This was easy and worked out great. I bought the tickets online for $80 each at this website, run by Egyptian Railways.
At Aton’s suggestion we went to Giza station instead of Cairo because there is only one track. The platform you use is the one right by the station so you don’t even have to cross over to the other side.
The station security beckoned me over and pulled Gail aside to wait. They had a hard time figuring out my nationality of all things, like they had never heard of “United States” or “USA.” We looked at each other and in a burst of inspiration I said “California. Hotel California?”
“His face lit up, he slapped me on the back and said,”Cal ee fornah! Welcome Egypt!” And he motioned me through. We didn’t even have to put our bags through the x-Ray machine.
We are on train 86, leaving about 20:25 and it squeezed in right on time.
Little signs on the platform say which car will be where. We are car two, room one, and the car stopped right in front of us.
An Egyptian Rail guy met us, checked our tickets and pointed us down the car to room one.
The sleeper room is really small, tighter than the one we took last year to Bucharest. There is no real storage, but I can hang my pack out of the way.
There is a pull out sink and two towels, but the bathroom is down at the end of the car. Right now the seats are down, we fit trays into little slots for our fish dinner. Like airline food, it is not great but it gets the job done.
Our attendant is Mohammad. He checks on us, then puts the bunks down. I slip him a 50, he is very surprised.
It will pay off big time tomorrow morning.
While Gail got ready for bed (I am telling you, the space is really tight. I don't know how the two fat women in the black burka's can do it.) I walked up six cars to the club car for a Birell alcohol free beer.
There is one thing worse than a fake beer.
A warm fake beer.
I went back, cleared the taste out of my mouth with warm water, and climbed the ladder to the upper bunk.
All night we swayed along, the rickety rocking, clicking clack of the train lulling is to sleep.
There was some mysterious, loud banging at night. But we both slept well.
I was up before 6. Cold from the AC. I was not feeling very well.
Turns out I must have picked up some water or bad food in Cairo yesterday, my stomach bothered me the next three days.
The people next to us got out at Luxor. So Mohammad opened the connecting door for us and made a little suite out of it, beds in one room seats in the other. For the last three hours we enjoyed the extra space.
I got my first glimpses of the Nile. Not as wide as I thought it would be, we pass the occasional fishing boat, bright green fertile fields, groves of palms or banana with corn or other crops planted underneath. All this green is backed by brown hills. Out the other side of the train it is dry, brown, rocky.
Villages of old mud or brown stone buildings, and newer unfinished brick construction.
People work the fields by hand among cows and horses.
We arrived Aswan an hour late, about 9:30. It was 104 degrees.
We stepped out of the car and Mohammed from Memphis Tours was right there to meet us, as promised.