Before getting back on the felucca, I escorted some of the girls to the toilets located behind the shop. While we were away, something scary happened. Kansas Chris and Erica, who were sitting near the river, had a man come up to them and threaten them with a gun. I wasn't acutally with them when it happened, but I thought this story should be included in the travelogue anyway. I e-mailed Chris and asked him to describe what happened, so here's the incident in Chris's own words:
"Ah, Egypt.... We arrived at the botanical garden and for some reason Erica and I wound up walking around alone together on the island. As you know, Erica was high-risk with Egyptian men because she was blonde, I guess. Anyways, we stopped at a bench to shoot the shit and these two guys were walking toward us. They weren't dressed like they worked at the garden, but in that country I guess you just never know.
Anyways, these fuckin guys come up and sit down across from us on a bench. They didn't say anything, and Erica and I got really nervous because the guy who was the most interested in Erica was just chilling there on the bench staring at her with an automatic weapon in his right hand, with the clip in. (I don't know what kind of gun it was, but it was hand-held with a clip that came out of the bottom, and appeared to be automatic. I don't see how it couldn't have been.)
Anyways, this guy starts talking to me about whether I'm married, and how beautiful the garden is. He talked with his hands a lot, which meant that the gun was frequently pointed in our direction. Anyways, I made the terrible mistake of saying that Erica and I weren't married, and that we were just dating and were on a vacation from Canada. (I told the guy I was Canadian). He started grilling me about Erica, and how long we were on the island. I told him we were about to leave, and then the guy's friend apparently made fun of him for being short and told him that someone that short couldn't get with Erica.
Erica and I got up to leave, and he said some typical bullshit like "Wait! My friend! I show you something!" He told me to follow him over to the bank of the island, and Erica quickly moved roughly 100 yards away, scared shitless. At this point I thought if this guy was going to ice me, it was going to happen now. Then he tried to buy Erica off of me for some amount of Canadian dollars, (I can't remember the official amount, but it wasn't much considering he wanted to buy a human). I tried as calmly as I could to tell him she wasn't for sale, and then he gave me shit for being nervous, like I had no reason to be. He told me to calm down and then said something like "My friend, do you let her drink whisky?" What the fuck kind of question is that!? I told him occasionally I would allow Erica to drink whisky when she was supervised by me, but I rarely let her get drunk (I tried to say it in a somewhat sexist manner, because he asked if I "let" her drink. I didn't want to offend the guy). Then I made up some excuse about how we had to leave, and I basically ran away from the guy over toward Erica. I would say I had an automatic weapon casually pointed at me 10-20 times. It was pretty frightening, esp. when Erica ran away and I was alone with the guy by a cliff on the Nile. Pretty weird shit that would only happen in Egypt."
When they told me the story I almost crapped my pants. I told Chris that he should tell Ryan and Muhammad, but in reality there was nothing to be done about it. We’d be leaving Aswan tomorrow anyway, and having to make police reports and statements might have taken too much time and caused them to be left behind. In the end there was no actual harm done - it was just a scare tactic.
We boarded the felucca and continued our ride. Our next stop, something I was looking very forward to, was our camel ride through the Sahara Desert.
"Ah, Egypt.... We arrived at the botanical garden and for some reason Erica and I wound up walking around alone together on the island. As you know, Erica was high-risk with Egyptian men because she was blonde, I guess. Anyways, we stopped at a bench to shoot the shit and these two guys were walking toward us. They weren't dressed like they worked at the garden, but in that country I guess you just never know.
Anyways, these fuckin guys come up and sit down across from us on a bench. They didn't say anything, and Erica and I got really nervous because the guy who was the most interested in Erica was just chilling there on the bench staring at her with an automatic weapon in his right hand, with the clip in. (I don't know what kind of gun it was, but it was hand-held with a clip that came out of the bottom, and appeared to be automatic. I don't see how it couldn't have been.)
Anyways, this guy starts talking to me about whether I'm married, and how beautiful the garden is. He talked with his hands a lot, which meant that the gun was frequently pointed in our direction. Anyways, I made the terrible mistake of saying that Erica and I weren't married, and that we were just dating and were on a vacation from Canada. (I told the guy I was Canadian). He started grilling me about Erica, and how long we were on the island. I told him we were about to leave, and then the guy's friend apparently made fun of him for being short and told him that someone that short couldn't get with Erica.
