THE BEST TRAIN IN EGYPT | Watania Train | First Class Sleeper - Cairo to Aswan

It's a really cool looking station. Yeah? Yeah, look at it. As we've just arrived at Giza train station, and we're waiting for our train. We are heading to Aswan. So it is a 12 hour train ride, overnight. And this is meant to be the best train in Egypt. First class. I'm really excited to see what it's like. We've never done an overnight train like this before. So Egypt is a very service based industry. They really rely on tourism. So you'll find there will be a lot of porters, a lot of bag helpers. So we just jumped off our bus, and someone from the train station just took our stuff. I think they're going to take it to our rooms, or they're going to take it to our carriage. And we just point out which one's our bag. Yeah, at the moment we don't have our baggage. Yeah, hopefully it's okay. I'm sure it's fine. There it all is. Alrighty guys, we are carriage number one. And we have this amazing guy who's going to help us on the train. Sharif is his name. Yeah. Well, let's go check this train out. So seven and eight? Yeah, seven and eight. Cool. Where's our bed? I wonder how it works. I think it could be in here. This is quite roomy. It is a twin share, which is nice. So it's just for Stephen and I. Yeah, this is the number one train to go on in Egypt. And this is like the first class area. And this is the room that we get. So at the moment, we found two chairs, a table with drink holders. Do you think this, this isn't your bed, is it? This could be the bed. And then that's the other bed up there. We're still figuring it out. What else do we have here? Come in, come in. Oh, so we've got a mirror. Hello. What's in here? Do we have our own bathroom? Oh, that could be to another room. Oh, what's in here then? Oh, we've got a sink. Oh, cool. Okay, so we've got a sink so we can kind of wash. We don't have a shower or anything. They've given us some towels. There's a charger. Okay, that's for razors. Yeah, that's when you want to see how you can charge it. And I'm guessing this here must be a bed as well. Yeah. But I guess maybe when someone comes later, we can find out how that works. But this is our cabin. What a view out there. Oh, gosh. We're leaving Cairo. Oh, my gosh. Next stop, Aswan. In 12 hours, hopefully. They told us that a lot of the time the trains aren't on time. So I'm really interested to see what time we actually arrive. But yeah, see you, Cairo. I'll put up the name of the train for you guys just here. I just need to figure out how to translate the name. But this is a first class train. And our guide was saying this is Egyptian first class. So it might not be comparable to first class in maybe our countries. But if you were interested, it is included in the tour we're on. But if you were just booking the train for yourself, 12 hours leave for train, they're going to give us dinner. They're going to give us breakfast. And it was about $60 to $80 Australian to book a ticket, depending on where you book at. Just thought I'd give you a quick view of the cabin from this side. So behind Stephen there, there's temperature control and sound control. And there's a mirror. And then up here I found there's pillows, a blanket. And we've also worked out that behind here is a bed that pulls down. And then this is a bed that pulls down, which we'll show you guys later. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. Do you feel like something or? Water. Thank you so much. Thank you. So we've only been on the train for about 15 minutes. And they've already brought us dinner. So this is actually included in the ticket. And let's find out what they've given us. So far I see a bread. This looks like a thing of tahini. Yum. Which we've been obsessed with ever since we've arrived in Egypt. So it's more of aeroplane food. Oh, it's hot. Yeah, it reminds me of aeroplane food. So we've got peas and carrots. Very hot. This looks like chicken. Oh, yep. They did tell us that this, whatever it is, is vegetarian. So we've got like a vegetarian. The greens. And then in here is like a little dessert. Oh, nice. I'll open it up and show you guys. We shall do a taste test. And then we've got a little cake. Let's figure out what this is. That's the thing. Like, I know peas are going to taste like peas. We don't really eat chicken. It looks like it would probably taste like fried KFC chicken. Yeah. But what is this? Smells pretty good. Oh, it's a pasta bake. Oh, yum. Look, it's pasta. See? Oh, it's really hot. Oh, yum. That's really tasty. Like a cheesy pasta bake. Also, sorry about the sound. We can't figure out how to close our window. Yeah, that's the thing. We got our beds. So what happened was he came and took our food away. And then he asked us if we wanted to