Getting to Male, Maldives

Hello world,
We left Jubail too early and waited at Dammam airport for longer than anyone ever should (better to wait than be late!) Before we even went through security, Brittney's sunglasses fell and broke (yes, Steven, those sunglasses). Phillip knew right away that the first thing we need to do when we get anywhere is find new sunglasses.
We make it to Cairo for our nearly four hour layover (just part of "reward" tickets). Since we had a transfer (connecting) flight, and it was with a different airline, we had to go to the transfer desk. There we found out that they need three hours to process us, and also they need to hold our passports! So basically, we were in Cairo International Airport (CIA) for three hours without boarding passes or passports. We were very uncomfortable but got permission to go upstairs, so we did.
When we finally got our boarding passes and passports, we realized they only gave us passes for the Cairo to Istanbul flight, but not the Istanbul to Male flight. We asked several people for our connecting boarding passes but they all said we needed to get them in Istanbul. We only had about one hour between arriving in Istanbul and departing for Male, hopefully they also don't need three hours to provide our boarding passes.
We checked in, and waited...the clock ticked, our boarding time passed, and we realized this plane is late. Oh dear lord, if we are late to Istanbul, and have to get boarding passes, and they need a long time...we might not make the flight to Male. Phillip was super anxious because there were absolutely no monitors for flights and no one around that was helpful. So, he found wifi connection and checked Turkish Airline to confirm that it was late. In the spirit of island vacation, Brittney insisted that it will all work our, if we miss our flight we will catch the next one.
When is the next Istanbul to Male flight? Well, our flight is leaving on Tuesday evening...the next flight is not until.....Friday!
We boarded, and hoped for the best. The plan was that Brittney would make a run for the transfer desk with both passports in hand as soon as the plane landed-Phillip would get the carry ons and meet her at the gate. Brittney didn't like this idea because, unlike Phillip, she does not know the layout of every airport and would probably get lost and end up wasting more time that way,..but she tried.
It didn't work as planned, we ended up waiting on the same shuttle bus and ran to the transfer desk, together. There was a huge crowd, but being that we have lived in Saudi for a while, we disregarded all sense of order and courtesy and pushed our way to the front. We got the boarding passes as we heard the "last call for Male flight" announcement. We prayed it was not in a different terminal, the customer service woman said it wasn't, but that it was "very far away, it is SO far, you should run now".

And sprinted we did.

It was indeed "so far". We zoomed past another flight sign that indicated, "last call". Running in flip flops at full speed is not a good idea, so Brittney thought it would be wise to stop, remove sandals, and run barefoot, even on the moving walkway (note: don't do that, it hurts). We found our gate, and fortunately or unfortunately, it was not closing. There was actually a line of people slowly waiting to board, but looked frightened at the sight of us. Probably thinking, "Wow, these people must be super Olympic sprinters, look how fast they go, oh no, they are going so fast they might lose control of their suitcases, and that little girl has no shoes. They must be crazy too, oh no, so fast, they might crash into us like bowling pins...look out everyone, here they come!!!!"
So, we crashed into joined the line of people, but we were panting, sweating, shaking, laughing, crying on the inside, and saying "we made it", and also saying, "pretty sure we didn't have to run, we could have walked quickly".
The flight was nice, Turkish Airlines has great food. Arriving in Male was stunning. Fortunately, we we're early or something because the pilot had to circle the runway and the neighboring island before landing, so we pretty much got an aerial view of paradise. Also, this plane has cameras on it so our monitors showed what was ahead or what was below....this was very exciting during the actual landing.
When you go to a foreign country, you need to complete your arrival and departure cards. The immigration officers take the arrival card, and stamp the corresponding departure card and your passport. The departure card stays in your passport, some places will actually staple it in your passport, others just place it inside. Ours were placed inside...and we lost it somewhere between arriving at our guesthouse and checking in at the guesthouse. The front desk people assured us (as did the internet) that we can just get another one when we get to the airport. Worst case scenario, we get stuck here forever...which is not a bad case scenario at all.
That evening we realized a few things.
-if we did miss the flight and had to come in on Friday, we would basically be stuck at the Male airport for a night because there are no ferry shuttles on Fridays..we could, however, pay $300 each for a seaplane or speedboat.
-due to the complex transfers and using two different airlines, had we checked any baggage, it probably would not have made it with us....which would mean it would come in on the Friday flight, and also wait at the male airport because there are no shuttles that day.
Until next time,
-B and P
PS:
Maldives is pronounced "mall" "deev" "s"
Male is pronounces "mall" "eh"
Warning....pictures to come are stunning

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