The Floating City

These are some of the highlights:
the image above is Rachel Brice who is one of the best loved
Tribal Fusion Belly Dancers and we got to see her in person...
She's amazing!!

Well, it wasn't really a floating city, but felt more like a quaint village of colorful characters selling their wares beneath ornate tents. There was my favorite little costumer from last year (who I didn't get a picture of this year) selling what Kathy and I dubbed "Prison Pantaloons." They were SO CUTE! If you like pantaloons that is (which I do) ;-) They were knee length gray and white feather ticking fabric finished at the hem with drippy black lace and of course there were sweet skirts made of layered tulle to wear over them. If you click on the link above, my favorite little costumer is the fourth image down.

Faizeh of Hiplash in Lancaster.

This was the first year that Cairo Caravan was held on board the Queen Mary and it was a perfect location. The weather was overcast and the three levels of the boat remained comfortably cool.
This was my first time on the boat and I wasn't sure what to expect as I'd always imagined it as an empty floating shell of nothingness.
There were three floors of vendors selling anything from Kuchi jewelry, silk scarves, elaborate head pieces, and entire Egyptian costumes. If you could imagine it they had it!

One of my favorite things about attending these events is checking out all the different styles of costume. As you can see by the picture above belly dance has taken on a new or old American favorite...Vaudeville! Many of the Tribal Fusion Troupes have moved in this direction and it's always entertaining to see what choreography they come up with. Some of it is down right silly, but so much fun to watch and the costumes are really outlandish.
Gotta love those socks and granny boots.

This was a lovely troupe made up of 8 ladies who moved like a tightly grouped swarm of fish. I'm not sure how they'd feel being compared to fish, but if you can imagine all these beautiful colors and skirts flowing together while moving as one from one end of the stage to the next, maybe you'd think fish too ;-)! Beautiful fish!!!!

Kathy and I had lunch on the boat and while the food was good the service was s-l-o-w.
I don't think the management considered that there was going to be an extra 2,000 people on the boat which left the restaurants under staffed and the waiters running around like chickens with their heads cut off. But, we were able to eat and that alone made us happy and ready for a few more hours of shopping.
By the end of the day we were exhausted, penniless, and ready for next year.

OK, now I'm looking at the above picture and maybe these ladies are the beautiful fish with all their shimmering golds and taupes while the ladies further up are gorgeous flowers swaying in the breeze... ;-)