Night Train to Aswan
Finished with our brief stay in Cairo, we headed off for the train station and our night train to Aswan, about 600 miles south. Our previous experience on an overnight train in China was reasonably pleasant (two bunks, small sitting area and a private bathroom), so we weren’t too concerned about this one and figured it a much better use of time than going all the way back through Cairo to the airport and spending another night in a hotel.
We arrived at the platform in time to see the train before ours just leaving, and from the sight of it knew we could be in for a bit of a rude awakening. The people here can clearly fix anything, with the result being equipment that would have long since made its way to the scrap yard in most other countries is just hitting middle age in Egypt. Nonetheless, we have a schedule to keep (in theory we are being met in Aswan by a representative of the travel company we booked our Nile cruise with), so as soon as our train pulls in, we find our car and step on board.
We quickly find our cabin, and are happy to see that it does only contain two bunks as promised (we have heard many stories of reservations for two berth cabins turning into four berth cabins upon arrival complete with strangers). However, that is pretty much all there is, as the cabin is no more than 5 feet across and slightly more than 6 feet long (the latter I confirm when I turn in for the night and am able to fit it perfectly). The upside is that as a night train, we will be sleeping 80% of the time anyways, so won’t miss the space much.
Our tickets include two meals, an about an hour out of Aswan, our steward brings in breakfast. In Cairo, we had breakfast at the hotel, so this is our first real exposure to a typical Egyptian breakfast, as we quickly learn that bread is pretty much the base component of everything (my tray contains four different buns of varying dryness and an orange). Not being particularly big bread eaters, both Ang and I eye up each other’s orange, but the cabin is too small to grab it and run away, so we hunker down, guarding our prize like Smeagol and the one true ring.
Arriving in Aswan, we leave the train and breathe a sigh of relief seeing someone standing on the platform holding a card with our name. Sam takes us quickly to a taxi where the driver throws our bags on the roof (without tying them down) and peels off toward the river. When we arrive, lo and behold we are taken onto a boat that appears to be of the quality promised when we booked in Cairo. We are definitely relieved, as spending a day stranded in Aswan trying to book space on a different boat would have taken a little something away from the experience.
The boat isn’t scheduled to leave Aswan until tomorrow, so with the rest of our day we go on a package tour that stops at the Aswan High Dam and Philae Temple. The former is a bit underwhelming since its just a dam (a big one, but a dam nonetheless), but the temple is interesting, on part because of the process involved in taking it apart and moving it to higher ground to keep it from being submerged by the water rising behind the completed dam.
After the temple we make our way back to the boat and spend about an hour walking through the local market before dinner and an early bedtime. We have a wake up call at 2:45am to catch the 3:30am bus to Abu Simbel ☹.
April 18th, 2010 at 7:38 am
Glad your two person cabin was just that. Know from experience that they do turn into four passenger compartments quite readily. Good batch of pictures that you have posted. Keep up the good work!