Howdy all! Continuing on from my time in Egypt, this is the story of 2023’s adventure ‘Dhaka to Dakar’. Today I’ll be recounting the not-very-well-thought-out tale of getting from Luxor, in Egypt to Istanbul, Turkey, by air.

Luxor has a small airport although it does claim to be an ‘international’ airport. The reality is that it is mostly if not completely domestic. Istanbul would be the last port I flew into in the trip before leaving Dakar, Senegal, and from there it was an overland adventure with a couple of short ferry rides thrown in for variation to make it to the final destination. It was mid-March when I took on this mini-adventure, booking flights that didn’t match up on Qatar Airways via points to get me from Cairo to Istanbul.

The final piece in the puzzle was to get to Cairo from Luxor. Originally I planned a night train I think, but then I had a flight booked at 120am from Cairo and so it would have been the previous night and what would I do with myself? So instead, I decided flying would be a better option. The flights were morning or early evening to evening. So I ended up on a morning flight knowing delays were common on domestic flights in Egypt. In the end, I left myself with half a day plus in Cairo and around 9 – 10 hours at Doha in the Hamad International Airport. The final flight I had booked with points was a Business Class flight with Qatar, and the good news on that was that I would have lounge access at Hamad International Airport. These were my flights:

March 13 2023 910 – 1020am Luxor to Cairo – Egypt Air MS65

March 14 2023 120 – 520 Cairo to Doha – Qatar Airways QR1306

March 14 2023 1420 – 1850 Doha to Istanbul – Qatar Airways QR245

Yes, a day and a half of travel. Really wasn’t super logical. Should have booked a direct flight Cairo to Istanbul on the afternoon of the 13^th BUT remember, I had the second and third flights booked well before the first. I was making up getting back to Cairo as I went, and you know, I feel bad that I overplan things but I really could have planned this all together and better.

Getting into Luxor ‘International’ Airport is a grind. There was a long queue of people to get into the airport where they x-ray everything before you do. Fair enough though. The airport is pretty small and there were a ton of tourists, many in tour groups, catching flights that morning. However, check in and the follow up security check before the gates was relatively quick and painless.

Just an open big room with four or so doors, buses to the planes on the other side. What we didn’t know initially was that there were sandstorms in Cairo which were delaying flights, so pretty much all flights including mine were delayed. The delay was around 2 hours in the end. But it was cool getting bussed across to the plane at that airport, and I was happy with my window seat.

The views were pretty spectacular even if the window wasn’t so clean. To help with the vlogging I often use my glasses’ wipes to clean the inside of the window. Sometimes it helps! Sometimes the dirt is on the outside or condensation has affected between the window and the plastic pane on the inside.

Indeed Cairo was still hazy with dust and sand limiting views. After getting my bag it was a little after 1230pm. I grabbed some lunch at the airport whilst I thought about how I was going to spend my day. Going in and out of Cairo was one of two options, but feeling tired and not wishing to return to the craziness and having no idea what I would do anyway I decided to see if I could find a hotel room.

There are a few hotels close to Cairo Airport. I crossed an enclosed bridge to find one opposite the terminal, but sadly they were fully booked. I picked up this guy, I still don’t know how, waiting for a shuttle to another hotel to see if it had vacancies. This guy said he would sort out a room for me at a discounted rate. I suggested the Novotel. We took a taxi.

Somehow he tells me they are booked out but he has managed to get me a room at the Novotel! He obviously does this regularly and has a bunch of contacts. I paid US$140 cash. He would have got a portion of that. But it was much cheaper than the advertised rate which was $190 or $200. They also had a free shuttle to the airport, five minutes away. I could get in a nap, take a shower, upload some videos with what was the best WiFi I found in Egypt. I didn’t need to check out for around 8-9 hours. It seemed the right things to do. The room was, to be fair, basic for the price and the brand, but it was what I needed at the time.

The shuttle took me to Cairo Airport at around 10pm. Naturally, it stopped at the other two terminals before coming back to mine. The airport looks modern from the outside, a bit more worn on the inside and chaotic. It took quite a while to check in, then a long time to get through customs and security. That was a really long line actually.

Then it was disappointing. Lowly lit, only a few places open and not that many places any way. I sat at McDonalds and wrote in the diary, soon enough I was boarding the Qatar Airways Economy flight to Doha.

This flight was, well, 120am to 520am. It’s not ideal. At ALL. This is why you can get frequent flyer seats on it I guess and this was booked via phone with Qantas points, the flight did not appear online. Which is frustratingly a common issue with the program.

The food was pretty good, I tried to sleep and completely failed due to a couple of reasons, one of the being a baby screaming the whole flight. It was quite intense. Still, that’s what babies do and it’s way harder on the parents.

Hamad International Airport has been awarded the best airport in the world, 2022 I think it was. It is something. Having lounge access was brilliant, they have these curved recliners which people can sleep on, and I did, would have gotten in three to four hours. I was in the Al-Mourjan lounge. It’s brilliant and the best lounge I have ever used by quite some distance. Two restaurants, business centres, recliners, seats, wow. And of course showers. It was worth getting a Business Class seat for the lounge, because otherwise I wouldn’t have had a chance to sleep.

The lunch buffet was awesome, roast meat and so many options. But before I knew it, it was time to head to the gate. This flight was booked online using Velocity Points. A three and a half hour flight in Business Class cost 38000 points, which I thought was truly excellent value.

The flight was smooth, the seat was nice but it’s not Qatar’s ‘best’ business class. I would love to travel Qatar on a long haul flight and experience the QSuite one day.

Landing in Istanbul was on time and then I had to negotiate public transport to the main tourist area of the city, the Sultanahmet. It required a few changes but is doable. The only real issue is after the decent walk to the station from the airport exit, you need smaller notes to use the ticket machines. I had pulled money out of the ATM but had nothing the machines would accept and so I had to change with people at the station. This line is new and the machines were super new, hopefully it all improves.

It took a bit of time, but I cant imagine a taxi would be any faster and it was WAY cheaper. The final walk to the hotel/guesthouse was over cobblestones, a little tricky with the wheels on my bag but I had successfully made it. And learned my lesson. Now Istanbul was mine to explore, after sleep! Thanks for popping by today! Take care wherever you may be in the world – May the Journey Never End!