dancing light

so we were on a nile cruiser, the M/S Miriam for 4 days and 3 nights. it was completely self sufficient with rooms from the 2nd floor up, a lobby with an adjoining bar and in the hull, if you can imagine it, the dining area where all three meals were served, buffet style.

now a note about buffets in egypt. it was all very standard. in order: breads, bread sticks, at least 7 salads, olives, tahini (egyptian cheese), if you were lucky there was hummus cos that's not a usual buffet item, grilled brinjal, soups (either carrot/mushroom or some dhal-esque clear soup in which the dhal bits tasted like pasta), and for the main offering: chicken, beef and fish done in a different way every lunch and dinner. once there was a whole hunking mass of whole tuna and you were carved a piece of white flaky flesh if you wanted some. beef was either in the form of kofta, curried, or as meatballs(and this other malaysian tour group that was on the ship too almost cried "blasphemy! blasphemy!" when i spooned beef on my plate -_-). chicken was..well, how exciting can chicken get. but it doesn't end there HO NO. the dessert section which is MADNESS. chocolate, white chocolate on pastries, eclairs, toxic-coloured agar creations, sugee-like cakes etc etc and EVRYBLOODY thing was so effing sweet i got the excessive sugar alternative of a brain freeze. sugar must be damn cheap there ah! well, they do have fields and fields of sugarcane plantations down at the west bank, so yeah that explains it. but My God. as an indian, diabetes is something i'm kinda destined for so BAD sugar, BAAAAD!

ok back to the picture. so one of the nights we were docked they had special performances arranged for all the in-house residents and the first item was this dude who did a centrifugal performance with his technicoloured skirt, spinny acrobatics that sorta thing. but after that, a bellydancer. who had a belly and so much more. its not clear here(thank God) but yeah, the infectiously intoxicating arabian music was what i was there for. and she gave me such a contemptuous look when i refused to go to the dancefloor with her HRMPH. after that they opened the dancefloor up and it would've been REALlY weird if i danced with all the geezers there (everyone above 35) so i went back up to my room and watched Pushing Tin on dubai one with my brothers. when you're stuck on a ship which only gets tv reception when its docked, you jolly well watch tv while you can :)