Monday 19th October. We were all treated to sleep in today, with our train pulling in at 11am. Getting off the train at Aswan, we boarded a bus (we always seem to be commuting!!) and toured some of the highlights of the town, including the Old and New Dams, the quarry that has the "Unfinished Obelisk"- a giant single granite stone pillar that broke while it was being made- since the obelisk had to be only one piece of stone, they left it where it was...

Sunday 18th October Today we had breakfast for the first time together, and then headed off on our first trip as a group- to the Cairo National Museum. Today seemed a lot better, because we went to the highlights only, and Sharif, our tour guide, explained a lot of the history behind them. One of the highlights of this trip was the Mummy Room, which had about a dozen preserved mummified pharaohs and other royals, such as Tuthmosis III and Ramses II. After t...

Saturday 17th October I met up with a few people on the tour this morning, and we all decided to go to the Cairo National Museum. We were going as part of the tour the next day, but because it is so big, we knew we'd need more than one day to do it in. The cab ride was fun!! Even though the cab driver was going to charge 10,000 euro!! We got there, and the place was packed!! Unfortunately, they do not allow camera's in the Museum, but it was an amazing experi...

Friday 16th October Had a nice view from the plane as we left Dubai. Saw the Burj al Arab, and one of the Palm Trees, but we flew directly over the World Islands, so all I got to see was one of the break walls. Soon we crossed over into Saudi Arabia, and all you could see was sand!! After a while, once we passed near some settlements, I started seeing dozens and dozens of large green circles on the ground. They were strange, and warrant some investigation late...

Thursday 15th October Left Sydney at 9:45pm for the start of my big adventure!!! It started off quite well: I had the whole row to myself on the plane, the food was great and the entertainment was really good, I watched Transformers 2, and a few Simpsons episodes, most of which I hadn't seen before!! I arrived at Dubai 14 hours later, after little sleep, and the temperature was a nice 27 degrees. Unfortunately, it was only 5am, which is a horrible time to b...