RING!!! The phone call to awaken us went off at 2:45 am and we all got up for our trip to Abu Simbel! Do not ask us why the tour works this way, but it does and it is brutal! Our restaurant prepared a boxed breakfast and we boarded our minibus at 3:30 am and then joined an entire convoy of mini-buses and full tour buses. The itinerary was to leave Aswan by 4:30 am, get to Abu Simbel by 7:15 am, see the site by 9:00 am, and return to Aswan by 11:30 am. Most peop...

We arrived in Aswan at 11:00 am after a relatively OK night. We were offered an (unofficial?) upgrade to a sleeper car but declined so the six of us were a little crowded, especially considering Paul and Daniel were both very tall men. Connor took the bullet for the group and slept underneath the seats, a feat that made us both proud and totally grossed out all at the same time. Midway through the night, Tessa followed suit, giving the rest of us some more room t...