Egypt, the land of hassle

The Pyramids of Giza
see all photos »

Hello!

If I hear "Canada Dry" or "You walk like and Egyptian"  one more time I am going to crack!  What a place!  Not for the good either.  Not sure if it is Egypt itself or the fact that I am tired of traveling and not feeling 100%.  First lesson I learnt, never have any expectations when traveling, you will just be disappointed in the end.  Things started off okay.  Had a easy time crossing borders. Had breakfast in Jordan, lunch in Israel and supper in Egypt, not bad for one day.  When you stand in Aqaba, Jordan you have Saudi Arabia to your left with Israel and Egypt across the Red Sea, pretty cool.  The bus did not show up at the Egypt border, so this other traveler and I took a shuttle.  It was a guy and his family who had extra space and wanted to make money.  Thirteen men and me.  I sat beside the 8 year old chain smoker for 5 hours!  Awesome!  It was interesting to say the least, went through 20 check points.  The only english the driver knew was Canada and that seemed to be the magic word as we rarely got our passports checked.  There is a heavy presence of military here, more uniforms than civilians.  They are EVERYWHERE!  Finally arrived in Cairo in one piece.  That is one big, dirty city.   Went to the pyramids, not as great as I thought.  They are very cool, but lacked that "AWE" factor I was looking for.  I think the locals ruined the whole experience for me.  I did not want to buy this broken trinket and the local guy started swearing at me and calling me names.  We had a round, made a big scene.  That seems to be the norm around here.  Even the tourist police try to get baksheesh (tips) from you.  You can trust no one.  My flip flop broke so I walked into the store barefoot, a prime candidate to get taken advantage of.  "My friend, I  give you good deal because me likes you and you in need."  Yeah right!  It is hard to barter when it is obvious you need something!  So I am now the proud owner of camel leather slippers!  I did go for a camel ride away from the tourists which was nice.  Got a great view of the pyramids.  Cairo can be done in a day, nothing to do. The locals here like to hiss at you.  Yes, hiss.  It is very degrading and sends my blood pressure through the roof!  I can handle the sexism (after all I was military), getting use to the staring but the hissing makes me really angry.  I hate it here.  I took a night train down to Aswan, 14 hours.  I had my own sleeper car which was nice.  Not much to do in Aswan either.  Did a day trip to Abu Simbel which is near the Sudan border.  You have to travel in a convoy that leaves at 4am in the morning.  We drove for 3 hours, stayed for 2 hours then back again.  Lots of desert!  I left there a day early and headed to Luxor 3 hours north.  The locals hassle so much you don't want to even leave your hotel room.  They have a 5000 year old history and I could not care less.  I have been grabbed at the Luxor temple, tourist police tried to corner me, been sworn at, named called, a shop owner even came up behind me and kissed my neck!  I mailed a parcel but I don't think that it will even leave the postal office.  I refused to go home with the postal attendant and he was a little ticked so the parcel probably went in the garbage.  I even had a local spit at me when I ignored his cat calls. This place sucks for single female travelers.  I went to the West Bank, it was so bad I hired a bike and peddled until I could get away from the locals.  Every conversation starts off the same, so I am going to get a t-shirt made with my answers to save me some time.  It will read "Canada, married, 5 kids, yes he will mind, the name of my hotel is none of your business and no I do not need your help spending my money!"  Same thing over and over.  The only safe place is my hotel room.  You can't even get near the Nile to sit and relax.  The place is packed with floating hotels and feluccas.  I cannot go 1 hour without telling someone off, I am rude and they still don't get it.  Things got better in Alexandria.  They do not rely on tourist dollars to get by so there is no hassle.  Very little to do here though.  Trade one for the other. I had great expectations for Egypt.  It's Egypt after all!!  I have seen better things and would have been okay to never have come here.  The place is filthy, the locals are rude and everything out of their mouth is a lie.  I am sure there are decent Egyptians around, but I have not found one yet.  If you have an interest in their history or with a group, by all means come.  If not, spend your money elsewhere!