We got up at 4:15 to catch our 5am train leaving Luxor for Aswan, a three-hour ride south. We arrived at the bus station a few minutes early and waited for the train. 5:30 rolled around and no train came. We cuddled into balls by our bags since the sun wasn’t up and we were freezing. I broke out my book and ate cheese and bread while Beth took a nap until 7, when she awoke worried that the train had somehow come and gone and I had been too involved in my book to notice.

At 7:30, a train pulled in and we ran down the track asking if it was the right one. Somehow, no one spoke English (this hadn’t previously been an issue), but people were nodding a blank “yes” when we asked if this was the train to Aswan. We were skeptical, but jumped on hoping that this was our train. Just then, someone motioned “No” for us, and gestured that another train was coming. Thirty minutes later our train finally arrived. We got on a crashed for 3 hours and arrived in Aswan around 11am.

We dropped off our bags at a hotel for some “baksheesh” and headed straight for the Nile, where we were greeted by a beautiful view of the river. Feluccas floated back and forth with their huge white sails, and deluxe cruise ships bound for Cairo docked along the bank. A lot of these cruise ships looked like floating four-star hotels, complete with huge, glass atriums, enormous pools on the deck, and cabins with patios jutting out of the bedrooms. We didn’t have much time to enjoy the view, however, since we were bombarded by felucca boat captains quoting us prices and asking us where we wanted to go. We soon learned that the boardwalk was not the place to take in the view of the river.

We weren’t sure what we wanted to do or what we wanted to see since we had arrived late and had limited time. We were also pretty tired, since we had risen early several days in a row and wore ourselves out busting through Luxor. So we went to a restaurant on the river, enjoyed a mixed grill and some hummus and went to check a few things online.

We were having trouble pulling up any websites other than hotmail/gmail at the internet place, and as Beth was trying to troubleshoot she noticed that they had a key logger program on the computer (a program they can use to steal passwords if you log onto your bank or your email). We threw a small fit and they bowed their heads and didn’t ask us to pay as we stormed out.

Since we had both logged onto our emails, we ran to another location so that we could change our passwords. After we completed this mission we saw that we didn’t really have time to take a felucca ride or do any site seeing, so we decided to check out the Cataract Hotel, a fancy hotel north of town that someone had told us to check out. After a very long walk, we were greeted by armed guards, a tall wall, and iron gates. After telling the guards that we just wanted a drink, they told us that it would cost 85 pounds ($17) just to get onto the grounds of the Old Cataract Hotel, but that we could go to the New Cataract Hotel for free. Fine, we said. We started walking, but the guards followed us, escorting us to the New Cataract hotel to make sure we didn’t head in the wrong direction.

We found the 2nd story patio where people were munching and drinking and looked down to see the oh-so-shangri-la fancy hotel guests taking a dip in the pool and sipping tall, frozen drinks. The view of the river was spectacular, but we decided that it was all too expensive for our tastes. We headed downstairs, and asked if we could walk out the other entrance since it was much closer to where we wanted to go. “Oh, no,” the guard said, looking down his nose and shaking his head adamantly, “you must use THIS exit.”

So we took off down the road and found a cute little boat restaurant docked on the shore. We ordered cheap beers, ate a strange assortment of chick-peas and other beans, and enjoyed the sunset over the river. By the time we grabbed our taxi, we were pleasantly buzzed, as evidenced by this photo snapped of Beth on the ride to our train.

We jumped on the train, happy as clams, and settled into our “luxury” quarters. Our waiter/train conductor guy immediately smiled when he saw us, welcomed us, and asked us if we wanted beers. We looked at each other, shrugged, and said, “Why not.”

We read our books and sipped beer as the train clacked along the tracks. Our dinner came not long after, and enjoyed another tasty meal on the train. We checked out the bar car this time, found a group of drunken tourists, and decided to skip that experience. We were asleep by 9:30, still exhausted from our non-stop adventures in Egypt.

The next morning we woke up, once again, before sunrise, and took the subway to Nanci’s apartment in Cairo. No sooner had we walked through the door that we fell asleep in our clothes and napped until mid-day. We set out for the pyramids, what I had been most excited about in coming to Egypt, since I had grown up hearing stories of my parents coming to Cairo with me in utero, riding camels and hiking up into the dark tunnels of the pyramids with me riding along. I was looking forward to a slightly more engaging experience this time around.

However, upon arrival, we found that there was actually a dust storm brewing, and we could hardly see the pyramids at all. We checked out the sphinx with relative calmness, but as we started walking towards the pyramids things really started to get wild. The winds picked up, throwing sand into the air and into our eyes, and pushing us back as we tried to move forward. Several times, I leaned back into the wind on my heals to see how much of my weight the wind would actually support and Beth was tickled to see how far back I could go.

Many people told us that the pyramids were impressive but didn’t really live up to the hype. But I was blown away by the sheer size of them. We stayed for as long as we could, but the sand and wind was really unbearable and we had to take off. But we did manage to pull off this panoramic before we left.

After the pyramids, we headed over to the Khan-e-Khalili where we picked up a necklace that our old Tanzanian friend Mukada had begged us to get for him and a few other presents. We smoked a shisha, as was Beth’s greatest wish to do upon our return to the Khan, drank some tea, and headed back to Nanci’s apartment.

We returned to find our laundry professionally washed. Beth and I laid our clothes out on the bed and spent a good 5 minutes feeling their smooth texture and burying our noses in the delicious scent of fabric softener. It had been four months since our clothes had been machine washed, and it showed (and smelled).

Nanci returned from her night out, and we spent a while chatting about politics, mothers, and Stephen Colbert. Nanci had us cracking up with some of her one-liners, but unfortunately we didn’t write them down for the quotes page.

The next morning, Nanci arranged a ride to the airport for us and we took off for our Rome adventures. We decided that Egypt was definitely among our top favorite countries so far and we vowed to return someday… hopefully with enough money to take one of those posh cruises down the Nile.

PS — Thank you Nanci, for all your hospitality! You definitely made us feel at home in Cairo.