Erica and I got up to leave, and he said some typical bullshit like "Wait! My friend! I show you something!" He told me to follow him over to the bank of the island, and Erica quickly moved roughly 100 yards away, scared shitless. At this point I thought if this guy was going to ice me, it was going to happen now. Then he tried to buy Erica off of me for some amount of Canadian dollars, (I can't remember the official amount, but it wasn't much considering he wanted to buy a human). I tried as calmly as I could to tell him she wasn't for sale, and then he gave me shit for being nervous, like I had no reason to be. He told me to calm down and then said something like "My friend, do you let her drink whisky?" What the fuck kind of question is that!? I told him occasionally I would allow Erica to drink whisky when she was supervised by me, but I rarely let her get drunk (I tried to say it in a somewhat sexist manner, because he asked if I "let" her drink. I didn't want to offend the guy). Then I made up some excuse about how we had to leave, and I basically ran away from the guy over toward Erica. I would say I had an automatic weapon casually pointed at me 10-20 times. It was pretty frightening, esp. when Erica ran away and I was alone with the guy by a cliff on the Nile. Pretty weird shit that would only happen in Egypt."
When they told me the story I almost crapped my pants. I told Chris that he should tell Ryan and Muhammad, but in reality there was nothing to be done about it. We’d be leaving Aswan tomorrow anyway, and having to make police reports and statements might have taken too much time and caused them to be left behind. In the end there was no actual harm done - it was just a scare tactic.
We boarded the felucca and continued our ride. Our next stop, something I was looking very forward to, was our camel ride through the Sahara Desert.
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June 11
Day 31
Contiki Day 22
Aswan,
EGYPT
Day 31
Contiki Day 22
Aswan,
EGYPT
Luke on the Dune
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"BAKSHEESH!!!?"
The Journey...
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~*OPTIONAL*~ Sahara Camel Ride
$25.00 USD
$25.00 USD
~*OPTIONAL*~ Market Carriage Ride
$11.00 USD
$11.00 USD
I woke up in the middle of the night freezing to death. There were no blankets on the train, I didn’t bring anything with long sleeves, and there was cool air coming through the cracks around the windows. I ended up pulling my arms into my sleeves and trying to contain as much of my own body heat as I could. Other than that I had a pretty good sleep during our ride to Aswan. Except for waking up that once, I slept for about seven hours straight. The sleeping pill did the trick!
Everyone began to wake up around 8:30am and Amy and Peggy immediately started drinking again. I wasn’t hung over from last night, but alcohol is probably the LAST thing I’d want this early in the morning. I wasn’t sure how they could roll over from a night’s sleep and immediately hit the bottle.
There was finally daylight so we could see out the train windows. On my left we passed various areas like farms, villages, and desert. I looked out the right window to see the Nile - we had been following it the entire way. So far this train ride had been a lot of fun. I had been dreading it for a long time and I couldn’t believe how it seemed to fly by up until this point. When we were about 20 minutes outside of Aswan, the ride began to be a bit less enjoyable. Somebody had literally stolen part of the train’s electricity line and we got delayed for two and a half hours because of it. If I knew it would have taken that long to get the train back up and running I would have gladly walked the rest of the way to Aswan. It probably would have taken less time.
After being on the train for 14.5 hours, we finally got rolling again and I enjoyed watching the scenery fly by as we entered the city. The outskirts were very rural and quite poor. Other than Cairo, we hadn’t seen much of Egypt yet. This was my first glimpse of the poverty in this country. I had seen extreme poverty when I was in Cuba, so I didn’t find it as completely shocking as the first time I saw it. It was still hard to look at, though. The city itself was very nice. The inner parts were much cleaner than some of the dodginess we saw in Cairo. It seemed to be a lot more touristy too.
Everyone began to wake up around 8:30am and Amy and Peggy immediately started drinking again. I wasn’t hung over from last night, but alcohol is probably the LAST thing I’d want this early in the morning. I wasn’t sure how they could roll over from a night’s sleep and immediately hit the bottle.
There was finally daylight so we could see out the train windows. On my left we passed various areas like farms, villages, and desert. I looked out the right window to see the Nile - we had been following it the entire way. So far this train ride had been a lot of fun. I had been dreading it for a long time and I couldn’t believe how it seemed to fly by up until this point. When we were about 20 minutes outside of Aswan, the ride began to be a bit less enjoyable. Somebody had literally stolen part of the train’s electricity line and we got delayed for two and a half hours because of it. If I knew it would have taken that long to get the train back up and running I would have gladly walked the rest of the way to Aswan. It probably would have taken less time.
