Off to Egypt

From the first time one sees pictures of the pyramids, it becomes a dream to visit. Today begins the quest to fulfill the dream, and then some.

We get off to a shaky start. We arrive at the airport 45 minutes before the Qatar counters open.

Due to our impending surgeries, we are both in wheelchairs. At security, CJ tested double positive for explosives. What?!!? 15 minutes and unexplained phone calls later we're cleared to proceed.

The Virgin Airlines lounge becomes more and more spartan every time we attend. One would have thought a merger with Qatar would have increased the quality of service.

At immigration CJ gets caught out again! Australian Border Force does not recognize his new passport. As always, they highly guard their processes and tell you nothing. One of CJ's final decisions before leaving home was to throw in his expired cancelled old passport. Having it along does not get him cleared to proceed but it does get him treated like a bloke caught up in buggered paperwork rather than some desperado. 

It appears a combination of things caused the issue. CJ did not edit his paperwork for the new passport number and the lady who checked him in did not catch it and fix it. It appears that once Qatar changes his passport number in their database, he's cleared to proceed. The delay makes us one of the last to board the aircraft.

We get a short sleep on the 12+ hour flight to Doha. There must be favorable winds as the flight is usually just short of 14 hours.

Since our continuing flight to Cairo is first class, we're afforded our first look Doha's first-class lounge. In this lounge food is made to order from a professional kitchen and there is table service. We prefer the more spacious business class lounge.

The made to order food was very good. With a good dinner and brekkie served on the flight to Doha and another meal being served on the flight to Cairo, we don't eat much.