This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw.

Friday October 30, 2015

Egypt: Day 9, Part 2 – Agatha Christie’s Aswan

We headed back to our hotel at the far end of town to pickup our bags. Then we drove towards the center of town and boarded the cruise ship. To board you crossed a gangplank and then would go through multiple cruise ship’s lobbies. The first one we went through was obviously a more upscale one, and I admired the well done faux Egyptian carvings in their lobby. We then entered our cruise ship, called Royal Ruby. After waiting a little bit we had our room keys, and were told our bags would be moved into our rooms shortly.

Our room was a floor below the top deck, which is good because you actually want to be higher up to better view the banks of the Nile. Once we freshened up, we went to the bottom deck for lunch. I’ve never encountered a Chinese tour group before, but had heard of badly behaved tourists in the news. It didn’t prepare me for the on slot of 40 hungry Chinese tourists on the buffet. They elbow people out of the way, take all of something without a moment’s thought to other hungry people (thankfully the cruise employees seemed prepared for this and quickly swapped out empty platters), or would simply just stand in front of the plates, completely blocking others from grabbing one.

After lunch we had free time. Elizabeth and I went off in search of a money exchange machine. I’ve never heard of such a thing before, and I was amazed when you could put in already pulled out USD and exchange it for Egyptian Pounds! (I ended up brining just enough cash on this trip, so never needed to pull out cash from an ATM.) We then met some of the others and decided to walk along the Corniche towards the Old Cataract Hotel.

While we walked we finally were “harassed” by the touts. I had heard that touts and sellers were bad, but so far had been sheltered from it. But with tourism down, the sellers are desperate, especially in upper Egypt which sees fewer tourists. Every foot we were yelled at or talked to by people offering us caleche rides (horse carriages), Felucca rides (sailboat), taxis, water sellers, shop keepers, and restauranteurs. If it wasn’t an offer, it was a thinly veiled attempt to get to know us. What’s your Name? Where are you from? What cruise ship are you staying at? Souvenir for family back home? Good Price! No hassle! Or it would be guilt trips. Please I need to feed my family. My horse hasn’t eaten in days. Look! There are no other tourists here, please! Some would even follow us a bit, but would give up when we didn’t respond.

We tried various tactics. Some of us just didn’t respond. Others said in Arabic “No Thank You” or “I have no money.” Elizabeth is definitely more stern while I usually play smiley and dumb. (Although Elizabeth worried about me, as she thought I’d actually tell them which ship we were on and that they’d follow us back or scam us somehow.) But I want to stress this, it wasn’t that bad. Slightly annoying, yes. But I certainly didn’t feel threatened or in danger.

Some people were quite angry at being asked so many times for the same thing, but I understood. Its a number’s game. There aren’t many tourists right now there. And if a seller doesn’t attempt to talk to each and every tourist they see, they could miss out on a tourist finally saying yes. We are essentially Schrodinger’s Wallet/Schrodinger’s Income. Until a seller does their pitch they have no idea if you are going to say yes or no, and by not asking they are setting themselves up for failure, and failure isn’t an option. Its a “You miss all shots you don’t take” mentality.  So they must annoy you with their pitch attempts, because they know its their only shot…and everyone else is doing it. It literally doesn’t pay for them not to be pushy. (And part of me wished we could find this level of determination in sales people back home.)

The Old Cataract Hotel sits at the end of the Corniche. We entered and passed through security, to wander the manicured grounds outside. While we were staying in fairly decent hotels, this was obviously an expensive luxury hotel. Reflecting ponds, fountains, and flowers graced the front of the hotel. We ran into some of the others from our group also out front. We entered the lobby and it was amazing. You could simultaneously feel how old and historic this hotel was and of the upscale modern luxury it provided today.