At risk of tl;dr, but doin' it anyway.

Saturday was quite emotional, awfully difficult, but amazingly still quite surreal.

We said goodbye to a crowd of our friends and family then went through the gate onto a trip that we'd been waiting for for so long. But even as we were into our fifth hour of the flight to Bangkok, as we were lying awkwardly together in the empty seat between us watching a movie, it was really still feeling like we were embarking on a holiday, not undertaking an act of immigration.

The first trial of the journey that we had to overcome was met even before we got on the flight - ensuring that our currently overweight luggage made it onto the plane. We were around 4kg over weight between the two bags, and with a "back of the airline ticket" calculation it would have cost us up to $160 extra (something that we were eager to avoid). The lady at the check-in counter had no issues whatsoever with our luggage however and booked them quickly in. We walked quickly away like cream covered kittens.

The stay in Bangkok was really just a leisurely walk to the next gate, no time for distraction nor relaxation. It was very nice to be able to stand up for a while though.

The second trail of the journey was to survive the EgyptAir flight to Cairo, which was most probably the longest and most boring step of our journey. There were no more movies, no more extra seats, just a jam packed flying metal box with a crew armed with cattle prods. We'd prepared for this however by ensuring that we were entering the point of exhaustion by the time we squeezed into our chairs. So the flight was not too bad in the end.

The next trial was expertly handled. We avoided spending 8 hours in the check-in lounge in Cairo by entering ourselves into a tour. We were a little concerned because we weren't to sure how far away the pyramids were and we wanted to ensure that we got back in time. The other thing is that they wanted to take our passports (which was basically a deal-breaker for suspicious people like myself and Amanda). This was okay though because we were able to purchase our own visa and keep our passports.

Cairo was awesome, with fantastic mosques, castles and slums. We traveled through the busy streets to hear that Cairo has a population of 20 million (compared to Australia's 22 million), but that it's a relatively safe place to live. Although the main proportion of the population is Muslim, there is a Christian region (Coptic Cairo est. ~6bc) that boasts of Churches, Mosques and Synagogues. Our guide boasted of his city's religious freedom and acceptance. There was also very little unemployment and homelessness (although we suspected there might have been some patriotism at play here).

Before too long we were out of the bus and walking amongst the pyramids. They're so close to each other and indeed close to Giza. You basically pull out of mid-town traffic, drive up a hill and you are there.

What an amazing thing to do. What an amazing place to be. Our guide turned out to be an ex-egyptologist and was involved is the discovery of the Giza Workers Village in 1991, so we had an awesome insight into the construction, layout and the archeological history of the sites. He took us up to a great viewing platform to see all three pyramids of giza, for the three pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, which were accompanied by some smaller pyramids for their wives.

He then took us into one of the smaller pyramids, down a steep slanted ladder and into a number of small chambers which were simply amazing.

The last area that he showed us was the Sphinx, which considering it's history was pretty amazing to see.

All in all we spent maybe a couple of hours looking at the Pyramids and supporting structures, took a whole heap of photos (including the one above that looks awfully photoshopped). Our guide then took us on our way to the next thing in the city that he wanted to show us - the shopping.

It didn't look like much, but our guide had built up enough of our trust to lead us into the dingy shop front, which luckily lead into a beautiful display of glass cases containing the most delicate and intricate glasswear that I've ever seen - including those seen in my organic chemistry pracs.

We were sat down, fed tea, and explained the wonders of perfume essences. It was obviously a pitch, but we were in a pretty good mood by this stage, and Amanda had to throw out all her perfumes before she left so we purchased a few bottles and went on our way.

The last trial of our journey turned out to not be a trial at all. After the remaining three hour leg of our flight, we hopped off the plane and were sent through passport control without an issue. Amanda is a citizen, so that wasn't a problem, but they didn't even mention the 90 day visa that I was hoping to attain. He just looked up at me, grunted stamped it twice then sent me on.

Good stuff.

Anyway, I would love to describe the house, or the two churches that are basically next door, or the idyllic country side, or or or. But I think I've spent my reader patience to it's limits.

We'll have to show you some more pictures next time.

Bye!

- Daniel