November 20, 2006 Cairo – In Transit

November 20, 2006
Cairo – In Transit

This morning we slept in until 9:00. It was the latest I have slept in weeks. After waking up I started to pack up my stuff. At 9:30 I took a break and headed down for a quick breakfast. I finished packing at 10:15 and had 45-minutes to hang out and use the internet before leaving for the airport.

We headed to the airport with the Robertson family to save a little cash. Unfortunately, this didn’t work because the cabdriver overcharged us. Still, it was fun to leave with the rest of our group.

We arrived at the airport just before 12:00, almost 4 hours before our flight. We were so early that we had to wait an hour in the front of the airport before we were allowed to check in. At 13:00 the desk opened up and we got our tickets. Shortly thereafter we met back up with the Robertson’s and had some lunch.

Incredibly, we also spotted a couple that was filming in the catacombs the day before. We chatted with them for a while and compared blogs. We were especially excited to learn that the guy (forgot his name) grew up with Steve Nash. They went to the same school and played soccer and baseball together. They are still friends today!

We spent the rest of our waiting time playing on the internet. About an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave the Robertson’s had to get on their plane. It was kind of sad to say goodbye to our Kiwi friends. They are a super cool family and have invited us to spend some time with them in New Zealand.

Unfortunately, our flight was delayed about an hour. Even so the airplane (Qatar Airways) and the staff were very nice. It was almost the exact same as Emirates Air but not as punctual. I spent most of the 3-hour flight watching “John Tucker Must Die”. NOTE: The airplane food on Qatar airlines was the best I have had yet. We were served Cajun chicken and an amazing raspberry desert.

The delay ended up being much more costly than anticipated. We got to Qatar late and missed our connecting flight to Bangkok by several minutes. Instead of getting on the plane we had to go to the transit desk. They rerouted to Bangkok with an additional stopover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We were not too happy and complained until the agent gave us some meal vouchers. We spent the next 2.5 hours eating, watching Zoolander, and making a quick trip onto the internet.

At 11:30 we finally got on an airplane and set out for Malaysia (about an hour after schedule departure). Since we were the last people booked for the flight we got stuck in the very back of the plane. Even so, I immediately fell asleep.