While for many cruises the main part of the journey is being on the ship, Nile Cruises are a bit different. And this is what led us to the Nubian of Aswan.
Essentially I had been offered a free Nile Cruise as a way of marketing. Long story short if I like it we run cruises here alongside, Egypt and ideally Sudan again.
Said cruises start in Aswan which is to the south of Cairo and about an hours flight, or so.
What the Aswan
Apparently one of the most important towns on the nile, so much so that they have a football team and a train station. One starts the cruise here and after slow troll on the river ends in Luxor, which needs little to no introduction.
It is also a place was previously very famous for spice although this took a beating after a Soviet made damn initiated by Nasser.
And it would appear it was not just spice that took a hit, but also the ingenious Nubian people. The 75,000 or so of them now “do tourism”, which is what led us on the tour.
What the Nubian people?
I will avoid full history lesson, but this dark largely Islamic people are across huge swaths of both Egypt and Sudan. After losing their land for the dam, they were moved and nowadays have converted themselves into a tourist attraction of sorts.
Hotels, restaurants and now a whole fleet of boats now ferry the guest of Aswan and the ships down their Nubian villages.
What is it like visiting the Nubian of Aswan?
The Nubian famously have colorful houses, as well as selling spice and homemade Egyptian things to suit all tastes (see the photos). Guests duly come here for to go through the fairly epic market, as well as view Nubian houses.
When we visited we were given cold hibiscus, which much like when I was in Bir Tawil I feel in love with, among other spices.
Other than that we pretty much just looked around at the view from the top of the house, as well as eyed up the various spices.
It was undoubtedly interesting and worth the trip, particularly the boat ride there.
The Nubian in Aswan compared to the Sudanese Nubian
Staying in a Nubian house was something I did a lot in Sudan, which was an amazing thing and without much of the tourist hullabaloo that comes with Egypt.
Despite this though it took little away from the Nubian of Aswan, particularly when you consider the horrors of Sudan that currently exist. After all it is one of them things, we might craze authenticity, but the Nubian would probably swap over tourism for the current civil war….