After being on the train for 14.5 hours, we finally got rolling again and I enjoyed watching the scenery fly by as we entered the city. The outskirts were very rural and quite poor. Other than Cairo, we hadn’t seen much of Egypt yet. This was my first glimpse of the poverty in this country. I had seen extreme poverty when I was in Cuba, so I didn’t find it as completely shocking as the first time I saw it. It was still hard to look at, though. The city itself was very nice. The inner parts were much cleaner than some of the dodginess we saw in Cairo. It seemed to be a lot more touristy too.
After we got off the train we boarded our new coach and were taken to our hotel to freshen up. The hotel we were supposed to stay at was full, so we ended up getting upgraded - to a resort! Yes, a RESORT! It was a beautiful hotel with a big pool, nice restaurants and a bar. We were all extremely excited when we saw it - it made the whole 14.5 hours spent on the train completely worth it. My room was on the fifth floor and overlooked the Sahara Desert. I couldn’t have asked for a better view. I didn’t expect to stay anywhere as nice as this during my whole overseas experience, and I couldn’t believe this was actually our hotel. It was nicer than the resort I stayed at during my all-inclusive holiday in Cuba.
We had several hours to chill at the hotel before our evening activities, so everyone spent the afternoon in and around the pool. After going for a swim we had a leisurely lunch and then laid in the sun to work on our tans. I was glad we weren’t doing a lot of activity today - it was brutally hot - over 40°. This, however, wouldn’t be the hottest day we’d experience.
In the early evening when it began to cool off, we followed Muhammad down the road from the hotel to some docks where we began our felucca boat ride down the Nile. When we boarded the boat, a bunch of little kids playing in the water started asking us for “BAKSHEESH!!?”. This was a word that would soon make my skin crawl every time I heard it. Baksheesh, Muhammad told us, is the Arabic word for “tip”. I don’t know about these kids, but I work very hard for the tips I make at my job. I wasn’t about to just start handing them money. I’m not unsympathetic to the fact that they might be very poor, but once you give one money you will get swarmed by all of them. The best way of helping people in poor countries is to make a donation to charities. It’s the best way to make sure that you’re money is put to good use. I have made several donations to help poverty-stricken countries, as well as help sponsor a child from Sudan with some co-workers from a previous job. If you are interested in sponsoring a child or simply making a donation, here’s a great site that can help you do that: World Vision.
Our felucca ride took us down the Nile and got some great views of the city. We sailed past beautiful big cruise ships that I’m sure would make me puke my guts out if I rode them. After about 45 minutes we arrived at our first destination, the Aswan Botanical Gardens, which were located on Kitchener's Island in the middle of the Nile.
Our felucca ride took us down the Nile and got some great views of the city. We sailed past beautiful big cruise ships that I’m sure would make me puke my guts out if I rode them. After about 45 minutes we arrived at our first destination, the Aswan Botanical Gardens, which were located on Kitchener's Island in the middle of the Nile.
The gardens were home to a great variety of plants and trees. I had no idea there were so many varieties of palm trees. Being a prairie boy, I don’t exactly see tropical plants in my every day life. I think I was nine years old before I saw my first palm in Tampa, Florida. There were also a wide variety of animals living there too. I saw several types of unnameable birds including big white ones with long legs. There were a bunch of skinny cats living on the island and they would chase the birds around and climb the trees.
We spent an hour walking around the gardens and looked around the gift shop. As soon as we entered the shop the merchants basically jumped us and tried to sell us everything in sight. We probably would have bought stuff if they didn’t scare us away with their "My friend! Let me show you something!" crap.
We spent an hour walking around the gardens and looked around the gift shop. As soon as we entered the shop the merchants basically jumped us and tried to sell us everything in sight. We probably would have bought stuff if they didn’t scare us away with their "My friend! Let me show you something!" crap.
I’ve had so many new experiences on this tour, and I was about to have another. I’ve never seen a desert before and I was about to ride a camel through the largest one in the world.
We arrived at the beach and our camels and guides were waiting for us. There was a camel there for each of us all lined up to choose from. I walked down the row of camels and picked the one with the largest humps (“My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely camel lumps Check it out!” Sorry just had to do that). My guide said that her name was “Christina” and she looked like she’d give a good ride (ok, I’ll quit with the dirty camel jokes). My guide was a short pudgy kid wearing a big white robe.
