Day 20: Esna - Awan, Egypt

Viking Amun Riverboat

11 January 2026

Today was a relatively lazy day. We had to be up and out the door at 8am for a walking tour of Esna Temple but, other than that, we were strictly on board and sailing today. We had no trouble waking up as our boat was parked right in front of a mosque and at 5.12am, the morning call to prayer (amplified by modern speakers) shocked us instantly out of sleep. People on the other side of the boat weren’t disturbed as much, but it was like an alarm for us!

The temple was small, but beautiful. It had been covered in sand for centuries, which helped preserve it. But it also means that the modern town is 27 feet higher than the temple, so it sits in a pit dug in the ground. Archaeological excavations are going on all the time, extending the temple. Apparently, they had already pulled down a lot of houses that were on top of the temple and are preparing to pull down more buildings, including a mosque. I admire their dedication to archaeology!

This was a walking tour, so we had to walk through the streets of Esna to get to the temple, being hassled by street vendors the whole time – and then had to walk back. It gets tiring after a while.

On board, we were treated to the floating vendors, who row up to the boat and throw items up to the sun deck (quite a feat). If you want to buy what they’ve flung at you, you haggle by shouting over the side, and then either throw the money down in a plastic bag – or throw the item back. They balance in the boats and catch most things – although we did see one scarf hit the water. They just fished it out, squeezed it a bit, and tried to sell it to someone else. What an odd system! They did make a sale though. One woman bought a dress that was thrown up to her. It actually looked really good and she bargained them down from $45 USD to $15 USD, which was apparently the normal price in the market stalls. An entertaining experience, at least!

We are now sailing down the river to Aswan and won’t arrive until 8pm. They have arranged activities to keep us busy – cocktails on the sun deck, hieroglyphic lessons in the lounge, falafel-making lessons in the galley, a tour of the bridge and a talk about medicine in Ancient Egypt in the lounge again.

They are planning a special Egyptian dinner tonight with all the staff dressed in Egyptian robes. (Not sure if we will be given robes as well – it was a bit vague.) The head chef is Romanian though, so let’s see what his Egyptian cuisine will be like.

P.S. The meal was very good - and almost half the guests had dressed in Egyptian clothing, purchased while on this trip. I was very impressed with their efforts!