enab (wine leaf filled with spiced Lebanese rice), bamiya tagine (okra simmered in Egyptian tomato sauce), and sayadeya (grilled fish with peppers and tomatoes), and is then followed by rich desserts of omali (phyllo pastry and milk pudding) and baklava. After dinner, now docked in Edfu, I return again to my sundeck sanctuary. The ship hosts astronomy sessions here, but tonight, with many of its guests exploring the town, I have the place to myself. Festive lights strung for Ramadan sequin the city while above, vast civilizations of stars flourish in the sky. more river Nile on page 44 P Elegant dining on the Zahra. “When I want to heal myself, I cruise the Nile. and when I want to return to myself, I cruise the Nile.” 42 Virtuoso insights
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