My camel was sitting when I got on her back. When it was time for her to stand, my guide told me to lean back as far as I could and hold on to the handle on the saddle in front of me. When the camel stood up I seriously almost fell off. I was pretty wobbly on the camel for the first bit of the ride. It was a long way to the ground, so I held on to the handle as hard as I could. After a while I got used to it, was able to keep my balance better, and was able to ride hands-free. That gave me the opportunity to pull out my camera and start snapping pictures of our amazing trek.
We arrived at the beach and our camels and guides were waiting for us. There was a camel there for each of us all lined up to choose from. I walked down the row of camels and picked the one with the largest humps (“My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely camel lumps Check it out!” Sorry just had to do that). My guide said that her name was “Christina” and she looked like she’d give a good ride (ok, I’ll quit with the dirty camel jokes). My guide was a short pudgy kid wearing a big white robe.
My camel was sitting when I got on her back. When it was time for her to stand, my guide told me to lean back as far as I could and hold on to the handle on the saddle in front of me. When the camel stood up I seriously almost fell off. I was pretty wobbly on the camel for the first bit of the ride. It was a long way to the ground, so I held on to the handle as hard as I could. After a while I got used to it, was able to keep my balance better, and was able to ride hands-free. That gave me the opportunity to pull out my camera and start snapping pictures of our amazing trek.
Our guides took us up a large hill and deeper into the vast desert. I was at the back of the pack and got some amazing silhouette shots of the tour riding off into the sunset. The entire ride was breathtaking. Here I was - riding a camel through the Sahara Desert while watching an African sunset disappear in the horizon. I was loving it. Not just the ride, but Egypt in general. I was getting used to being here, even though it had only been three days.
As I watched my tour mates ahead of me, I noticed that Candice’s guide had abandoned her and her camel was taking her off in a completely different direction. At one point she was a pretty fair distance away from everyone else. Eventually she got rescued and joined the pack as we made our pit stop to play in the sand.
Our guides let us off the camels and I eagerly put my hands in the warm Sahara sand. Our guides took a few photos of Cara and I posing with our camels. While we were getting our pictures taken, our guides asked us if we were married. We figured it would be too much to explain that we were just friends who met on this tour, so I just said yes. Our two young guides suddenly looked really excited and asked us to kiss in front of them. Awkward.
I walked out into a clear area of the desert and couldn’t believe my eyes. Dunes as far as the eye could see. I had always wanted to see the Sahara and actually being here was far more spectacular than I ever imagined. Pictures DON’T do it justice. It was beautiful, breathtaking, amazing... just plain awesome. The sand was heavy and pure - I had never seen anything like it in my life. I never wanted to forget the feeling of the sand, so I finished off my bottle of water and filled it with sand to bring home (after checking with Muhammad to make sure that was a legal thing to do).
As I watched my tour mates ahead of me, I noticed that Candice’s guide had abandoned her and her camel was taking her off in a completely different direction. At one point she was a pretty fair distance away from everyone else. Eventually she got rescued and joined the pack as we made our pit stop to play in the sand.
Our guides let us off the camels and I eagerly put my hands in the warm Sahara sand. Our guides took a few photos of Cara and I posing with our camels. While we were getting our pictures taken, our guides asked us if we were married. We figured it would be too much to explain that we were just friends who met on this tour, so I just said yes. Our two young guides suddenly looked really excited and asked us to kiss in front of them. Awkward.
I walked out into a clear area of the desert and couldn’t believe my eyes. Dunes as far as the eye could see. I had always wanted to see the Sahara and actually being here was far more spectacular than I ever imagined. Pictures DON’T do it justice. It was beautiful, breathtaking, amazing... just plain awesome. The sand was heavy and pure - I had never seen anything like it in my life. I never wanted to forget the feeling of the sand, so I finished off my bottle of water and filled it with sand to bring home (after checking with Muhammad to make sure that was a legal thing to do).
