Aswan

We just made it to Aswan. The train took about 13 hours, but it wasn't that bad. The seats were bigger than airplane seats and they reclined more. The bathroom was pretty horrible, but not as bad as I had imagined, and way better than nothing. It is hot in Aswan, about 100 degrees. We are going to be cruising on the Nile Star for the next few days. It is actually a really nice little cruise boat that can hold like 60 people. There are only like 8 in our group, I think. They are all Aussies, except one girl, my roommate, who is from New Zealand. Everyone in the group seems really cool and mellow. There is a couple that seems kinda quite. There is a mother and daughter. There is a middle aged couple. And then me and Katherine. Katherine seems a bit older than me, but not too much. And everyone has done a lot of traveling so they are all really interesting to talk to, and again, no super annoying personalities, so I'm really pleased. And this cruise boat is way nicer than I expected. It has a pool and a bar with proper cocktails. Our room is pretty small, but we have our own nice clean bathroom and shower. I think we are basically sailing from Aswan to Luxor and stopping at temples and islands and stuff along the way. Today we are going to do a camel ride along the Nile to a Nubian village. I totally didn't want to do the camel ride, and it's optional, so I wasn't going to, but then they want to give it to me for free (since I'm a travel agent, they are trying to impress me, I guess) so how can I refuse. I mean, when will I ever get this opportunity again. But it does seem like a sort of silly tourist trap. Oh well. Egypt is kinda weird that way. There are so many tourists everywhere and all this sort of gimmicky stuff, but at the same time there are so many amazing things to see that it's worth putting up with all the other stuff.
Tomorrow we go to Abu Sinbel, or something like that. It is a few hours away and you have to go in a police convoy. They say it is because we are so close to the boarder of Sudan and it is dangerous, but really I think it is just another tourist trap. Oh well. And we have to leave at 3:30am. So tonight after dinner we might walk through the market here in Aswan, but that is about it cause we gotta get some good sleep.