After a few rest stops here and there (and some disgusting toilets!) we woke up to the van stopped and a whole lot of men outside (some with guns) all yelling at each other! Apparently we had stopped to find some petrol, and ended up having to buy some on the black market! So Ramzy and our driver were out negotiating with them for a while, then when they got back in we drove down some creepy streets where there was a pack of possibly stray dogs hanging around and howling to add to the creepiness, but we eventually got our petrol then headed back on our way! We got a small amount more sleep then had to stop again a while later after the sun came up because one of the front tires blew! So we stopped in the middle of the desert while Ramzy and the driver changed the tyre! When we got back on the road I got a very small amount more sleep in before we arrived at our cruise ship in Aswan. We got on and checked in, then went up to our very nice room, followed very quickly by the porter with our bags. Great service! We put our things away then went down for lunch. It was a buffet, and had a very nice selection. We ate some food, then, pretty wrecked, we went back up to our room for a couple hours sleep in the amazingly comfortable bed. When we woke up we met the group again down in the lobby, then stepped off the ship into the roof of a motorboat, which took us out onto the Nile! We changed from the motorboat onto a traditional Egyptian boat, the felucca! The felucca has no engine or anything, but just relies on the wind and its sail to get it up and downstream. To go upstream they had to do a big zig zagging pattern to work with the wind and make any headway. It was very nice. After a while we turned and went back downstream, which was a lot simpler as the wind and the current just let us pretty much drift along. It was so relaxing, just laying and soaking up the sun and watching the fish in the water. As we continued to drift downstream the sailors laid out a while bunch of jewellery for anyone to have a look at and haggle for if they wanted. I think everyone was too lazy to even bother as no one even looked at anything! After a while the motorboat pulled up alongside us again, and we changed back to that and cruised a bit before pulling in to shore so we could jump off the boat for a swim in the Nile! That was such an amazing experience and was very refreshing, and helped to wake us all up a bit too! Amazing. When we were all back on board we set off downstream a bit more and everyone except Darren and I got off the boat to go for a camel ride while we kept slowly floating downstream (at about the same pace as the camels, as we kept getting glimpses of them!) to meet them on the other side of a Nubian Village. The Nubians are the original inhabitants of the southern part of Egypt, and they have very dark skin, and look like real Africans, as opposed to the middle eastern look of the Egyptians in the North. Ramzy had said he would meet us at the dock, but as we pulled up in the village, a man at the top of the stairs was calling to us saying "Your guide! Your guide!" We were a bit skeptical as we'd been warned about people who pretend to know the guides to get you into their shop or whatever to take advantage of you and take your money, so we went up a different set of stairs after asking the guys in the boat to wait for us, but it was all good, because Ramzy was up the top there, on his camel. We followed his camel through the village to the other side where everyone was waiting for us. The camel had a bit of attitude, and definitely didn't like getting whacked with a stock by the Nubian man! He had a hissy fit at one stage and decided to do some circle work, so we hung back a bit more after that! Silly stubborn camel! When we met the others, Ramzy took us into the school where the primary school aged Nubian kids learnt Arabic as well as all the normal school subjects. He took us into a classroom and we got a seat and were introduced to one of the schools teachers! He had some Arabic letters written up on the board, which turned out to be the alphabet and the numbers 1-10. He recited them to us and got us to repeat it back, then after a bit he pointed to one number, then pointed to Darren, who didn't know what it was! So he had to go up the front, put his hands on the wall and get spanked with a wooden stick by the teacher! The teacher then called me up to spank him too! It was so funny! After a bit more reciting, he picked Steve, who also got it wrong and had to go up to be spanked! After he had gone through the alphabet, he asked us our names and wrote them in Arabic. Steve went first, and had to copy the writing on the board. He was so bad at it that he got spanked again! The rest of us were pretty good though, then when it was Darren's turn, instead of writing 'Darren', he wrote a name that went halfway across the board, and Darren had to copy the whole thing! Hilarious! When we finished class we thanked the teacher and headed out. Ramzy showed us where we would be meeting, then we went for a walk through the markets. We got hassled by everyone! My favourites were the ones saying "No hassle, no hassle!" who were the worst for hassling! It ended up being a considerably short trip through the markets as we were all a bit tired and couldn't deal with too much market people! So we went back to a Nubian house which we entered and went upstairs to meet Ramzy. We sat down and had a chat for a minute, when all of a sudden Ramzy scared the **** out of Darren by throwing a crocodile onto him! It was a tiny little thing, which his mouth tied shut, and he was SO CUTE! I called him Chomper, and had a cuddle and got some photos. I wonder if I could get a crocodile through customs... After playing with Chomper, and having a look at the three other crocs they had in their cages, we had a cup of tea and a chat, and Ramzy gave us the itinerary for the next day (3am start! What the?!) then after hanging out a while longer we walked back through the markets to the dock and got back on the motorboat. We hung out on the roof of the boat this time as we sailed back up the Nile, looking at the stars and the pretty lights of the towns and of some tombs in a mountain. When we got back to the cruise ship we went down for dinner, which was pretty good again, then went up to the bar for a drink. They had a show on of a Derwish dancer, which I'm still not sure where this kind of dance originated... Might have to google that one! It was a guy wearing long skirts who pretty much spun in circles for a while making his skirts look kind of like parachutes! I don't know how he didn't get too dizzy and just fall down though! Up next was a belly dancer, who was more of a belly jiggler than dancer! She shook around for a while then went around the room getting people up to dance with her! There was one old guy who got up who was so enthusiastic about getting up to dance we thought he was going to either fall over his own feet or have a heart attack from his excitement! Darren and Steve went up next, and I got a hilarious video of them shaking their bellies on stage! So funny! When the dancing was finished, we finished our drinks and headed up to bed in preparation of our ridiculously early start the next morning!