Okay, so I've got to stop with this alliteration title thing. It just seems to tie everything together so well. I will try to be more clever in the upcoming blogs, I promise.
Luxor was our next big destination, and we stumbled up to our hotel after a gruesome 17 hour overnight bus. The one and only upside was that our list of things to "Never Do Again" has grown a little longer. Which I guess has only made us stronger. Luxor was slightly cleaner, much densely populated, and had a great deal more to see and had a great deal more to see and do than Cairo.
We went on a felucca ride on the Nile, ascended into the tombs at the Valley of the Kings, went to a few great temples, and learned how to mummify just about anything at the (overpriced but still creepy cool) Mummy Museum. In between all this we were hassled by every man, woman and child we passed. I will try to go into detail about what I mean when I say hassled.
It first begins when you leave the hotel, "Taxi, taxi, taxi?" and you kindly say, "No thank you," only to find the next guy thinks you might have changed your mind, and it continues... The you get to the main road, "Carriage, carish? Good price!" You continue politely, "No thank you, we just want to walk." Now you are getting close to the river, "Felucca, boat ride, you looking for the ferry?" And it even seems a little helpful the first time, until you realize they are all standing right in front of the ferry terminal. So you decide maybe to avoid it and keep walking, but they are following you, still offering and they stick their arm out to guide you (which is sort of just an inconspicuous way of slowly trapping you at this point). Escape. This is now the only thing on your mind. Escape.
Eventually you find the beautiful shaded Souk where you can buy everything from spices to scarves to scarab souveniers. Granted, most people would come here looking to buy something, but on our budget we are just walking through this time. "Yes! You like, take a look! Come this way! Where from?" and finally "How can I take your money?" Now, the only reason I go into such great detail about this side of Egypt is to attempt to paint you the most vivid and real picture. It is so common to hear about all the amazing and positive experiences of somebody's travels (of which we have so many, don't get me wrong) but it is far more interesting to contrast those experiences with some of the opposite.
We experienced this side of the Egyptian tourism industry so often, it became increasingly repetitive. And through many discussions with Ben, we realized there are so many more factors at play. The first thing that came to mind is that most visitors to Egypt are passing through very briefly on a guided tour, where as we were able to get quite a bit closer, traveling independently. Secondly, tourism is one of the most vital contributors to their economy which means almost everybody has their hand in it in any way possible. And lastly, there is a clear language barrier. Many of the people that approached us only spoke a few select sentences in English. In certain areas you only hear the same 5 sentences over and over, and when we tried to converse more in depth, things were lost. For these reasons, I was able to step back and see things through a different lens, and accept that these are people just trying to make a living in whatever way they know how.
All in all, I am happy to have experienced Egypt, and I do encourage everyone to go there if they get the opportunity. But if you have the chance to spend a little more money, and go with an organized tour, I feel like this is the one (and only) place I would recommend to do that.
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