2010: The New Year

The New Year countdown party was most anticipated as we had always celebrated this special night in the past years.

Prior to our trip, the travel company had consistently reminded us to be in our formal wear as there would be some special program incorporated into our countdown party.

The evening begins around 7.30pm with all attendees looking magnificent in their formal wears. There were a series of interesting performances and a widespread of mouth-watering cuisines. Food comes in a great variety of turkey, beef, mutton, fish and various fruit platters that were presented exquisitely. Although most of the attendees come from different countries, everyone was swept into the festive atmosphere and mingled happily.

The countdown party started officially at 10.30pm. Be it the young or seniors, everyone starting swinging into actions on the dance floor. Without doubt, the young and beautiful naturally comes under the limelight. Nonetheless, “matured” citizens like us also added some festive atmosphere to the party as we sway to the music!

It was a great experience to countdown with friends from various countries as we exchanged well wishes for the New Year. We partied till the wee hours before we surrendered to fatigue.

With the coming of a New Year, the Captain gave us a present, which was to change us to a cabin on the third level. To our delight, the cabin provides great scenery and was sound free. This warranted the blissful sleep that I enjoyed tremendously.

On the morning of 1st January, we woke up later than usual and had a quick breakfast before we embark to visit the temples at Kom Ombo. While I was exploring the area, a policeman noticed that I seems to be researching and I must had looked like I know what I was doing, because he brought me to a door whereby there were some weird inscriptions (that resembles the namesake of some god) carved on it.

After that, he led me to another area and advised me that the place was protected by the local deity. The stone carvings, which includes drawings and words, holds the key to some special history and even reflect some quotations for the ancient astronomy system. I believe that this was how ancient inhabitants measured the tides of the Nile River.