Christmas in Egypt 2008
Christmas in Egypt 2007
10 Days Christmas Tour of Egypt. From Cairo flying to Luxor, cruising to Aswan and driving back up to Alexandria, returning on a 10 hour flight back to Singapore with stomach flu. All in all, it was sandy, dusty, and the sun glaring. Due to a hectic and packed tour schedule, we didn't get much rest especially me since I was recovering from a bout of flu from the Penang race/trip the week before. But despite all of this, it was facsinating to see all the relics and monumunts in their thousand years history and faded glory. It's hard to stand face to face with 5000 years worth of history in just any parts of the world.
The touts in Egypt are really one of the kind. After my first few days there, I got used to the calls of "One Doll-lah! One Doll-lah!" from street touts whose hard selling make the rest of the touts in the world look like they play for the minor league. They are simply in a league of their own. After traveling to various places in the world, I thought it was an unspoken rule that food and drinks would always be a fixed price ... as in ... you don't need to haggle much for it. Boy was I wrong when my sister came back buying a small packet of M&Ms for SGD5. That was the same price for a Snickers bar too. On one occasion, we paid SGD40 for a tube of Pringles, 1 magnum ice cream, 2 bottle of orangina, 1 coffee and 1 can of coke. Yet later in the trip, we bought 2 cans of coke and 4 packets of titbits for 10 Egyptian pounds which is about SGD3-4.
But I must say, after haggling with the street touts there for a few days, you will kind of get a hang of it. Especially if you know you can do without the purchase. The best thing is, you can COUNT on them to chase after you with YOUR price, once you leave the shop, or pretend to anyway. I had one boy chase me from the back alleys, all the way to the main street, and all the way back to the cruise ship.
View Slide Show Here
10 Days Christmas Tour of Egypt. From Cairo flying to Luxor, cruising to Aswan and driving back up to Alexandria, returning on a 10 hour flight back to Singapore with stomach flu. All in all, it was sandy, dusty, and the sun glaring. Due to a hectic and packed tour schedule, we didn't get much rest especially me since I was recovering from a bout of flu from the Penang race/trip the week before. But despite all of this, it was facsinating to see all the relics and monumunts in their thousand years history and faded glory. It's hard to stand face to face with 5000 years worth of history in just any parts of the world.
The touts in Egypt are really one of the kind. After my first few days there, I got used to the calls of "One Doll-lah! One Doll-lah!" from street touts whose hard selling make the rest of the touts in the world look like they play for the minor league. They are simply in a league of their own. After traveling to various places in the world, I thought it was an unspoken rule that food and drinks would always be a fixed price ... as in ... you don't need to haggle much for it. Boy was I wrong when my sister came back buying a small packet of M&Ms for SGD5. That was the same price for a Snickers bar too. On one occasion, we paid SGD40 for a tube of Pringles, 1 magnum ice cream, 2 bottle of orangina, 1 coffee and 1 can of coke. Yet later in the trip, we bought 2 cans of coke and 4 packets of titbits for 10 Egyptian pounds which is about SGD3-4.
But I must say, after haggling with the street touts there for a few days, you will kind of get a hang of it. Especially if you know you can do without the purchase. The best thing is, you can COUNT on them to chase after you with YOUR price, once you leave the shop, or pretend to anyway. I had one boy chase me from the back alleys, all the way to the main street, and all the way back to the cruise ship.
View Slide Show Here