surprisingly, only a ditzy spectacle of laser lights illuminating the dark desert landscape greeted me as i flew into cairo at night. fun fair? night bazaar? it was only later that i realised that it was the light and sound show™ at the giza pyramids. in fact, almost every large egyptian historical site has its own light and sound show™, and the associated souvenir shops, touts, tour guides, and pollution that come with it.welcome to egypt - land of the beleaguered tourist.
immediately after i got out of the airport the touts started pouring in. if you want to feel like lady gaga on the red carpet at hollywood, egypt's your best bet. no matter where you go, what you are doing, what you are dressed in, what language you can or cannot speak, egyptians will want to know who you are and where you come from and where you are going and possibly also your bank card pin number and your sanity. all in the pursuit of one thing: baksheesh. for the uninitiated, baksheesh, or بخشش, means a gift or a tip in arabic. for many egyptians, the combination of inflation and corruption means that the only way of making ends meet is by pestering tourists and hoping to make some money through baksheesh.
the plot is simple enough: helpless tourist meets helpful local, local helps tourist, tourist goes away happy, and local makes some money. but its never that simple, is it? in egypt, the burgeoning population means that everyone is fighting to get a piece of the limited baksheesh pie. so most tourists get needlessly pestered and harassed, all in a bid to snag a taxi fare, felucca passenger, tour grouper, or hotel customer.
so anyway to travel in egypt you need to have either thick skin, or lots of loose change. you figure out which approach works for you. for me, i took the former. =P
anyway i have even more incredible tales of the baksheesh. too long to elaborate here; go ask me in person or on facebook.
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the nile is indeed the source of all life in egypt. indeed, i covered the entire length of the nile during my travels as most of the notable towns were just situated along its banks. cairo -> night train to aswan -> minibus to abu simbel -> felucca to edfu -> minivan to luxor -> night train back to cairo -> train to and fro alexandria and cairo. 9000+km in 9 days! talk about wanderlust.
but that's the only way to travel in egypt i guess. most towns are dead (and full of touts anyway) so other than the historical sites there's nothing much else interesting to do. unless you like being conned and walking around in the baking 55°C heat.
so now the nile is controlled by the aswan high dam (3rd largest in the world), and the crocodiles are kept at bay. makes sailing in a felucca a lot more pleasant experience, without whatnot having to worry about waking up with all four limbs intact.
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the return of the 5-times-a-day call to prayer! didnt help that my hostel was just next to a mosque. and it was much worse with all the echoing effect down the nile. do they really need all those reminders to pray that many times each day, everyday? i think all it takes is just a watch and maybe some determination.
