Murder On The Nile? Sick from the Nile!!!

We are in Cairo trying to get tickets on the Luxury train to Luxor, garden spot for Egyptian antiquities. No tickets for a month! But the manager looks at my name and says I played football with his father in high school. Go figure. He gives two for the next day! I sign his father’s photo. The following night we are led to our plush compartment by uniformed porters, given free drinks and after a dinner served there, our berths are made and we climb in.

Next morning, Luxor! We hire a guide with cab and see the Valley of The Kings. He tells us when and how much to tip and what the real admission prices are. Amazing! Our luck just holds and holds! We hire a cab to go to the ruins at Abu Simbel. This has been moved to higher ground due to the Nile River dam. It’s awesome, beautiful and reminds me of Shelly’s poetic prophecy. We come back to Luxor and we have a lovely hotel and a nice restaurant, but Marilyn wants to cross the Nile and “Play kissy-face at the hotel for rich American tourists.” So over we go. Posh! Dinner is really good, service outrageous, but my Dwarf insists of Sangria and I can not get her to stay to our rules. No foreign drinks and drink only fizzy stuff opened in front of you! She believes the standards would be different in the push tourist hotels.

Three AM I hear our shower running, and there’s no delightfully soft dwarf beside me. I go in the bathroom and she is sitting on the shower floor, cold water pouring over her. She’s running a 103 fever! At five a.m. they turn off our water and I’m on the phone to American Express.

Side light. This is the best card for travelers. Believe me! Some nice guy in North Dakota gives me the name of one doctor with some training in USA. Off we go. The waiting room is full. It has no ventilation, and little cob webs hang from all four corners. We aren’t seated when the door to his office opens and we are greeted with open arms in English! He checks her fever, frowns and gives us a bottle of pills. Tells Marilyn to take two every four hours until her fever falls. We go back to the hotel, the desk clerks frown at us, water is precious! And she goes to bed. She’s in bed for over two days. When she feels better, I hire a horse and carriage to take us through the ruins of Karnak, but she is disappointed she can’t get out and see what she wants, when she wants. I’m happy her fever is almost normal. The fever goes up and down though.

When she’s better, I hire a cab to take us back to Cairo, and the promise he will stop at all the ruins along the way. He does, but Marilyn stays in the car and I visit. It’s a drag without her. Whenever she exerts herself, the fever returns. Half way our driver tells us we are going to switch to his cousin’s cab . . .Same make and year and he will take us the rest of the way. By the time we get back, she is almost okay.

We spend a few more days cruising the Nile, seeing some more sights and then shove off for Israel and our friends. And one more thing! When we come home, our doctor takes one look at the pills, tosses them in the waste basket and tells us, ‘ these things went out of use fifteen years ago. They’re for Typhoid fever! Well, that’s more than likely what she had! Trust Amex! We only had a Green Card! I used to have a gold one, but a retired school teacher in 1986 didn’t rate one. Now I can have any color I like, but Green is enough! And this wasn’t the only time Amex did us grand favors and charged us zilch! The little "call collect from outside the U.S." is really truth and the support they give is phenomenal.

One last thing. Travel alone! Tours are plastic coverings to protect you from reality! See the world for what it is becoming, not what you can tolerate. And go! GO! GO until you can’t!!!