There was a big sand dune just ahead of us and Luke, Erica and I figured that it would take about five or ten minutes to run to it and climb to the top. It was still very hot out, but I was up for the jog. The three of us started running across the sand towards the dune and it didn’t end up being as far away as we thought. The desert seems to give a distorted perception of distance. We climbed up the side of it which was very steep and when we got to the top it immediately dropped back down on the other side. From the top we could see the flashes from our tour mate’s cameras as they took pictures of us. We did a few Egyptian poses for them before playing in the sand and making our way back down. We ran all the way back to the group and I worked up quite a sweat (and I NEVER sweat). When we got back I was incredibly thirsty and my mouth was completely dry, but I, along with everyone else, had filled my water bottle with sand and didn’t have any H2o. I had never been this thirsty in my entire life. Who knew taking a fifteen minute jog in the Sahara Desert would do that? Oh well, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
We rode the camels back down to the river bank and got ready to get back on the felucca. My shoes were packed with sand from when we climbed the dune. I couldn’t wait to empty them out and find some water. I was so desperate for water. My mouth and lips felt as dry as the desert - so dry that I couldn’t even swallow. It was bordering on painful. I was hoping that someone had left a bottle of water on the felucca, so I said goodbye to “Christina”, thanked my tour guide, and gave him a £10.00 tip. Muhammad suggested giving our guide a £5.00 baksheesh, but he took a lot of pictures for me, so I wanted to give him a little extra. Apparently he didn’t think it was good enough and he suddenly turned into psycho-guide running after me asking for more money. He acted so ungrateful that I regretted giving him anything in the first place. I just ignored him and got on our boat.
Back on the felucca, I desperately asked if anybody had any water. Janine was the only one who had any left - about a mouthful at the bottom of a 500ml bottle. It wasn’t much, but she was nice enough to let me have it. I think she could tell that my mouth was so dry that my lips were about to split open. Everybody else seemed dehydrated too, but our next stop was a store that sold 2L bottles of cold water, so our problems would soon be solved.
We arrived back at the docks where we ended our great felucca ride. Muhammad took us to the store and we all stocked up on water. I bought two ice cold 2L bottles and downed half of one on the spot. It felt so good to just stand there and chug it (or “skull it” for the Aussies/Kiwis). The owners of the shop were jumping for joy when 20+ tourists came into their shop and bought up their entire supply of water. They didn’t rip us off either, which was a surprise considering how desperate we must have looked.
We walked back to the hotel and had a buffet dinner before our last event of the day, our horse & carriage ride to the Aswan markets.
We rode the camels back down to the river bank and got ready to get back on the felucca. My shoes were packed with sand from when we climbed the dune. I couldn’t wait to empty them out and find some water. I was so desperate for water. My mouth and lips felt as dry as the desert - so dry that I couldn’t even swallow. It was bordering on painful. I was hoping that someone had left a bottle of water on the felucca, so I said goodbye to “Christina”, thanked my tour guide, and gave him a £10.00 tip. Muhammad suggested giving our guide a £5.00 baksheesh, but he took a lot of pictures for me, so I wanted to give him a little extra. Apparently he didn’t think it was good enough and he suddenly turned into psycho-guide running after me asking for more money. He acted so ungrateful that I regretted giving him anything in the first place. I just ignored him and got on our boat.
Back on the felucca, I desperately asked if anybody had any water. Janine was the only one who had any left - about a mouthful at the bottom of a 500ml bottle. It wasn’t much, but she was nice enough to let me have it. I think she could tell that my mouth was so dry that my lips were about to split open. Everybody else seemed dehydrated too, but our next stop was a store that sold 2L bottles of cold water, so our problems would soon be solved.
We arrived back at the docks where we ended our great felucca ride. Muhammad took us to the store and we all stocked up on water. I bought two ice cold 2L bottles and downed half of one on the spot. It felt so good to just stand there and chug it (or “skull it” for the Aussies/Kiwis). The owners of the shop were jumping for joy when 20+ tourists came into their shop and bought up their entire supply of water. They didn’t rip us off either, which was a surprise considering how desperate we must have looked.
We walked back to the hotel and had a buffet dinner before our last event of the day, our horse & carriage ride to the Aswan markets.
We were picked up outside the hotel by a bunch of horse-drawn carriages. There were four people to a carriage and I rode into the markets with Mel, Paula and Ryan. The ride was... how can I put this... scary. We thought the wheels were going to fall off. There were a couple of times that I thought Paula and Ryan were going to fly out of their seats. It was actually really fun to wonder if these rickety contraptions were going to get us there in once piece. It was quite the experience.
