Headed to the Ramses train station to buy my ticket to Aswan today. Walked to the metro and was really suprised to find the metro very clean and modern. I felt very safe on the metro and it was great as the carriages in the middle are only for women. I chatted to the women as they were surprised to see a western girl travelling on the metro. A french guy sat next to me as he didnt realise that the carriage was for women only and after a kind word from me and lots of giggles from the eyptian women he sheepishly got off at the next station. Now i know where all the women are in cairo, on the metro!!
Arrived at Rameses train station and tried to get my ticket to Rameses but the lady behind the counter didnt understand so an eyptian businessman helped me and showed me where to get my ticket. He was very kind and gave me his phone number incase i have any problems. Train cost 165 egyptian pounds (around 18 uk pounds) and departs 10.15pm tonight and 13 hours to Aswan.
Headed back to hostal to checkout and met Gail and Tim in the Eyptian museum. On my way to the museum i had 3 guys come up to me telling me the eyptian museum was closing in 30minutes and ignored all of them as its a scam to get you to talk to them and then they take you to their shop or cafe.
Eyptian museum was huge and even though it was only 2 floors it was overwhelming. The tombs and shrines were very impressive but so many to look at. The reason there is so much inside the museum is that they keep discovering more tombs and objects and running out of space in the museum. Also everything from the pyramids was removed and now displayed in the Eygptian museum. We were told that they are building a new museum in Giza which should be ready in a few years. We didnt go inside the pyramids on our trip because they are empty.
Headed back to hostal and got some food for journey and made my way to the train station. Gail and Tim very kindly came with me as it was late. Exchanged e-mails with Gail and Tim and looking forward to visiting them in Nova Scotia and they are already planning coming to England very soon.....
The train was a very old german train and i ended up sharing my compartment with a czech republic guy called Jirka who was from a village near Prague. He had come from Dahab and before that been travelling in Israel. There were a few japanese and swedish girls also travelling. Even though there are 8 trains per day that go to Aswan tourists can only take 2 trains per day because of security. The train was very comfortable (more than the hostal bed) and managed to sleep on and off to arabic music playing in the compartment next to us....