Monday, April 18, 2011

Yes, still here in Egypt

Sorry for the late post, but I'm here in Luxor! I ended up taking the 10pm train Saturday night from Cairo as planned, they only hav 1 train per day for foreigners so I really had no other option, but it worked well as I was supposed to get in mid morning. Apparently there are may protests south or Cairo still, and they like to stand on the tracks to demonstrate. So starting at a small town (no one on the train could find out the name) we ended up stopped for about 4 hours. The orignial reason was that the train had mechanical issues, then we had no driver as he was sick. Eventually the reason came out and we were waiting for buses and a military escort. In my car there were about 20 foreigners and we just stayed together as a group, but I am sure there were pleny of others on the train we just never saw. Goosd news came about 4 hours in when we started moving again, slowly and then having to stop about every hour as the military would clear more demonstrators off the tracks. Eventually at Sohag, about 110km from Luxor, the military removed all foreigners off the train and were were thrown into microbuses to Luxor. My bus had the Turkish gentlemen and his family that acted as the leader of our car in trying to extract info from the train conductor, valet. etc., as well as a french couple, 2 Egyptians and two dutch women. I like being the only American at times. We eventually pulled into Luxor around 7ish. I checked into my hotel and then grabbed some dinner with the french couple as well as strolled around the city center to view Luxor temple at night. My hotel is quite cozy and for 10 USD per night, my room is lovely, with its own bathroom and AC! Something I missed in Cairo. There alsoa a nice deck on the roof where you can order tea, or sheesha, and use the wireless. Will post this update for now so everyone knows I am still on my journey. Will update tomorrow on what the full day I had today. I am exhausted and have a 4:30 am trip scheduled to ride a hot air balloon over the Valley of the Kings when the sun rises!

1 comment:

  1. Wow. . .a hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings. How exciting! Can't wait to hear the details. Keep 'em coming.

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