We are writing this from an internet cafe in Cairo. Kerry and I arrived in Cairo (from Heathrow) at about 2am yesterday morning. We were thoroughly spoilt in the BA lounge before our flight. Kerry and I necked quite a bit of booze before our flight and continued on with good food and wine during the flight. Our Cairo cabbie taught us quite a bit of Arab lingo during our 25 min cab ride, it has been really helpful as i notice that the locals are suprised (and pleased) to hear us use their language, even in small amounts.

We spent most of that morning sleeping, only surfacing well after midday. We braved the Cairo streets on our own for about half an hour before retreating back to the comfort of our hotel and some food. The tour 'officially' started last night which was just basically meeting our tour guide, who seems more than capable and he told us what we should expect for the rest of the trip. We rose this morning to throw a boiled egg down our necks before being herded onto a mini bus and being driven to the Giza pyramids which are just on the edge of Cairo city. The city has spread right up to within about 1 km of the pyramids, but on the other side of the pyramids is vast desert. There are 3 main pyramids to the Giza pyramids, each of different size. The 'Great' pyramid is the famous one (and the biggest), we entered the the second biggest pyramid which i gather is only 1 metre less tall. Entry to the Great pyramid is much more exclusive and limited to 100 people per day. To get into the pyramid, we walked down a very low and narrow passage (descending) for about 50 metres, and then an ascending passage of similar length to get into the burial chamber. It was very humid and hot inside, i gather mainly to do with the panting-unfit people. There was very little inside the burial chamber. This pyramid was before the era of heirglyphics being painted on the walls. There was however a masssive sarcouphagos (empty of course).

The pyramids are surrounded by touts of all ages and methods of scheming. Kerry and I are a bit used to this sort of thing (theres nothing the indians/thais haven't taught us), so we were avoided by most of them. It was truly awesome to be standing there at the pyramids.

Just a few hundred metres away is the Giza Sphynx, modelling the head of the pharoah who was buried in the pyramid that we entered. A bit of its nose is missing but it is truly spectacular all the same.

This afternoon we have off and tonight we board an overnight train to Aswan, some 1100km away from Cairo. We will arrive in Aswan late tomorrow morning. Thats about it for now. I will try uploading some photos in a minute but since this computer has something called Windows 98?? on it, i'm not sure if it will work.