Temple of Hatshepsut, Luxor
Note: In no way does this post promote travel during this time at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, I’m reliving some wonderful travel moments early last January and eagerly looking forward to a time when we can all safely leave our homes once again and begin new adventures.
Valley of the Kings, Karnak, Luxor… even a passing glance at the priceless artifacts at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities will tell you that most, if not all of them, were unearthed from Luxor (the very site of Ancient Thebes).
On my first trip to Egypt three years ago, my husband and mother-in-law took me on a day tour across Giza and Cairo, which was great fun, but also something I would not advise other travelers if only for the lack of time.
A huge chunk of the day was spent in Giza alone, visiting the pyramids on hantoor (horse-drawn carriage), horseback and camel-back.
This was followed by a more-than-an-hour drive through the heavy Cairo traffic, with just an hour left until the Museum of Antiquities’ closing time.
We proceeded directly to the Mummies Gallery and Tutankhamun’s Gallery, with only a passing glance at the rest of the displays, but more than enough to pique my curiosity for Luxor.
So on the lead-up to our second trip to Egypt, I made my husband promise to take me there, even though he was more keen on revisiting the resort town of Sharm El Sheikh.
(It’s beyond me how an Egyptian could have so very little interest in history, especially one as proud as his own.)
There are buses, trains and even airplanes from Cairo to Luxor.
It’s only a 1-hour trip by air, but tickets cost at least double than those of buses and trains.
Since my husband and I were in Egypt for 3 weeks, we decided to brave the 10-hour land trip aboard the Watania Sleeping Train.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with sleeping trains (it was a first for me too!), it’s exactly what it says it is: a train with sleeping cabins.
Just don’t expect a 5-star hotel experience — but we’ll get to more of that later.
My husband visited the Watania Sleeping Train website and nearly had a heart attack seeing the rates.
*Rates as per the official website only and may vary on the day of booking.
My husband tried calling the 3 contact numbers listed online, but only one of them was working.
The customer agent informed him that spouses of Egyptian nationals can also avail the same local rate by presenting an authenticated marriage certificate.
And that we can reserve our seats online using a credit card or by visiting their office at Cairo’s Ramses Station.
Ramses Station, Cairo
We decided to go with the second option and planned a day trip to Old Cairo while we were at it (upcoming blog alert!).
We took the 7:20 a.m. train from our home in Tanta and arrived in Cairo at 9:00 a.m.
Already the Watania Sleeping Train office was packed.
What’s worse, even when we secured our priority number, most of the newcomers just went directly to the ticket counter.
The booking agents didn’t (or couldn’t) do a thing about it and just kept serving 2 or 3 people at a time.
One lady lost her temper when the booking agents informed her that all tickets were sold out for the dates she had reserved over the phone.
Forty-five minutes later, we finally left the booking office with 2 round tickets of our own, costing us a total of EGP 2,400 (EGP 600 one-way — not EGP 400 as per their website).
Still, we counted our blessings, since I was able to avail the regular EGP rate instead of the USD rate.
Tip for spouses of Egyptian nationals: Don’t forget to bring your original marriage certificate to avail the discounted rate!
Traveling from home to Luxor consisted of 2 separate train rides: 2 hours from Tanta to Cairo and 10 hours from Cairo to Luxor — a total of 12 hours on the road, one way.
Needless to say, getting there is an adventure on its own.
Ramses Station at night
My biggest concern was finding toilets (proper sanitation — secondary).
Thankfully, both Tanta-Cairo and Cairo-Luxor trains are equipped with toilets, which may not be the cleanest but are certainly usable.
Peeing in a moving train, however, takes a certain amount of skill, so I kept my toilet trips to the bare minimum.
Our Cairo-Luxor sleeping train left the platform a bit later than the 9:20 p.m. schedule.
Source: https://www.seat61.com/Egypt.htm
My husband and I made our way past the narrow corridors to our cabin, which at first looked like a regular 3-seater, but actually had “hidden” features like an upper bunk bed, a sink, a table and a medicine cabinet — the little things that make long journeys more pleasant.
This is the best photo I could find online, but our cabin was slightly different. For starters, we had a 3-seater instead of a foldable table in the middle. Source: https://wataniasleepingtrains.com/ticket/index.html
Insider information: Some male passengers pee on the sink, instead of making the bathroom trip. You’ve been warned! Image source: https://www.emotoursegypt.com/en/sleeping-train-in-egypt
Our dinner trays arrived at around 10:30 p.m.
