Egypt Part The Third 2022 - In Luxor (finally!)

 It is now Tuesday and if you are observant you will notice that I am still on the train, except I am not.

The train was supposed to be an express and all went well until we got to Minya which is about 150 miles south of Cairo so roughly half way, and we reached Minya after about 4 hours. So according to me we are running to schedule, yes?? But no, because I couldn't find an actual route timetable so what I didn't know was that further down the line the train turns into an ordinary stopping train. 

A bit further down the train stopped at Assyut, and again I know that is a scheduled stop. And look at all those stations we are now going to stop at!

Minya, by the way has what must be one of one of the tallest mobile phone towers in the world...

 

And why is that Egyptians seem to appear at the side of the railway line for no apparent reason, (below). He can't of come from anywhere because there is a canal behind him, unless he can walk on water... And why is he just standing there?

Still lots to look at though because it does not get dark until after 5pm, and numerous level crossings which are unmanned it seems...

Logically enough I got organised to get off the train after 8 hours, getting suitcases down off racks etc., when doing so a man two seats in front very kindly came and told me that the train was running 3 1/2 hours late... Of course the language barrier got it a bit wrong here because we are not running late at all.

Because we have turned into a stopping train the trip now takes 3 1/2 hours longer!!

And a bit more video for you.....

So instead of arriving in Luxor at 6.42pm we eventually arrive at 10.15pm.... At least sitting on a train requires no effort, and there is a tea trolley comes around at regular intervals. And when it does I now suddenly realise what the tea man was trying to tell me earlier on during the trip when he asked me where I was going and busily showing me numbers on his mobile phone! 

Luckily I have come prepared with bags of crisps, chocolate, and water.... Although I did buy lunch on the train which cost me 45LE for two cups of tea and an enormous chicken roll.

Fortunately I had already told my hotel which train I was coming on and I think they realised that I did not know that the train was going to be much later than the time I gave them.

The transfer organised by my hotel was a little different as well, a taxi from the station to the Nile, a boat across the Nile, a quick clamber up the bank and 15 minutes later I am in my room. I was expecting to be taken by taxi over the bridge 15 kms upstream from Luxor.

SO after all this I got into bed and the bed was still moving with the rhythm of the train! Not a comfortable experience.

Today will be a rest day.

Egypt Part The Third 2022, From Cairo To Luxor & The Joys of Egyptian Train Travel!

If you have been keeping up with my Egyptian Odyssey you will remember that twice before I have used the trains in Egypt, once from Luxor to Aswan, and the overnight sleeper from Aswan to Cairo in 2017 so I am at least a little prepared for the journey.

(Leaving the train at Luxor a man tried to tell me he was a ticket collector and wanted my ticket, he actually wanted my ticket to get out of the station because he didn't have one....)

What you have to remember is that this is Egypt...... While the British might have been responsible for the original construction they have not been responsible for the maintenance required. Neither, it would appear, have the Egyptians.

Forget the comfort of being whisked by Richard Branson from London Euston to Manchester, or indeed the speed with which Amtrak will take you from Boston to New York, for a start the rolling stock is considerably older, and they certainly have not got around to electrification!

The rolling stock has a variety of descriptions, the one I am on is described as ''Speed AC Spanish''. Now quite what this means I am not sure but I suspect that it means it was bought second hand from Spain.....

Having been heaved aboard by the man that checks the train is actually coupled together, and slipping him a fiver for heaving my 22kg suitcase up on to the overhead rack, I take my seat on upholstery that has certainly seen better days.....

 The train is airconditioned to the extent that it is freezing cold which required me putting on a second pair of socks, and the toilet arrangements leave something to be desired. No scrub that, they leave a LOT to be desired.

But I am getting ahead of myself, the train is due to depart at 10.00am and arrive in Luxor at 6.42pm. A total of 8 hours and 42 minutes..... 10.00am is when the train arrives at the platform, it leaves at 10.10am and after a saunter arrives at Giza half an hour later. A 15km journey....

There are supposedly a couple of other stops on the way but it is (supposed) to be a non stop to Luxor.

Shortly after departure we cross the Nile and are treated to the normal Egyptian urban landscape which like most others is not particularly exciting....

There are quite a few urban infrastructure projects underway in the outskirts of Cairo and these seem to mainly be the construction of elevated roads, like the one below which is a flyover over the railway and several buildings as well.

Sadly the same investment is not being made in the railways.....

AS ever in Egypt there are the remains of older buildings demolished and left as well as the proverbial piles of rubbish. Removing all this would be a project of such vast proportions that it will probably never be attempted!

But it is not long before we reach the rural landscape which prevails along the Nile valley, naturally the windows have had only a cursory wash on the outside, but then the inside is not that clean either...

After a while even I get less interested in the landscape rolling by and resort to a book unless something catches my attention...

You can try sleeping of course but will be woken often as the carriage makes violent lurches over the uneven tracks....

And if you are at the front the driver is almost continuously sounding the horn on the train, although I must admit the horn is quite musical although why it has to be sounded almost continuously is beyond me.

Passing through the fields is a little like a journey in time.... Donkeys and carts and the occasional camel are the commonest form of transport and the agriculture is all manual labour, rarely will you see a tractor. And here's a little video for you!

                          

                                   

                                                    

Egypt Part The Third, A Day In Cairo And Buying a Rail Ticket

 Sometimes things in Egypt do not quite go according to plan, and in this instance it was the non arrival of my transit car ordered through the hotel.

At first I thought this might be because of my early arrival at the airport and the lack of other passengers meant that it took only 40 minutes to get through the airport so the car would turn up in its own time.

