Night train to Aswan and Luxor, and back to Cairo

Since J hadn’t been down to the south, we decided we should visit two of the big ticket tourist attractions: Abu Simbel and The Valley of the Kings. Instead of flying, we took the sleeper train south. The compartments felt a little smaller than the ones in the Turkish trains for example, but the beds are relatively comfortable, and you actually get fed edible food in sleeper class.

We arrived in Aswan the next morning only about half an hour late, which isn’t too bad compared to what I’d read. We were met enthusiastically by Heba, one of Nibal’s associates, who helped us see Aswan and Luxor.

Our first stop in Aswan was to visit the Philae Temple by boat, and then the Unfinished Obelisk, before we could check into the hotel. We stayed at a little hotel on the Corniche, the Philae. It’s a cute little spot, with helpful staff and good aircon, and a lovely view over the river.

 

The first evening we visited the Nubian Village across the Nile. We enjoyed roaming the colourful streets and sipping cold karkade (hibiscus tea). We were surprised to see small crocodiles being kept in cages here, and we weren’t sure whether they were pets or being kept for tourists to see. The Nubian people offered handcrafts, spices and henna tattoos for those who wanted them.

Abu Simbel was one of our must-see destinations while in Aswan, so we dragged ourselves out of bed at 3am to drive three hours, almost to the southern border, to see the temple. It’s pretty spectacular. Ramses II was pretty keen to align himself with the gods, hence the huge statues adorning the front of the temple.

Even the temple for his “favourite wife”, Nefertari, had 4/6 of the statues at the front of Ramses II, and only two of her.

While in Aswan, we also explored the markets, trying some sugar cane juice and peanuts. It was incredibly hot: 44C maximum both days, so we spent the afternoons inside and did our activities in the morning and evening.

On the morning train to Luxor we got into conversation with a number of locals, who were all very helpful about things like getting off at the correct stop.

Eventually (about an hour late… Egyptian time!) we arrived in Luxor, and the bustle at the station was incredible. One of the legions of pushy taxi drivers attached himself to us, notwithstanding our protests that we had a driver waiting, and only the intervention of a kind railway police detached him.

The Eatabe Hotel where we stayed in Luxor was nice, and had multiple cafes, a bar and a pool, although the airconditioning in the rooms wasn’t as good as the Philae. Also, we were shocked to find out that there was no wifi! Nevertheless, the staff were very helpful.

Our biggest tourist destination in Luxor was the triptych of the Valley of the Kings and Hapsetshut’s Temple, and the Colossus of Memnon. All had quite a few other tourists, even though we started very early in the morning to avoid the heat.

On our way back to the hotel, Heba took us to an alabaster “factory”, so we could be shown how the stone is carved and worked. Then we moved onto a perfume institute, where we picked up some essences.

We had had a break from dancing for a few days as we concentrated on sightseeing, but in Luxor we returned to it with a vengeance, taking a saiidi class and a ghawazee class.

Hamdy, our saiidi teacher, showed us some powerful, strong assaya (stick) combinations, and talked about the differences between men’s and women’s dances. He had organised for us to use the outdoors space at the Gezira Gardens Hotel across the river, which was a lovely space, although it didn’t have aircon, so we were a bit warm after the exertions of the athletic dance.

Our second class in Luxor was with the legendary Ghawazee dancer, Khairyya Mazin, who taught us in her apartment. She was delightful, and demonstrated key Ghawazee moves for us and chatted with us over tea afterwards, translated by Heba.

The wonderful Heba also opened up her home to us, having a meal with us prepared by her lovely mother. We had delicious chicken, two soups, salad, rice, beans and then fruit afterwards: fresh dates, guava, banana and grapes.

While exploring the markets in Luxor, we visited a music shop where the knowledgeable owner was able to listen to the snippets of music we had recorded from the radio (thank you, Omar!) and tell us what album they came from. We came away weighed down with almost 20 CDs!

After two very full days in Luxor, we flew back to Cairo to spend our last few hours in Cairo picking up costumes, and finally heading to Mr Mahmoud’s bellydancing shop in Khan el Khalili. I’d been champing at the bit to go there on this trip since I didn’t last time, but every time we tried to get there, it seemed that our other appointments would take extra-long and it wouldn’t be possible.

The souk is a bit of a maze, so we gladly accepted the help of Omar, our driver, to show us the way. It’s changed a bit since my last trip, and while I recognised some sections, there were huge tracts that were unfamiliar, so I was very happy to be following, not leading.

Finally, I passed through the hallowed doors, and it was not an anticlimax. Three floors were filled with costumes and accessories. They didn’t have a huge variety of items, but those they did were available in many different colours and fabrics. Not a lot of larger sizes available in the costumes, but I picked up a bunch of chiffon skirts and hip scarves. A fitting capstone to the trip.

It was very sad to leave Egypt: it will definitely be less than 13 years before I visit again. There were so many wonderful people who helped us to have a fabulous trip, such as Yasmina, Amal, Nibal, Heba, Sara, and the indefatigable Omar.