Train ride to Aswan

I survived a 15-hr train ride from Cairo 8 am to Aswan 11 pm, then walked 15-min to hotel, bought my breakfast for 4 am tour to Abu Simbel, and now waiting in lobby for 3.5 hrs for the tour. I rested enough on the train ride, which had AC and power outlet. My seat is in the middle of train section away from the doors at both ends, but could still smell some 2nd hand smoke from time to time. Otherwise, nothing to complaint about the train ride, which was better than the ones I had in India. I used my own data package connection to book the tour during the train ride. The ride was mostly along a canal that is next to the Nile River which cannot be seen from the train. Most foreigners fly or take expensive overnight sleeping train, but I decided to see the views along the ride and successfully bought the ticket counter located on platform 11 at Cairo main train station. The trick was to have local write the ticket info on a piece of paper so non-English speaking ticketing officers can help.