Up in the Night; Down in the Morning

There were no sleeping cars available on any train from Luxor to Cairo so I took the First Class Coach at 10:30 p.m. I was unable to sleep because they kept the car lit the whole 11 hours. Also, every time we stopped to let passengers on, even in the middle of the night, people arrived talking, laughing and singing. The seat was pretty comfortable, but the ride was not my favorite part of my holiday.

There was one man who seemed to know everybody who got on the train. They all were very friendly and delighted to see him; they shook his hand, kissed him and treated him with great warmth and respect. He reminded me of Skip -- if Skip would be wearing a multi-colored, horizontally-striped, cable-knit, pullover sweater. [Think about that for a minute.]

At Ramses Station in Cairo I set out to locate a taxi. I found a man who speaks English (sorta) who guides me to a cab with one of his protégés. I tell the man where I'm going and he explains that to the cabdriver. I ask the man, "Are you sure he knows where my hotel is?" "Of course" answers the man. We start to leave and I ask the older man again, "Does he know where my hotel is?" "Sure, sure, sure" is the response.

As we're driving along my driver opens the passenger window and asks directions to my hotel from the man driving in the car next to us. The conversation goes on for a few seconds and the driver in the car behind us, obviously getting impatient, is beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeping his horn. Finally my driver gets his information and the van that was behind us moves in front. My driver stays back a little. I think he was concerned, as was I, that the van driver would pull out and slam on his brakes. Then the van driver then falls back and intentionally rams hard into the driver's side of our car.

Both cars pull over. Three men exit the van as does the driver of my taxi. They are yelling and gesticulating; arms, hands and tempers are flying. I get out onto the median but I can't go anywhere because my suitcase is in the trunk and we're on the freeway. I just want a shower and breakfast, but the argument goes on for at least 10 minutes. Finally, we all get in our respective cars, my driver asks someone else how to get to my hotel, I try to give him directions from the back seat, and eventually we find it. I didn't give him a tip.