Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Special Edition - The Best Train in Egypt
We left you last night as we were off to board the overnight train to Luxor. As we had been told, we were boarding the best train in Egypt so had been lulled into a false sense of security. Little did we know that we were going to be in for one of the roughest nights of our lives. We sat at the train station for at least two hours waiting for our train as for some reason, the trains in Egypt may arrive early. Mum was fairly anxious about her luggage, so while the rest of the group left our bags piled on the platform, Mum had a firm grip of hers.
Before entering the train, we were assigned our cabin numbers. Amber and David were 1 and 2, Gemma and Mum were 3 and 4. The train heaved in and we boarded somewhat cautiously as the numbering system was not clear. Amber headed down the corridor first to the last room which one would assume was bed 1 and 2, only to find what appeared to be a broken seat. Thinking this was a storage cupboard, she went next door, only to be told that she was in the wrong room. To her alarm, she and David would be spending the night in a broken cabin. David leapt into action and called our guide who immediately sorted the problem by re-assembling the chair. Unfortunately, as they would find out for the remainder of the trip, the chair was indeed broken as over every bump it would collapse in on them. This forced David to take the brace position with his legs on the basin, thus preventing the collapse of the chair.
To add insult to injury, the entire train when boarding smelt like a combination of mildew and stale cigarette smoke. Sadly, this smell was coming from Gemma and Mum's room. Several deodorising tactics were employed including the one-drop toilet spray and Amber's good j'adore perfume. We aren't sure if we got used to the smell or if this alleviated the problem but after a while it wasn't so bad.
We all sat in our chairs in stunned silence, unable to believe that the next ten hours could be spent in such a confined space. All too quickly, the steward arrived with our 'dinner'. This food, in David's words, was "In the top 5 worst meals of my life." Fortunately we had stocked up with Kettle chips, Oreos and Digestive biscuits. Saved the day! After this meal, and following numerous chair collapses, David was unspeakably grumpy, much to our amusement.
Our steward returned to pull our beds out. The beds were narrow and hard, in Mum's words, "Impossible for comfort." Surprisingly, David fell asleep quite quickly, while Amber lay terrified for her life and several times thought all was lost as other trains seemed to just miss us by a coat of paint. For some unknown reason, groups of Americans were running through the corridor swearing, shouting and laughing, trying to find their rooms. Clearly they had abandoned them earlier and were relying on a stiff drink to get them to chance it a second time. At other points cigarette smoke would waft through the air-vent near Amber's head and wake her from her semi-doze in violent frustration.
Just after she had fallen asleep, a terrific banging started on the door. David yelled out that it was the steward coming for the wake-up call. Due to the limited space, David and Amber had positioned their bags next to the door to allow as much movement in the cabin. Amber and David kept yelling, "We're up, we're awake!" The banging kept going as did the rattling of the door handle. Amber was furious at the determination of the steward. After heaving the bags to one side they realized that the banging was not coming from the main door but from the adjoining door, linking Mum and Gemma's cabin. Amber then had to heave the bags back only to find that Gemma had gotten down the perilous ladder to go to the toilet, but was unable to open the deadlock chain. Having tried valiantly while hopping on one leg, she woke Mum who woke with a jolt saying, "What is it?" Mum with a few, "Oh mercy's" a lot of rattling and turning on the lights couldn't open the chain either. They were trapped! Mum, thinking all was lost, and Gemma still hopping, started to bang on Amber's door in hope of rescue. Just as the door was thrown open and Amber stood glaring, the chain was undone and Mum cried, "Got it!" Crisis averted, very, very bad timing however.
Two hours later, the much tamer steward tapped on our doors to gently wake us from our 'slumber.' 'Breakfast' was served shortly after and mercifully we disembarked the train in Luxor, soon after dawn.
- comments