When we arrived at the markets, Muhammad told us that we would have two hours to shop and gave us a meeting point. This was where the ladies having a male escort really came into play. Muhammad suggested that the guys each escort a group of girls around so they wouldn’t get harassed. If the girls were with us, the Egyptian men wouldn’t speak to them or make comments towards them - they wouldn’t address a woman if she was in the company of her husband. They would only address the male. My wives this evening were Liz, Tiana, Hannah, Cara, Tanya, Janine, Mel, and Paula. Within the first few minutes I lost Mel and Paula (they wandered off somewhere), so I ended up with six wives. This was an experience I would never forget. As we walked around the markets the Egyptian men would yell comments at me like “Six wives! Lucky man!” or “Six wives! Casanova!” or “Six wives! Not fair!”. They would offer to buy them from me for camels, especially Janine who had light blonde hair and fair skin. At first I found the whole situation to be absolutely hilarious and demanded to be called Casanova for the rest of the tour. These men truly believed that I was married to all the girls. I can’t imagine the image they have in their minds about western culture. They probably think we’re all a bunch of rich pimps who live in gold mansions and have dozens of beautiful wives. They seemed to treat us like that, anyway. After a while the comments started to become really annoying when people wouldn’t stop yelling them at me. I was actually very impressed with their respect towards women, though. As long as my girls were with me, nobody made any comments towards them. If they were alone it would have been a different situation.
The markets weren’t a touristy place. We were in the heart of Egyptian culture. A lot of the shops sold stuff like spices, jewelry, bags, meat, clothing, and other common items. I would have loved to spend some time looking in them, but once again, once we set foot inside the shops the merchants would basically jump on top of us and try to sell us their first born child. It was just too much to handle. It made me wonder why they couldn’t realize that if they simply left us alone to browse we might actually buy something. All their actions would accomplish was our swift departure from their shops. I HATED being pushed into buying useless crap that I didn’t want. When it comes to these merchants, just picture the greasiest, shadiest used car salesman you’ve ever seen and multiply that by 1000. THAT’s how bad these guys were. It was exhausting being around them and in the end it managed to ruin the entire experience. It was so bad that all we wanted to do was go back to the hotel. Sometimes, all we had to do was look through the shop’s front window while passing by and the owner would start chasing us down the street screaming at the top of his lungs about the high quality crap he sold. This happened every few meters - it was a nightmare.
I know I keep mentioning my Cuba trip in this entry, but a lot of aspects about Cuba are also present in Egyptian culture. One, probably the most prominent, is bartering. I loved bartering during my time in Cuba. At first it was a bit of a challenge, but once I got the hang of it I found it to be a lot of fun. There were a lot of tactics to learn, but once I got it down I was able to get some pretty good deals. At the Aswan markets, I ended up buying a briefcase to keep all my souvenirs in. The merchant’s initial asking price was $45.00 USD and I ended up buying it for $10. Liz wanted to buy some cheap fake papyruses to take home as souvenirs. A lot of the shops sold them, but at our papyrus making demonstration yesterday we were shown how to tell the difference a real papyrus and one made with banana leaves. All the ones in these shops were clearly made with banana, but the merchants swore up and down that they were authentic. Liz and I bartered in one shop where he was asking $5.00 for a small papyrus that was “authentic”. I told him that we would only pay $5.00 for five papyruses and he was like “No, no. Real papyrus. Real”. Liz was like “No, banana...”. Anyway, we didn’t end up buying them, but when we walked past the shop again a while later, he saw us and chased us down the street yelling “Ok, five dollar five papyrus! You get five!”. It just goes to show that if they don’t meet your price, just walk away and they’ll eventually agree.
The markets weren’t a touristy place. We were in the heart of Egyptian culture. A lot of the shops sold stuff like spices, jewelry, bags, meat, clothing, and other common items. I would have loved to spend some time looking in them, but once again, once we set foot inside the shops the merchants would basically jump on top of us and try to sell us their first born child. It was just too much to handle. It made me wonder why they couldn’t realize that if they simply left us alone to browse we might actually buy something. All their actions would accomplish was our swift departure from their shops. I HATED being pushed into buying useless crap that I didn’t want. When it comes to these merchants, just picture the greasiest, shadiest used car salesman you’ve ever seen and multiply that by 1000. THAT’s how bad these guys were. It was exhausting being around them and in the end it managed to ruin the entire experience. It was so bad that all we wanted to do was go back to the hotel. Sometimes, all we had to do was look through the shop’s front window while passing by and the owner would start chasing us down the street screaming at the top of his lungs about the high quality crap he sold. This happened every few meters - it was a nightmare.
