Travel: Christmas on the Nile

Star-Telegram

Standing on the broad, canopied upper deck, we felt a gentle grinding beneath our feet as the flat-bottom hull of our dahabiyeh, a near-replica of a 19th-century Egyptian river boat, slid against the east bank of an island in the middle of the Nile.

Several members of the Lazuli's crew, clad in ankle-length robes, jumped ashore. Others tossed mooring lines.

Several of us watched the furious bustle, while others stayed curled up with their books or napped on the many couches and sumptuous pillows scattered on the glossy wooden deck. Ten of us made up the entire complement of passengers, four small family groups who had come together from the United States and Canada for a Nile adventure.

It was Christmas night; the sun was setting. We had been told a festive dinner was planned, but we didn't expect what came next.

A sturdy, 2-foot-wide gangplank was run out onto the riverbank. The crew began carrying the sectioned dining table and chairs down from the upper deck -- where we had already enjoyed lavish lunches, a breakfast and a dinner -- and set them up on the flat, grassy bank, kept putting-green cropped by grazing cows and goats. Tonight, evidently, dinner would be ashore.