Last Train to Cairo: Touring Egypt in the 21st Century

by Paul Q. Cohen

LAST TRAIN TO CAIRO follows the author and his wife on a chaotic but unforgettable journey through Egypt in the summer of 2014. The intrepid couple travel across Egypt by bus, train, and hired car from Cairo and Giza to Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Hurghada, and Alexandria. Along the way they tour ancient sites and hike across modern cities on a trip for the ages.Their odyssey begins with a midnight ride through the streets of Cairo to the pyramids of Giza. Traffic fills the night with blaring horns, roaring motors, and shouting drivers. A wedding party dances in the street and fireworks light the sky. Days later, bombs tear through a crowded subway platform, protesters march in the streets, and soldiers stand guard on every corner. Yet, like a Siren, Egypt teases the two travelers with its song, compelling the curious couple across the restless country. A travel narrative filled with wonder, frustration, and anxiety, LAST TRAIN TO CAIRO is populated with a cast of memorable characters from across a hustler, an English teacher, an Egyptologist, expats, taxi drivers, and a riverboat captain named Gin Tonic, among many others. To their voices, the author adds historical context and a bit of humor to deliver a vivid look at Egypt in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Adventure

362 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 2, 2021

Reviews

[Lora Milton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A travelogue about the author and his wife visiting all the places I'd like to see in Egypt. Only this is modern post-revolution 21st century Egypt and much has changed in just a few decades.

The sort of Nile river cruise I would have liked to have gone on is no longer possible. Security is heavy in tourist areas and many things are closed, museums looted and whole roads and parts of the country closed to tourists, including much of the train travel.

It was an excruciating read in that the couple didn't plan ahead or do any research to find out about all the restrictions before they entered the country. To top it off, it was Ramadan. A holiday that meant a lot of amenities were closed when they would have otherwise been open.

This wasn't the Egypt experience I dreamed about. No camel rides out to the pyramids. The streets full of every kind of hustler trying to overcharge for everything. Taxi drivers saying something a mile down the road is "Very far, very expensive."

The couple spent more time getting lost or coming up against armed barricades to the museums and places they wanted to visit than they did enjoying what was there to still experience. When the highlight of a day is staying in an inconsistently air conditioned hotel and lazing by the pool to escape the crippling heat, I wonder what the point of traveling is at all.

The book was well-written and I suffered the long walks and oppressive heat along with Paul and Teresa. What it convinced me of is that it's too late to go to Egypt. The tourist experience I would like cannot be done, unless I knew someone with a private boat and local knowledge to be a tour guide for the whole trip.

I understand now why an office colleague came back from Egypt with very little to say about the experience. She and her husband had been nervous because it was just after the 2013 coup and safety was in question, but they had paid a lot of money and went anyway. They had no trouble, but there was an odd expression on her face when asked about the trip and I can see why now.

Perhaps a day will come when it's safe and open enough for Western tourists to visit the historical monuments again, but despite their satisfaction with some aspects of their visit, it was not the experience I would want to have.

The book itself put me right there and earned its five stars by making me suffer all the inconvenience and frustrations right along with the author and his wife. Probably saved me a fortune too.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong start, but I started to lose interest towards the end

The book started off great. I found the author and his wife's impromptu trip to Egypt to be exciting and even their naivety and lack of forsite was kind of endearing...at first. Somewhere after Aswan, the bumbling tourist act got old. And while the author writes with a sense of hindsight that invites you to be critical of their poor planning, it became increasingly frustrating to follow along. How can anyone travel like this? Or better yet, how can anyone travel like this and enjoy themselves?

I view this book more as a "how not to travel in Egypt" guide.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Egypt after the Revolution

I love Egypt. I visited there several times in the 2000s. The Nile Valley, Luxor and Cairo, and loved the history and the people. So I was both fascinated and saddened to see the changes wrought by the revolution of 2012/13, as described by Paul in this interesting and entertaining book. The fact that he and his girlfriend chose to travel around the country by normal public transport, rather than just flying everywhere, so they could meet people, and see the country, spoke a lot for them. However, one thing I disagreed completely with Paul's opinion. Abu Simbel is one of my favorite places in the world. Please don't let his description of this amazing temple prevent you from visiting there. I can't say that I applaud their decision to travel during Ramadan, as I think they missed out on a lot of experiences. But I really enjoyed this book.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Egypt


This was a fun read for me. I was working for the USAF and went to Giza twice in 2 months for two weeks each time. Most of the military stayed at the Mena house but I stayed at the Prince’s hotel (think that was what it was called) right near the pyramids. I laughed when you said it took an hour to go 8 miles into Cairo—I had to go to the US Embassy most days and the traffic was ridiculous. I love how you said to cross the road was like play Frogger—I totally agree.
The trip to Luxor sounded like a nightmare as did the trip to Aswan. All in all it really sounded like you had a terrible time—good thing you had a lot of money and make sure everyone knows not to go in the summer or at Ramadan. I am amazed at how much walking you did—my feet would have been killing me.
I read all the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters so the places you went were familiar to me.

[Nick Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the author or his wife had killed each other, I would not have been surprised! This engaging and highly informative memoir and travelogue is full of frustration, pent-up anger and bad decisions. If you have the choice of flying to Luxor or going by unreliable and unpredictable bus, which would you choose? Yes, the answer would be the bus so you could see the country. But this is Egypt and nothing is as it seems. Our happy/unhappy travellers seem to spend their time walking long, sweaty distances to facilities or sights that are closed, occupied by the military or simply out of bounds to Westerners. Add to this that they are doing all of it in Ramadan - everyone is hungry and dehydrated, and the restaurants are closed until sunset - the aircon works sometimes but never when you want it and constantly they are surrounded by hawkers and touts ... and the end result is chaos. And yet, they both agree that they would do it again. A good, if quite heavy read at times.

[Jill Robbertze · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was briefly in Cairo and Giza back in 1998 so I was very interested to read this book. Of course this covered so much more as they travelled extensively in Egypt, and I was excitedly along for the ride .....armed with Google !!!! Some things brought back memories....The scary driving, and the hustlers....this doesn't seem to have changed !!! I found the recent History very interesting. I think they were very brave to do so much travelling with nothing pre-planned. I found this book unputdownable !!!!!

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this makes me very glad that close to 20 years ago, I spent a couple of weeks in Egypt seeing much of what they try to cover here. It was a fairly sanitised tour but the sights were amazing, I crawled into one of the great Pyramids, I was in Tutankhamun's tomb.

Other than that, this is a challenge. The clearly well off travellers bumble around the place with no plan with no real respect for the locals or their customs. It is just constant bad decisions and I'm surprised they were still speaking to each other at the end.

[Genevieve Deluca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came close to breaking my heart. My husband and I visited Egypt 2 years before "Spring" came. I was able to picture most of these places in better days and felt that this couple had been ill treated by the present state of affairs.

[Cindy Dailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

just like being there!

Planning a trip myself, at least in my dreams. This was so informative and real. I feel like I travelled along with Paul. Good book. Buying a paper copy for my husband

[Vari Lemur · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don#t really know what to make of it. Too detailed in places and not detailed enough in others. More like a personal diary.

[Patricia Mahoney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super!

Sense of humor. Patience. Extremely well written! Able to package it at the finale so that even I enjoyed the ride in hindsight!
Thanks Paul and Theresa!!!

[Vicki McNally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Travel story.

I only get to travel through books, so always enjoy reading them. Loved the detail in this one. Not having been there, it seemed to be authentic.