Howdy all. Today a little post for you about buying a ticket and catching the train in Egypt. I took the day train when I was there from Cairo to Luxor. I was planning on taking the train back as well but I opted to fly when I found out the prices for flights were comparable to the train prices and it seemed a better option than another 12 hours in the train. Also it took me straight to the airport too. BUT – that’s is NOT the subject of today’s blog!

So let’s start with the process of buying the ticket. The first thing is that foreigners have their own special rate in Egypt for a lot of things. Entrance fees to any archaeological, historic or important site for example, the difference can be dramatic and ratios of 10 times the local price is not uncommon – or more. I’ve written about this two-tier pricing a bit over the years and I don’t mind it, but I do think at times it gets a bit ridiculous. However, I cannot think of another instance where I have encountered this on a train journey.

All in all I paid $45USD for the ticket, the local price is 245 Egyptian Pounds which comes in at around $8USD. It’s a distance of 513km and the scheduled time for my train was 10 hours and 55 minutes. There are night trains, one I think might be a Talgo, but overall this was one of the cheaper trains – Train 980. The class was ‘VIP Class’, the best class available on the train. The next class down was $35USD for foreigners.

I arrived in Cairo and did little on my first half day there other than have a snooze and catch up on editing etc for the YouTube Channel. I did make it to Ramses Station though before it shut to buy the ticket. I had to enter at a side entrance, I think the main one was already closed (it was I think around 6pm) and I went through security, up an escalator, around past where Egyptians were buying their tickets. I walked through the first floor section (for want of a better description) of the main entrance hall, which was quite beautiful I thought and very unexpected. Ornate decorations, dark colours, different yes, but I liked it.

Now on the other side of the station I went down another corridor to find the foreigner ticket office. Just one guy buying a ticket to Alexandria there. I had hoped to pay by credit card, but even here it was cash only. In fact the only place I was able to use card was my hotel in Luxor, and even then if it was slow and often the connection wasn’t working. As I may have mentioned, I understand Egypt is a developing country, but tourism is like its second main industry after fabrics. The government would do well to invest in its infrastructure because the demand is there.

So that’s where I bought my ticket and I had to walk all the way back to where I had entered the station, which took over five minutes, to get out. But it was done three days before the train which I highly recommend.

The train journey itself is well covered in the vlog above so I recommend you give that a watch. It took in the end a little over 12 hours to get to Luxor. Late, but to be fair within expected parameters. The train cabin in VIP class was perhaps a let down. It was very dirty and old really. But the seat was comfortable enough. The air conditioning was okay, but people would smoke at the end of the carriage past the door but the smoke and smell wafted in regularly.

Lovely family sitting opposite me who knew how to do the journey – the train went onto Aswan a few hours down the track – and they had blankets and food and impressively managed to sleep for a few hours, not only that, I popped off the train to grab a coke at Cairo literally 2 minutes before it started to leave and thankfully it pulled off super slow because it started to move as soon as I got off and I had to run to ensure I didn’t miss it. They then gave me a coke they had and wouldn’t let me refuse it or pay for it.

The scenery is impressive, desert, towns, palm trees, rice fields and so on. This why I choose these days to travel in the daytime. Back in 1999 it was night trains all the way to save a bit of money. I was in Egypt with a friend and we slept on seats, somehow. Not well!

Arriving at night in Luxor was a bit of an assault to the senses too, but I got me a taxi and high-tailed it out of the station there. $45 for 513km journey is a heck of a lot more than $8, but it’s still a cheap price really when you think of it.

Thanks for popping by today! I’m attempting to get through the Dhaka to Dakar story as quickly as I can but I do want to make sure the detail is there for you! Take care wherever you are in the world – May the Journey Never End!