Don't Judge A Book by Its Cover; My Egyptian Train Experience

“Hey! Where are you from?” asked the burly man with a machine gun strapped over his shoulder. “It doesn’t matter,” I hastily responded, as I pushed past the entrance of the El Giza train station outside of Cairo, Egypt. At this point, I was fed up with dealing with Egyptians' seemingly nefarious ways. It seemed that everyone was out to make a dollar, take a bribe, etc. I had become hardened to it and was typically able to strong-arm myself through the situation without giving in. But this man was persistent.

”Do you have ticket? No tourist on train,” he shouted. “Need book night train!”

I knew where this was going. I had read up extensively on taking the train from Cairo to Luxor before arriving at the station. See, the “day train” is the local train that costs about $8 in First class for a 10 hour journey. The “night train” is the sleeper train that they sell tourists on. Why? Because it’s a cash cow at $75-100 a journey (crazy expensive for a country offering $5 3-course meals). Don’t get me wrong, I hear it’s nice, but I am just looking to get to Luxor. Tourists can get tickets on the local train, but you have to either buy them beforehand or make it to the train and pay the conductor, they will not sell them at the ticket office in the station.

So this was my mission. I knew I just had to make it onto the train so that I could purchase the ticket from the conductor. It was 1:23pm and Train 968 to Luxor would depart in 7 minutes, at 1:30PM.

“I will purchase my ticket on the train!” I slowed down and repeated, “On the train, I will pay.”

“No! Need ticket now.” He clapped back.

At this point, I was feeling like I wasn’t going to get through. Maybe what I read online was wrong? Maybe they actually won’t let me on? I made one more attempt, with confidence in my voice, “Yes I can, I can purchase on the train, let me go. I already called the government, they said I could.” Yea I actually said that, like a 5 year old child telling Dad I already talked to Mom. But guess what, it worked! I guess once here heard “call” and “government” something triggered. He let me pass.

I shuffled through security with four minutes to spare and right there was my train, number 968. I had studied the Arabic numbers beforehand because I know they wouldn’t be in the standard numerical text. “XYZ” it read. I made two steps towards the train and yet again, another man with a gun

“Stop! Where are you from? Do you have a ticket?” The pistol-wielding man shouted.

Aghhhhhh fuck. Here we go again. “America, I’m getting on this train and will buy a ticket on this train” He angrily waved for me to come with him. “No, I am not coming with you. I am getting on this train.” I said. He looked displeased. In broken English he told me I needed a ticket and for me to come with him and he again waved me towards the exit where the ticket counter was. I knew this was a trap, because the ticket counter would not sell an American a ticket onto this train. Besides, I had 3-4 minutes until this thing chugged away. “I am Police, come with me now!” he yelled. At this point I have to be honest I was a little concerned. Maybe I should just call it quits, this is getting pretty intense. But I remember what I saw online, they will try to distract me until the train leaves. They will do anything they can to get you on the night train, it is more money in their pockets. To be frank, I take pride in overcoming these schemes, and I wasn’t prepared to back down quite yet.

At this point, he grabbed my arm to pull me to the exit. This kind of pissed me off to be honest. I yanked my arm out and said, “Don’t fucking touch me, I am getting on the train.” He didn’t like that. He gave me sort of a “you did this to yourself” type of look. He walked away quickly shouting for other officers to come over.

Full disclosure, at this point I thought I had messed up. But I didn’t follow him, I stood there, deciding what I should do next. Do I wait for others to come and then this escalates? Do I run off and try to get on the train? They will surely pull me off, right? Do I find someone who can speak English? Then out of nowhere another official came over to me. He didn’t have a gun. He told me to come with him, but he pulled me in a direction that was closer to the train and not at the exit. He was also calmer and more relaxed, so I felt at ease. I walked with him.

He took me about 50 feet down the platform to where it said “station police.” Frankly I was OK with being taken there because next to it was another office that said “Military police.” The grass was greener on my side for the moment. I walked in and the man who pulled me over speaks Arabic to the officers inside.

They start asking me the same questions again, “Where are you from? Where are you going? Do you have a ticket?” I calmly explained to them that I was going to purchase a ticket on the train and that I was going to Luxor on the train 968 which was at the platform in front of us. They kept trying to talk to me and I was under the impression that they were trying to run out the clock so it would leave. I confidently told them I needed to board this train and guess what, they said “ok, go.” Just like that, I walked across the platform and walked on the train. I never saw the military officer I pretty much told to F off. Maybe it was all just a ploy to get me to leave the platform.

