It was our last day in Egypt today and I must say it has been a fantastic trip. We spent the day in Cairo. First stop was the museum. Having seen Tutankhamun's tomb in Luxor, it was great to see all of the artefacts, sarcophagi, etc. taken from his tomb. His mummy was found with a full head mask on, and then 8 layers of sarcophagi and boxes, all laid inside each other like a Russian Babushka doll. Just incredible. All were covered in gold leaf except the head mask, which was 11kg of solid gold. It was simply magnificent. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos of it. We actually were a bit saddened by the fact that his final resting place has been pulled apart and emptied, but I guess looters would have done it anyway if they'd found it first.

We also saw lots of mummies which are amazingly preserved after 3,500 years, although very creepy.

After the museum we saw a couple of famous mosques in Cairo, one of them being 650 years old. They are enormous with massively high domes, but incredibly, none of them have cobwebs. Our guide informed us that this is because there are no spiders in Cairo!

We spent some of the afternoon at the old Bazaar, which was very busy selling all kinds of crap. I bought some crap for my desk (of course). The vendors were very funny. They say anything to sell you their goods, including such gems as "How can I take your money?" and "I love your money more than I love myself". One vendor asked Lidia what she was looking for. She said "Nothing". He gestured inside his store and quickly replied "I have nothing!"

One thing I noticed all across Egypt was that there were next to no beggars around. We saw a couple of beggars with no legs at the bazaar, but hardly any and absolutely no beggars anywhere else in Egypt. Our tour guide told us that this is because begging is against their cultural values, but Irene tells us that that is baloney because there have been heaps of beggars in her previous trips. She thinks they've been moved on. There is a large army and police presence across Egypt, so I suspect begging has been outlawed.

Anyway, Egypt has far exceeded our expectations. The sights, the food and the people have all been fantastic. We have spent much of the trip amazed by what we have seen. Now it's off to Jordan!