The tea did keep me awake and after finally falling asleep in the wee small hours, my phone alarm awoke us at 4am with its gentle cello concerto alarm. Bags outside the room and breakfast box consumed, we reluctantly leave this beautiful hotel bound for Cairo airport. With little or no traffic at this hour, we rather enjoy the peaceful drive but our peace is shattered once inside the terminal. One could only describe the check-in and security procedures as absolute mayhem and chaos. There is one security gate open and through that goes not only the passengers and their carry-ons, but also the checked baggage. There are no boxes in which to place little items for security screening and nobody seeems to care what you carry on. The crowd pushes forward through the security gate then a mad scramble takes place as you try to retrieve your personal items from the mish mash of baggage on the belt. Green liquid from something broken in somebody's bag (not mine) lies in a pool on the floor while some else tries to save a bag that is disappearing between the rollers. Finally we make it through and head to the departure gate hoping that somehow our checked in bags will fly with us to Luxor. The flight is only 51 minutes and miraculously our bags make it too. While these head to our ship (Mayfair), we go on a 90 minute chaotic drive to see the Dandara temples. They are very interesting and as usual Tarek presents it very well, but I am so tired that I can't take anything in and just can't wait until we go on board and I can catch up with some sleep.

Embarkation time finally comes after the return 90 minute drive to Luxor. Luxor is much cleaner and greener than Cairo although still a mad house on the roads. The Mayfair was only built in Oct 2011 and is decorated in a style I can only describe as Cleopatran - lots of black and gold with strange ornate fittings which serve no purpose at all. Our stateroom is comfortably furnished and the bathroom is all gilded and black too. The bathroom floor is slats of timber supposedly to let the water through. A bit noisy under foot but practical I suppose. Lunch is a 3 course meal beautfifully presented in the elegant dining room but why are there so many empty tables? We find out that there are only 35 passengers on board for this cruise, 10 from our group + another German tour group and a few doing their own thing. This boat normally holds 125 passengers and is doing it very tough with the enormous number of cancellations. There are usually 300 boats doing Nile cruises but currently that number is down by 70%. No wonder the souvenir sellers are so aggressive!

After lunch, I excuse myself from the group and catch up with some zzzz while Brad joins the others on an excursion to Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple which he tells me was awe inspiring. Oh well there will be others!

Tarek tells us there will be a surprise at the Bar tonight after dinner. As if we need more food, we go to dinner at 7:30 where we have pea soup (small amount thankfully), grilled fish & veg, followed by "cheesecake". I think Egyptians should stick to desserts they are good at as the cheesecake is not good. The surprise at the bar turns out to be a dancer similar to a whirling dervish who whirls himself into a frenzy for about 15 minutes. He is followed by a belly dancer who is more of a booby dancer. She wobbles and shakes around for an embarassingly long time occasionally grabbing one of the male guests to dance with her. We have seen better in Wollongong but I suppose with so few guests on board, the Mayfair can't afford any better quality performers.