Re: Just home from 3 months in Europe/Egypt. My thoughts.....

Bobby McGee <deadluvva@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hey ya David
> Thanks for the reply and I will try and clarify about Egypt. Yes, this
> was my first time out of the "West" and like I wrote it was a huge
> shock. Egypt had always been a dream for me and I guess I had this
> fantasy image of it. Let me say first of all that the monuments, which
> are the main thing people go to Egypt for outpassed all the
> expectations I had. They were all spectacular!!!!!! Sure I headed out
> on this trip to see the monuments, museums etc but also to meet people
> and talk with them, share a glass, laugh, learn, etc etc etc

Share a glass? :)

I used the Let's Go Guide to Israel and Egypt as part of the preparation
for the trip. At the back it had a few 'handy' phrases in both Hebrew
and Arabic. One of them was "can I buy you a drink?"- it had the
transliteration of the Hebrew, then under the Arabic said "you will
probably never need this phrase." The Harvard students' sense of humour
I suppose! :)

It did give a very good, if cynical, piece of advice about Egypt which
went something like this-

"Much though it may mean missing out on a wonderful personal encounter
it's safe to assume that if anyone approaches you in Egypt, it's most
likely because they want something from you."

It was very good advice!

> In Egypt there is NONE of
> that. Everyone we met wanted money from us. If someone was nice to us
> at the end they had their hand out. I was deceived and let down and
> hurt by that you have no idea.

That's a shame. I've been to countries where this is more common before,
so was prepared for it.

> All we are to them is huge walking
> dollar signs. For 2 weeks we were cheated, lied to, taken advantage of
> and hassled. And this is everywhere we went.

It's not a surprise. I'm sorry that the experience was that bad. I was
hassled, but not cheated (that I'm aware of), lied to or taken advantage
of, as I simply didn't give anyone the chance. On our first day, we took
a taxi from the hotel towards Giza. The taxi stopped and a young man
simply got in. At first, I thought it might be an acquaintance of the
taxi driver, and he was giving him a ride home. Fair enough. The guy
starts talking to us in English (bad sign already!) and explained that
he worked at the hospital. At this point, I start muttering to my
partner in Spanish that the guy just wants to be our guide, and we
should get rid of him. Oscar says no, it's fine and he's probably just
trying to improve his English, or talk with foreigners. No guesses for
who was right, and Mr. Nurse-would-be-Giza-guide was ejected at the next
set of lights! I could go on and on about similar experiences, and I'm
sure you had them too. They were generally not conversant in Spanish, so
we used it a lot as it also managed to put a wall between us and
would-be guides etc.

I think it's possible to brush those things aside and not let them ruin
a trip, but I don't blame you at all for feeling the way you did.

FWIW, while our week in Cairo was on our own, we took the Nile trip on a
very regimented tour. Something we hardly ever do, but I would
definitely recommend it. Our guide seemed very knowledgable, and would
translate much of the hieroglyphs etc. for us. More importantly, having
the guide kept all the other would-be guides at bay. Yes, we'd get
people trying to 'show' us things in the tombs etc., but it was much
easier to ignore them when you were part of a group. I noticed
individual travellers having a tough time. That said, we had a great
'free' day when we hired bikes and cycled around the west bank at Luxor
(valley of the kings, etc.) and we were relatively unmolested. Indeed,
we stopped in a village, and friendly little kids came up to us just to
fool around really- the kind of thing that would be impossible in
paedophile-obsessed Britain...

> My wife is more accepting
> than I am, like I said she is theeeeeeee best traveller, but even she
> will admit that if someone is nice to you in Egypt, look out.

Absolutely.

> There can
> and never will be any true human contact there cause we are "rich" and
> they are poor (our stained and frayed t-shirts and backpacks is no
> deterrent).

Again, very true.

> Now you asked why I did not mention the Giza Plateau as one of my
> hilites. Yes the pyramids and the Spinx are AMAZING but you can hardly
> enjoy them because of the people there who hassle you. You can not have
> 1 minute to yourselves without someone coming up and hassling you. And
> they do not stop or take no for an answer. And since it was our first
> day there we decided to take a camel ride around the pyramids. BIG
> mistake and probably the worst experience on this whole trip. We
> overpaid to begin with and then were hassled by the boys who took us
> the whole way. It took me absol losing it to get them to stop. And as
> you're walking on the camel you have others coming up out of nowhere to
> sell you cokes, souvenirs etc. We had this image of peacefully riding
> by the pyramids but you could not enjoy it for a second cause you were
> constantly saying "NO!" Thank God that we took 2 more camel rides, one
> through the villages of Luxor and another through the desert of Aswan
> that took the bad taste of the Giza plateau away. So that's why I have
> problems appreciating the pyramids cause I associate them with the
> non-stop hassling.

That's a real shame. We avoided the camels, and basically ignored anyone
who tried to talk to us. They do get the hint, and once people cottoned
on to the fact, the others left us as well. I've mentioned before that
many people assumed Oscar was from the region, as they'd often go up to
him and speak Arabic. That might have also helped a little- I'm not
sure.

Nothing could take the sight of the pyramids away from me though. I've
seen some beautiful man-made constructions in my life so far (Taj Mahal,
various European cities etc.) but this dwarves them, literally and
figuratively. From a distance, in the haze, I thought one of them was a
hill at first. I'll never forget just the sheer enormity of them. We
just walked around for hours staring at them.

Maybe you might go back again sometime? It seems cold-hearted, but the
only way to really get around in a country like Egypt is to ignore
people. They are not aggressive (or stupid), and if you avoid
eye-contact they will get the point- eventually.

[]
> Also I talked about the Cairo museum being dirty. And man oh man it is
> (for example there was 1/4 inch of dust on top of the glass case of
> King Tut's coffin. Someone had written in it "Dust me" :-).

That wasn't the case when we were there- maybe it's gotten worse!

> I don't
> agree with you cause the museums in Greece, everyone we went to, were
> amazing. Clean, lighting, all was perfect.

Oh, I've been in some dank ones. Heraklion, on Crete. Also, not Greece,
but Nicosia's is a bit drab too (while interesting.) Those I've been in
in Athens were fine though, I agree.

> All the museums in France
> and Italy the same thing. I know I sound like a typical North American
> (we're Canadian) who wines and complains cause things were not like
> home but I can assure you that I am not like that.

No, I don't think you are, and I appreciate you going into more detail
on Egypt. It sounds as though you certainly have some great memories
from there anyway- I'm sorry the trip to Giza was marred by the hassle!

You didn't go up the Cairo Tower did you? Fantastic place to have lunch-
they have a revolving restaurant on the top- the view (of the whole of
Cairo, the Pyramids and the Nile in both directions) is unforgettable.
And the lunch was reasonable too- cheap by western standards even!

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org
.

Loading