I got on the train at literally 1:29pm. I was near the back of the platform and it was like packed sardines. The entire aisle was full of people standing who couldn’t find seats. After I pushed my way on I took a second to evaluate my surroundings. It didn’t take long to realize that I was the only white person on this train. Not only that, I was the only non-Arab person on this train, from what looks alone could perceive. I wasn’t necessarily getting bad looks, but moreso looks like “What in the hell are you doing here?” I knew this wasn’t the car for me. I started to make my way to the front of the train where I assumed First Class was. First class by the way is the ticket that cost $8, so I could only imagine what the sardine train cost for this 10 hour journey.

After I moved through the cars to the front, the cars got progressively more comfortable. After about the 7th car I moved up, I was stopped by a man in the isle. “Do you have a ticket?” he asked. He had money in his hand and a printing machine, so I figured this was definitely the conductor. It told him I needed a ticket to Luxor and without hesitation, he printed one. “That’ll be 129 LE ($8).” Well hot damn, I guess this entire time I was right, the multiple blogs I read were right, you just had to make it on the train. I finally had my ticket in my hand and felt a rush of calm come over me. No more guys with machine guns, no more officials, no more pulling me in every direction. If only it was that easy…

I sat in the one open seat that I could find. As I set there, I watched several individuals in brown leather jackets pace around the car, occasionally giving glances to me. I didn’t think much of it at first, but it continued for a minute or two. Finally, a man walked into the cab and one of the individuals who had been pacing says something in Arabic and points directly to me. My heart sank. What in the world is about to happen. But I was pretty confident I knew exactly what was going on, I figured the guard I told off had radioed to others, and my guess was I wouldn’t be staying on this train for long.

Three men come up to me and asked the same questions! It was quite intimidating because I was sitting and they were all hovering over me. One was dressed as if he definitely worked on the train, but as an engineer or something mechanical. “Where are you from? Do you have a passport? Where are you going?”

At this point I thought their scheme was back at it and I was pissed. I was also getting concerned for my safety though. I pulled out my phone to start recording in case anything happened. Yes I know, this is totally an American thing to do and I probably shouldn’t do it here but I wasn’t in much of a position for logical thought. I recorded a minute and a half video of them asking me questions and telling me they are the police. I am firing back “Where is your badge? Show me your badge? Do you have ID? I don’t trust you!” I was not having any of this. What I noticed is the louder I got, the more they wanted to calm the situation. So of course I got louder. I yelled several times, “I don’t trust you, why do you need my passport? What do you want?”

Not much was getting through. After about 2 minutes of firing back and fourth at each other, they said, “stay here we will be back” and they walked away. At this point I had no idea what was going on, but my mind was running wild. Are they going to attack me? Are they going to kick me off this train in the middle of Egypt? Or my biggest fear was that they were planning something for when I got off the train? It would be midnight when I got off in Luxor, who knows what could be waiting for me then, given that they would have a 9 hour heads up that an American would be getting off this train in the middle of the night.

I sat there for 30 minutes without issue. A few of the same individuals walked by, and at one point one of them looked me directly in the eye and gave me a wink. Yes, a full on, clear as day, one eyed wink. Let me be honest, this scared the shit out of me to the point where I almost wanted to jump off the train just to get away from them. I felt like a wink in this situation was an international language for “you’re about to die.”

These few minutes, were some of the most fearful of my life.

Moments later a man in a suit walks up to me. He was dressed nicely and spoke good English. “Hi, this is a police officer and he wants to see your passport. Can you come with us?” I still definitely asked why and he said “It’s for your safety.” This man was calm, seemed nice, and trustworthy. After a few moments of silence and hesitation, I handed the officer my passport, he looked me in the eyes, and simply passed it back to me. I turn to the suit man and started firing off questions; “Why are they harassing me? What do they want from me? Tell them to leave me alone.”

What he said next was a smack in the face that will probably alter the way that I view things for the rest of my life.

He explained to me that these actually were police officers and they wanted to know if I was a foreigner and where I was going so that one of them could stand guard for me. You read that right. Stand guard…for me. He continued by telling me the local train that I was on is known to be dangerous for tourists and has been plagued with theft, assaults, murders, and even terrorist attacks. He explained that when foreigners pre-book tickets, they can assign officers to watch them accordingly, but in my case they needed to know where I am from and where I am going to assign an officer to ensure my safety throughout the trip. I slumped back in my seat; relieved and humiliated.

It made so much sense now; the questions, stopping me from getting on the train, the people in the brown coats hovering around giving me occasional glances. They didn’t want to hurt me, they wanted to protect me.

They guided me up to a seat in first class, right next to an undercover police officer. Where now I sit here writing this story about how I, a world citizen who prides himself on empathy towards all people, failed to take into account a basic human principle that people are inherently good.

In the future, I will continue to stay safe and aware, but I’ll do better.