LEARNING TO LOVE THE HASSLE – LUXOR
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I love
I was a tour leader in
Two things hit you hard on arrival in
Perhaps the very worst thing a tourist arriving in Egypt can do is to head straight off to the bazaar in the heat of the day, firstly its bloody hot, you have not yet allowed your body to adjust to the arid conditions, you haven’t got you head around the pounds and piastres, and you probably don’t yet know the “do’s and don’ts” when it comes to the market traders? If this is the case, one can expect the following scenario:
You head out of your air-conditioned hotel having asked the polite and well-mannered reception staff where the tourist bazaar can be found, (it will be five minutes away regardless of whether you are five minutes away or half an hour) You start walking politely refusing the whistles of the taxi men and the calls of “tax, tax, tourist bazaar very long way” you become aware of the intense heat and think perhaps a bottle of water would be a good idea, there is plenty of vendors selling water, you take a bottle from the fridge,
“How much?”
“One pound”
Well that sounds ok you think, rifling around down the front of your trousers trying to extract a note from your money belt, the money exchange man at the airport only gave you large notes, you hand over a one hundred Egyptian pound note.
“No change?”
“No sorry.”
“Ok wait here”
The man runs off with your money, (now don’t get me wrong Egyptians are not thieves, I took more than 300 tourists to Egypt and no one ever had any money stolen, but when you hand over some money on you first day and the man runs off with it, it is a little disconcerting.) The shop man’s assistant, offers you a cigarette which you refuse, he offers you some tea, you refuse, he offers you a seat which you accept, he gets out a pen an paper and asks if you can write down a note for him in English for his girlfriend in London because he can’t write English. You are wandering how to say no, when the shop keeper comes running back with a handful of change – thank god.
Wanting to appear street wise you count the money – 90 Egyptian pounds.
“I thought it was one pound?”
“Yes one English pound” he said smiling openly.
A small loss and anyway you are just relieved to get your money back and get out of his shop before you are stuck writing love letters all afternoon.
You continue on to the bazaar, a calesh draws up along side you; you glance at the skinny horse, “want a Ferrari?” Says the calesh driver
“No thank you”
“Only five pounds.” Hhmm you are wise to that trick
“Five English pounds?”
“Oh no just five Egyptian pounds”
Well that sounds fair, seen as you’ve just paid ten pounds for a small bottle of water.
“Do you know where the tourist bazaar is?”
“Of course” he stops the calesh and offers you a hand getting up
The calesh goes fifty metres up the street
“Here is tourist bazaar”
Slightly annoyed that you could have walked you hand over ten pounds from you change for the water. The calesh man tucked it down the front of his gelabia
“Thank you”
“What about my change”
“Five pound for ride, five pounds baksheesh” he said and trotted off.
Now you are in a bad mood, sweating profusely and just realised you left your water in the calesh. You turn onto the bazaar street, twenty market traders’ jump off their stools
“Hey where you from”
“I will pay twenty camels for you”
“No charge for looking”
“Cheaper than Asda price in my shop” how do they know about Asda?
Not wanting to look stupid you continue walking down the bazaar
“Come drink tea with me”
“You want carpet”
“You want water pipe”
Oh my god is this hell? how long is this street? You quicken your pace and keep your head down trying not to catch anyone’s eye.
“Lovely jubbly” I’m sure these people don’t know who Rodney Trotter is.
“You want to marry an Egyptian”
Finally the bazaar comes to an end, you have no idea where you are, you jump into a taxi and ask how much to your hotel.
“Ten pounds”
“Ten Egyptian pounds?”
“Yes”
“Including baksheesh?” – Your getting the hang of it now
“Yes”
“Ok let’s go”
You see your hotel and breathe a sigh of relief; you pay the taxi man and are pleased he accepts the ten pounds and leaves, desperate to get back into the air conditioning you head for the door. A young boy blocks your way.
“You said you would write letter to my girlfriend” he said still clutching the pen and paper.
As you can imagine anyone that has this sort of experience on their first outing is likely to stay in their hotel for the remainder of their stay which would be a tragedy.
I always used to impart the following
advice to my group and they would always love
1) Never go shopping in the heat of the day; the shops are open until at least 10pm going in the evening is a much more pleasant experience.
2) Always check the price of anything before committing yourself and if you are not going to give a tip on top of that price say that the baksheesh is included.
3)A little Arabic goes a long way, “la shukran” means “no thank you” by the end of the week you will be saying it in your sleep.
4) Remember that 90% of people in Luxor are employed in tourism in some way, there are too many calesh men, felucca boys, bazaar men, taxi drivers and they are all competing against one another, it is very hard for anyone to make any money so don’t be too hard on them if you feel hassled and don’t be too mean with your bartering.
5) Egyptians are great fun and have the best sense of humour in the world, if you stop and chat with them you will have a great time, they will appreciate that you have taken time to talk and everyone is happy.
I hope more people travel to
Lucy Bhageerutty
For affordable tours in
About the Author
My name is Lucy Bhageerutty. I started out in life as a conservation biologist, I worked in some exotic locations such as Mauritius, the Philippines and the Amazon. I then ran tours for an adventure travel company all over the world until I decided to set up my own eco-travel company. Check out my site at www.diverse-earth.com
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