Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A felucca ride on the Nile

Clarissa and me ....

Me and the kids on the felucca



Pretty feluccas at Aswan. Loverly....





It's funny sometimes how you take a holiday which is suppose to mean a break , a rest , but after the holiday, you feel more drained, exhausted and needing another holiday.



Egypt was one such "holiday". It was filled with adventure and I enjoyed myself tremendously as I was fulfilling my dream of sailing down the Nile in a felucca. This felucca ride experience was injected of course by Hollywood.ie. The Spy Who Loved Me, btw the only decent James Bond Roger Moore ever made. Of course, this romantic notion of sailing down in a felucca was inspired by the scene which Mr Moore had with Barbara Bach. I've held that dream for a long time , in fact since I was 14 . I was in boarding school then and I saw that movie during one of the Sundays my parents came to visit. In order to prolong the visit in this remote, sleepy town called Kuala Pilah, they took me for a movie. I felt guilty about going then because it was the exams the next day and I really should be going but I missed them a lot and I wanted to prolong the visit , too. Watching the movie though was the best thing I did. I remembered coming back extremely happy, singing that beautiful melody, the Spy Who Loved Me and an aspiration to go on the felucca. Actually, much , much happier and really for the first time, didnt even feel guilty about skipping study time ( yeah, yeah I was a boring mugger!!!)



Since then, Egypt has always been the "See Naples and Die " . For that, I wanted to keep it off my visit list as far as I could . I finally did it recently. The verdict - enjoyable, picturesque, extremely relaxing . One of the highlights of the trips.



I can't help but feel sad though. It has been for a long time its been the peak of my everest and like what I've learned in so many different everest in my life . Now what ? Is that all ? And of course like all many, young romantic illusions, that magical moment is gone. Anyway, now nearly 30 years later, weathered by life experiences, I need to find another " See Naples and Die". Hollywood please ???