13 – A day at the Museum

11th Dec, 0750hrs, Boomerang Hotel, Luxor
Another backdated entry to 9th Dec: I slept in last, too tired from all the walking. Then woke up, took the metro down to Doqqi, back where the Singapore embassy is. They were quite nice, gave me my two Letters of Introduction. I bet they are thinking why this nutty guy is going to all these places. I eregistered my destinations at the MFA last night (ya finally!) on advice from the guy. No charge for the letters.

I checked out, got some food, then headed for the museum around lunchtime. Since I don’t have access to my room, I planned something less strenous today. That being said, I must have spent like 5 and a half hours at the museum, milling around. Checking out the extensive exhibits. No photography here, so it’s just me taking in the sights. I’m having a bit of monument fatigue now, after the pyramids, museum, Karnak and today (11th) im going to Luxor’s west bank. It’s to much info to read up and I gave up trying to see everything like the first few days (too expensive and after a while i cant tell which monument is which.

It was dark when I exited, had a bit of time, took the metro down to Coptic Cairo, but the gateway leading to the main enclosure was closed. Decided to just leave and make my way down to the train station where it is warmer.

The Cairo to Aswan train itself is comfortable, air conditioned. I initially got dumped into 2nd class, no thanks to some “helpful” guy who insisted on directing me there… wrongly. And i even paid him some baksheesh for that. But the locals there were more fun and helpful than the foreigners in 1st class. I stayed for 20 minutes on the airline seat before the correct guy came along to fill up my seat. I made my way down the cabins to the 6 in a room cabins, which were considerably more comfortable and slept.