have the beds put down now or later. And he actually had to use a key. And then he pulls it down. And then he said goodnight. So we've got the bunk bed up here. That feels pretty good. Yeah, that's what I thought. The pillow's good. Our light's not working. So it's a bit dark. But it looks the same as up there. Heading to bed. It's actually pretty good sleeping on the train. Because it just like rocks you to sleep like a baby. But we'll see you in the morning. And we'll go for a little explore around the train. Thank you. Would you like a tea or coffee? Coffee, please. Now we have breakfast in bed. Looks like they've given us a bunch of pastries. Some honey. Bit of a sweet bread. Normal bread. And a croissant. And some coffee. All right, guys. It is 11 hours later. And we basically spent most of the time on the train sleeping. But I think coming on the train has made me realize how much I love train travel. When we were in South America, we did so many overnight buses. And they were so long. And you don't have like room to lie down and stretch and stuff. But on a train, it's kind of like being in a hotel that's moving. You kind of instead of paying for a hotel night, you're paying for a train. You wake up and you're in a new destination. I love train travel. And even though this is not the most luxurious first class five star train, like it is seriously fine. It is cheap. The beds are comfortable. They gave you full on proper pillows. You got a sheet and a blanket for if you got cold. We slept all night. I love it. So between carriages four and five, we're in number one. So I had to go for a bit of a walk. There's a meal cart. And you come to order some drinks. I mean, I'm pretty full of America. I'm not showing you guys anyway. It actually seems more like a smoking cart. So I'm not sure how much luck I could be in there. But honestly, super comfortable. This beats 12 hours on a train. It definitely beats 12 hours on a bus. I mean, we're able to walk around. There's a bathroom. So the train is just like your standard bathroom. There's just a toilet here. There's a sink with running water. And then you can dry your hands. There's no shower in the trunk, though. It's hotter here. Oh, yeah. It's way hotter here. It's only 9 a.m. And it's hot. All right, guys. This morning, we're heading to Philae Temple. You actually have to get there over a motorboat. And it is the temple for the goddess of Isis. And she's the goddess of love. Well, for the ancient Egyptians. Yes. The temple's on an island. We made three of our time here in Egypt. And we went from pyramids to a sleeper train to a boat on the river coming to another temple. So this temple is 2,000 years old. And there's hieroglyphs all over the building that date back 2,000 years. That is crazy. But it's kind of unique because years ago, they built a dam. And it made the Nile overflow. So all these temples went to water. And this one was underwater for ages. And they decided to save it. So what they actually did was they cut it into pieces and then rebuilt the temple here. So it's like a reconstruction using the old pieces. So this is still all original hieroglyphs. They've just moved the temple. This is the first time we've actually seen proper hieroglyphics on the wall. And carvings. So like Egyptian. Yeah, I guess it was a temple where they celebrated the goddess of Isis. But it is massive as well. There's columns all along here with all hieroglyphs. Very grand. Really grand. This is how big these carvings are. This room is where they'd place their offerings. A little bit of an altar just here. We'd put gifts towards the gods. Wow, it's so insane being in here. It's like an epic window into the Nile. Yeah, I was just thinking that. It's crazy to think this once used to be underneath the Nile. The Nile, yeah. Wow. I'm going to join in with this pose. There's a little cafe that we found just next to the temple. It's pretty hot today. And it's like three or four degrees hotter than in Cairo. So I could do a cold drink. Oh wow, look at the roof. It's just carpets. These guys have found the best seat right in front of the air con. I think some cat has been very, very busy. There's like 20 cats. And there's so many kitties. I hope you guys enjoyed that video. If you are new around here, make sure you hit that subscribe button because we have a bunch of Egyptian vlogs coming your way. Because on the next episode. Alright guys, we've just arrived at the Aswan Souks and we are going to go for a little shop in the market. Yeah, it's just like in case we go into any temples or something. I don't even know how you meant to wear it in Egyptian. 250. Oh no, haggling in there is intense. And then it just gets like a little bit too much because so many people want you to come in their stores.