I know I keep mentioning my Cuba trip in this entry, but a lot of aspects about Cuba are also present in Egyptian culture. One, probably the most prominent, is bartering. I loved bartering during my time in Cuba. At first it was a bit of a challenge, but once I got the hang of it I found it to be a lot of fun. There were a lot of tactics to learn, but once I got it down I was able to get some pretty good deals. At the Aswan markets, I ended up buying a briefcase to keep all my souvenirs in. The merchant’s initial asking price was $45.00 USD and I ended up buying it for $10. Liz wanted to buy some cheap fake papyruses to take home as souvenirs. A lot of the shops sold them, but at our papyrus making demonstration yesterday we were shown how to tell the difference a real papyrus and one made with banana leaves. All the ones in these shops were clearly made with banana, but the merchants swore up and down that they were authentic. Liz and I bartered in one shop where he was asking $5.00 for a small papyrus that was “authentic”. I told him that we would only pay $5.00 for five papyruses and he was like “No, no. Real papyrus. Real”. Liz was like “No, banana...”. Anyway, we didn’t end up buying them, but when we walked past the shop again a while later, he saw us and chased us down the street yelling “Ok, five dollar five papyrus! You get five!”. It just goes to show that if they don’t meet your price, just walk away and they’ll eventually agree.
After an hour of wandering around, we were all pretty sick of being here. The markets were a great experience, but an hour was more than enough time. We gathered at a meeting point and Luke and I made one last purchase - some Egyptian viagra. I didn’t intend on using it - it was more of a joke souvenir to show friends back home. For $5.00 I got a small bag of it. It looked like a bunch of tree roots all chopped up (that’s probably what it was).
I caught the horse & carriage back to the hotel with Amy, Peggy & John and our driver tried to drive the carriage like a Ferrari. The faster he would go the louder we would yell “Ferarriiiiii!!!”. The carriage violently bounced us around and I think at one point it almost became dangerous, but it was so much fun that we weren’t too concerned. The driver had his young son with him and he sat there and encouraged his dad to drive faster. When the carriage dropped us off at the hotel, we tipped the driver about $8.00 and his son chased us down the street begging for more. I was so sick of people begging me for baksheesh that I could have screamed. Peggy told him that we tipped his dad and to go away, but he didn’t get the hint and almost followed us all the way to the hotel’s entrance. I was so glad to finally be in the sanctuary of the hotel. I was DONE with having any more cultural experiences for today.
Back at the hotel, myself, Chris, Amy, Luke, John, Mela, Alexis, Peggy, and Erica went for a midnight swim. Mel and Paula, who I hadn’t seen since I lost them at the markets, also made their way back to the hotel. They got lost and missed the carriage ride back so they had to walk. Apparently they got harassed pretty badly while wandering the markets on their own.
Although we went through a bit of unpleasantness today, it still turned out to be one of the best days on tour. I couldn’t think it could get any better - but it did.
I caught the horse & carriage back to the hotel with Amy, Peggy & John and our driver tried to drive the carriage like a Ferrari. The faster he would go the louder we would yell “Ferarriiiiii!!!”. The carriage violently bounced us around and I think at one point it almost became dangerous, but it was so much fun that we weren’t too concerned. The driver had his young son with him and he sat there and encouraged his dad to drive faster. When the carriage dropped us off at the hotel, we tipped the driver about $8.00 and his son chased us down the street begging for more. I was so sick of people begging me for baksheesh that I could have screamed. Peggy told him that we tipped his dad and to go away, but he didn’t get the hint and almost followed us all the way to the hotel’s entrance. I was so glad to finally be in the sanctuary of the hotel. I was DONE with having any more cultural experiences for today.
Back at the hotel, myself, Chris, Amy, Luke, John, Mela, Alexis, Peggy, and Erica went for a midnight swim. Mel and Paula, who I hadn’t seen since I lost them at the markets, also made their way back to the hotel. They got lost and missed the carriage ride back so they had to walk. Apparently they got harassed pretty badly while wandering the markets on their own.
Although we went through a bit of unpleasantness today, it still turned out to be one of the best days on tour. I couldn’t think it could get any better - but it did.
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L to R: John, Christina, Mel, Ryan, Tiana
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