Phaoronic Village, freshest honey ever and kitty cat

For those of you who have never tasted freshly harvested honey (do you harvest honey or just collect it? anyway...) our morning started off with an amazing treat, we returned to the Zitouni restaurant for breakfast and what do we find but an actual live honeycomb on the buffet table. Seriously fresh.

Following breakfast we headed out with our guide Mohammed and driver Aiymen to the Pharaonic Village which is a recreation of ancient life on a small island in the middle of the Nile, kids enjoyed visualizing what life was like and how it took about a 6 step process to make a sheet of paper from papyrus. On the island the kids found a teeny weeny animal of a faintly feline nature that I could not immediately identify but luckily Mohammed is an experienced tracker and told us it was definitely a new born kitten. I will use my allergy to cats as my defense but frankly take a look at this photo and tell me have you ever seen anything so tiny or un-kittenlike? You can click on any image to enlarge it and get the full effect, so please do.

Then we stopped for some much needed ice cream, Drumsticks are exactly the same in Egypt as at home, and proceeded to a private river boat cruise of the Nile. That sounds way more luxe than it was, picture a 7-man fishing boat with swivel chairs and a plastic canopy, and a driver with quite literally no teeth but a massive friendly grin (think plenty of Purel before, during and after the boat ride). It was a beautiful boat ride and we saw how the local fishermen and their families live along the Nile. They have loads of children and little else, and were excited to see us motor by; everyone smiled at us as we passed and waved. A group of young girls (maybe 6 or 7 years old) were shouting out to Livvy telling her it was too cold to be in a tank top and giggling in their long sleeves and long skirts in the 90 degree heat. Justin and Livvy waved at everyone they saw and were delighted when everyone waved back.

We saw a school-boat, our name for a small boat that we saw dropping children with their backpacks off at a dock on an island in the Nile where their nakab clad mothers (only eyes showing from beneath their black head to toe garments) awaited them.


As we drove back to our hotel from some R&R by the pool, Aiymen handed me a brand new travel size bottle of Purel and insisted we use it given the boat we'd been on; I could've kissed him. Along the ride on the crowded city streets we spied an enormous flock of sheep and their shepherd (totally NOT making this up) stuck in rush hour traffic and navigating between the cars and trucks. Justin nearly punctured his appendix laughing at the unusual sight. He thought maybe they should create a Sheep Lane and if you walk and herd your flock you should get a sticker like my Prius and be able to go faster.

Back at the hotel which we've come to call "the Oasis", we had a quick Skype with David who is missing us and who we are missing loads. Chloe has gotten her braces off and we admired her full smile photo together; she isn't missing us because she is 14, but she does wish us well. Then we swam and snacked by the pool and finished the day with an evening journey over to the Sofitel to eat at the Buddha Bar. The taxi driver got not insignificantly lost en route and was so embarrassed that when we finally made it (after stopping for directions and some 25 minutes delayed) he refused to take my money but I insisted emphatically with semi-wild gestures and stilted English emplorings of "please yes take, okay mistake, no worry, please". He finally demurred wishing us a hearty "welkom ehgypt america". The cab ride home was blissfully uneventful.

The kids are in their beds, Livvy listening to Lady Gaga and Justin working on a Powerpoint of his trip to Egypt for school. Good thing we don't use papyrus anymore.