But the Egyptians are ever helpful and an official, yes really, an official taxi rep kindly phoned the hotel for me and finally got hold of the owner who admitted that he had forgotten to order my transfer, so my new found taxi rep offered to take me into Cairo at the same price, at which point I lied and said the hotel had quoted me US$20 when they had actually said US$25.

The traffic in Cairo has not got any better and I am surprised to see that there are many new infrastructure projects being started, but it is a shame that they haven't finished the older ones yet.

Indeed, Cairo must be quite high up on the list of most un-finished cities in the world. Or perhaps I mean one of the least finished cities in the world.

Why I expected things to be finished after a space of 3 years, or indeed, after a space of 5 years from first visit I really do not know.....

The taxi drops me on Talaat Haab roundabout and points across the road and tells me my hotel is in that building.

It isn't of course. It is actually the building next to where he dropped me off but it take me 20 minutes to find that out after I have dragged my bags across the square and back again.

I am pleased to find that I have not lost the art of crossing a Cairo street without getting run over... It is all about timing you see and adjusting your pace so that you cross one lane of traffic without getting run over by the next lane.

The hotel boasts that it has a lift, except that it does not come down to street level....

After trying several banks to change some cash, I finally find a packed ''exchange shop'' which does the transaction for me at a rate of 21.15 LE to GB£1...

And I still don't have a train ticket for my onward journey to Luxor the following day....

Egyptian National Railways has a web site that 'promises' that you can buy tickets online to save time at the station.

To date I have not heard of anybody having been able to open an account and do this, not even an Egyptian.

The only effective way of doing it is to go to the station which does present a problem because nobody seems to know where Rameses Station actually is, not even the taxi drivers.

After 40 minutes in a taxi going around in circles in the general area of the station we finally manage to home in on it although you can no longer drive up to the front door, presumably to stop the chaos that normally reigns with legal and illegal taxis blocking up the entrance. (Remember that I have been her before when I arrived on the overnight sleeper from Aswan 5 years ago).

My driver, who has done the strangest thing and has actually put the meter on, asks me to get out of the taxi about 400 metres away and charges me the princely sum of 50 LE, about £2.50 for the trip...

I have already written out my preferred train time, destination, and the 'train number' on a piece of paper to give to the ticket office clerk, (the ticket machines are not working), but that doesn't stop him querying every piece of information that I have put on the paper.

Twice.

Finally I get my ticket, first class leaving at 10 am the following morning and it costs me 145LE.

I will not go into details of the taxi ride back to my hotel, nor of my journey from the hotel to Ramsis Station the following morning except to say that an official taxi wanted 200 LE to take me because I had a bag, but a completely illegal taxi only wanted 100 LE.....

Everybody needs to visit Rameses Station, or indeed Ramsis Station.. In the past I have seen some spectacular stations but I think that Rameses is surpassed only by some stations in Russia and I have only ever seen photos of those.

I am not certain to what period the interior is supposed to belong....

Somewhere between Art Deco/Nouveau and a bad dream would probably be appropriate....

The Egyptian rail network is one of two things that the British gave to Egypt, the second being the original Aswan (Low) Dam. 

With a certain amount of self  interest the British took on the project to shorten communications between Europe, notably England, and its largest colony, India!

To a certain extent the building of the Suez Canal rather took away the need for the railway link as the French decided to get in on the act.....

Of course as you would expect, there is little point in watching the destination board on the main concourse waiting for a platform number for your train, instead I found somebody in a uniform who told me that it would be going from Platform 11 and was kind enough to guide me and actually carry my bags to the right place, and what's more he didn't even want a tip!!

That is a world first in Egypt where tipping is the norm.

So Here We Go With Egypt Part The Third In January 2022! Getting There.....

 For the last two years there has been nothing in the news apart from the Sars2-COVID19 scamdemic which has made travel well nigh impossible, has frightened people, and indeed, has governments around the world panicking and running around like headless chickens. We have had lockdowns which have apparently done little good except annoy people and we now have more people with paranoia than we do with COVID...... 

The media hasn't helped by publishing poor researched articles and using the statistics to sell newspapers rather than using them to show just what little effect it has had, and indeed it now appears that there is no such thing as ordinary flu which killed millions each year instead of which COVID kills them instead.....

During the last two years I have ''collected'' a number of flight vouchers as a result of flights being cancelled and rescheduled and now the time has come to use them because they are worth more as flights than the cash refund I can get, so the route for travelling is a little bit devious as I am currently in the UK using a ticket that I bought in January 2020 which is return from Athens to London Gatwick with good old Easyjet.

The flight vouchers I have are only usable with Aegean Air so the logical route is from London via Athens to Cairo... Of course I could fly on a cheapie with Easyjet to Hurghada or Sharm El Sheikh but that would mean buying yet another ticket, and flying from London to Cairo is out because of the price....

Leaving London on a grey drizzly Saturday gets to me to a not much warmer Athens where I stay overnight at the Holiday Inn which is considerably cheaper than the Sofitel at Athens Airport.

An early start in the pouring Greek rain after an almost sleepless night because of a thunderstorm gets to me to the departure gate for Cairo before many of the airport staff have even arrived for work!

And the flight to Cairo is almost empty...

Less than two hours sees me landing in Cairo where my request for assistance through the airport seems not have been received but Cairo airport is not huge.

And straight away there is a difference.... On the way through to Immigration there is a check point where they check vaccination certificates, currently there is no need for a pcr test if you have one of these.

Next the banks at the airport no longer change money, I really do not know why, and they only take money for the tourist visa.

But I already have my visa because you can now get a visa on line!!

On the flight they give you a PLF/Public Health Form to fill in, but nobody at Cairo airport seems the least bit interested in it so I leave the airport still holding it!

Some things do not change, and my passport gets checked twice more after immigration, and my bags are X rayed before leaving the terminal building...... But I have things to do so more tomorrow!