By then, we were famished and ready for bed, but the food exceeded our simple expectations.
We had beef stew, potatoes in tomato sauce, Egyptian rice with vermicelli, a dinner bun and a slice of orange cake.
Then it was time for bed.
As a safety feature, only the cabin attendants are equipped with a special kind of screw driver to open the upper bunk bed.
An adjustable ladder was also provided for easier access.
Each bed is provided with one pillow and a surprisingly cozy blanket, enough to keep you warm from the powerful AC.
The bed was comfortable enough, but it’s the engine noise that prevented me from getting a good night’s sleep.
An hour before arriving at Luxor, the cabin attendant came in with the breakfast tray: three kinds of bread with cheeses and jams and tea — no coffee.
Since I couldn’t stomach anything besides coffee before 9 in the morning, I traded my breakfast tray to my husband for an EGP 15 cup of 3-in-1 coffee.
Tip for non-breakfast people: Eat breakfast on the train! You’ll need all that energy to explore Luxor, especially if you’ve got limited time — and budget (good food can be hard to come by).
We had booked an AirBnB on the West Bank before arriving.
Now, because I wasn’t very happy with the place, I won’t be mentioning its name.
I will, however, mention a few pros and cons, so future travelers like yourselves will know what to look for (and avoid), if you do book a place on AirBnB at Luxor.
Pros:
Great value for money. We only paid around USD 42 for 3 days and 2 nights (inclusive of cleaning charges) and had a spacious ground floor studio all to ourselves: 2 bedrooms, a private washroom (with heater), kitchen (with washing machine), dining area, a majlis-type salon and a terrace. We also had access to the rooftop balcony overlooking the Nile River.
Excellent location. We opted to stay at the West Bank, close to the Valley of the Kings but far from the main downtown area (down side: lesser dining choices). But since the place was only 3 minutes’ walk from the ferry station, crossing the West Bank to the East Bank and back was a breeze (quite literally).
Cons:
Shady host, money-grubbing “services”. We first met T outside the Luxor Train Station. We had pre-arranged to be picked up and brought to the AirBnB place for an additional EGP 100. Expectation: A comfortable car ride to the accommodation. Reality: A 5-minute walk to the taxi stand, a 5-minute taxi ride, followed by a 15-minute ferry ride to the West Bank with all our bags in tow. That was just the beginning. Shortly after we settled in, T pitched his “tour” services with classic fear-based marketing. “There are all sorts of scammers and tricksters in Luxor.” He conveniently left out the part that he was one of them and happily took EGP 1,000 (for 2 “full-day” services) from us less than an hour after we arrived.
Unsolicited investment proposals. Imagine yourself sailing across the Nile, taking in that marvelous Luxor scenery — but your tour guide just would not shut up about his plans to build a themed AirBnB with you as his primary investor! Thankfully, I was spared from T’s dubious investment scheme, but my poor husband (his fellow Egyptian) wasn’t. Even long after my husband told him we didn’t have that kind of money, T persisted by asking if we knew any potential Emirati investors who would be interested in — get this — financing a property under T’s name.
It was the right place with the wrong kind of people.
Tip for AirBnB users: Read the reviews, and I mean each and every review, not just the overall ratings.
I did make it a point to read them before booking, most of them being positive, but only the most recent one being negative.
It came from an American/European tourist who gave a subtle warning about the host’s additional services/rates.
Because hers was the only negative review, I figured it was just a language issue my husband and I wouldn’t have to face, because he’s fluent in Arabic.
Wrong!
It’s just too bad I didn’t take a screenshot of that lady’s review, because a few days after our own awful experience, her review was taken down.
Convenient, huh?
A walk, taxi ride and ferry ride later, we finally arrived at our AirBnB.
Having agreed to pay T EGP 1,000 in exchange for his “full services” for 2 days, he gave us an hour and a half to get ready before taking us to the first leg of our tour: Karnak Temple.
Imagine our surprise to find another tour guide, waiting for us outside our door.
“I’m K. T has to be somewhere else today, but he’ll meet you later tonight at Luxor Temple.”
(Cue eyebrow raise)
Our brand new tour guide K walked us to the ferry station and helped us aboard the ferry manned by a barefooted teenage boy.
Having landed on the East Bank, the three of us walked to the entrance of Karnak Temple.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of Larger-than-Life Luxor series!
P.S. Don’t worry! It gets better. We didn’t let our “tour guides” spoil the rest of our trip.