We had a few things to do in the morning - so got up quite early and went out for a quick breakfast. Croissants from a baker we liked and then had a coffee and other snacks at an Internet Cafe that had been a regular haunt in Cairo. Checked our email and confirmed our flights.
The word was it was 35 pound to the Airport if you got a cab from the street - or 50 if you got one from the hotel. We had plenty of time so decided it was somehow fitting that we test how much we had learned by getting one for ourselves. The first couple of cabs just wouldn't accept our upfront "35 pound - airport" statement so we knew we had to try a different tack. Finally after a lot of haggling with a guy that didn't seem to understand much English and the help of a tourist policeman we understood that we could be there for 35 only if we paid some sort of entrance ticket/tax for the airport at an extra 10 pound. So we gave in and agreed the all up 45 pound. The driver was good humoured, but it was a while before we were sure that even understood that we were going to the airport. Luckily the guidebook had a few words and we sorted it out.
The driver's little English as enough though for him to try to convince Julian that it was very cold in Cairo and very hot in australia so Julian should give him his jacket. When we arrived at the airport all seemed well though until we were dropped at a shuttle bus just outside that meant the driver hadn't paid the expected "entry tax" - but he still wanted us to pay the fare that had been negotiated that included it. We let this one go as not being worth fighting about ($2) - but he did himself out of a tip which would have been bigger as we had small notes to get rid of.
We tried to imagine that from the airport on we would be in International territory and that our Egypt experience was over - though a couple of small things reminded us that we weren't out yet. The currency exchange booths were all open, but none of them had any money: I walked though the security control unchallenged with a litre bottle of water in my hand while my little packet of items of less than 100ml went through the xray machine. Julian had one last attempt to get him to pay extra at a food court, that he would have missed if a local hadn't come up while he was talking and bought the same item for less.
The first leg of the flight was back to Zuerich. We had a three hour wait - the boys had burger king, Julian and I had a last "Erdinger Weissbier" and a brezen and we found we had spent about 4 days Egyptian budget on the one meal. The leg Zuerich to Singapore stopped at Bangkok on the way and took 14 hours. We got terrible seats - the last ones before the toilets that hardly had any room to recline. The German man in front of us was determined to sleep so lay his chair back from the first few minutes and it felt like his head was in my lap the whole way. With the seat reclined in front of me and my inability to recline my own seat I couldn't see the in-flight entertainment screen without slouching in such a manner that my back ached. The flight was full so we couldn't swap seats - we had a long, uncomfortable, sleepless, boring flight. After Bangkok it was a little better as the man in front was replaced with someone a little more considerate who didn't insist on putting the seat right back and it was back to a "normal" situation.
We had a two and a half hour stop at Changi - which we all agree is the best airport we know of - and changed to Qantas for the last leg back to Adelaide which was pleasant. Landing on time at 7:00 am. Our bags came quickly, customs and immigration were friendly, efficient, plenty of taxis in the rank. We were struck by the quiet of the streets with no endless horns honking, Welcome home.
