Trip Report VII
1) Security.
2) Getting to the museum.
3) Of postcards, water & the Hilton Mall.
4) The Egyptian Museum (Mary, they need your help!)
5) Internet cafes in Cairo.
6) Cairo driving.
7) Getting my train ticket.
8) Arriving in Luxor.
9) Our tour group, van & guide.
10) Valley of the Kings.
11) Hatshepsut's Temple.
12) Valley of the Queens.
13) Luxor - 'hassle capital of Egypt.' Common scams.
14) A night not to remember.
1) When I said 'they' checked my passport holder, I meant airport security. Metal detectors are outside all plush malls & arcades, museums, temples, anywhere where tourists go. On the more important ones it's even tighter, eg. at the Egyptian Museum you go through 2 checkpoints with metal detectors and X-ray machines. In Luxor the police drive armoured 4-WD cars with armoured machine gun turrets. As I mentioned, there are police with automatic rifles everywhere. This is not the place to pull a bank heist!
2) Woke up Tuesday morning & had breakfast, which included milk (made up from powder & boiled water) with my coffee, which was the only time I saw milk (powdered or otherwise) while in Egypt. Asked which direction the Egyptian Museum was (I knew approximately where we were in Cairo, but wanted to check which side of the Nile we were on) & the manager told me the cab fare should be 4 or 5 EP and wrote where I wanted to go on a piece of paper for me to give to the cab driver. I think it worked out about 50/50 who could understand enough English to know where I wanted to go, or who couldn't. That piece of paper became extremely useful as the museum was where busses to the pyramids left from and was right next to 'Downtown' (where I had been trying to get to on that first horrible night), where all the internet cafes and ATMs are. No cab driver accepted less than 5 EP, and none of them ever used their meters anywhere in Egypt (maybe they're all set to some outdated price or something).
3) Checked out the gift shop and cafe and found water was 3 EP (1.5L), hallway decent postcards were 1.5 EP and daggy ones were 1 EP. This was the same price for cards as inside, but you can't buy water inside, so you're best option is to get it from the cafe on the corner of the Hilton mall opposite the museum for 2 EP (1.5L), the mall also having an American Express office and an ATM that accepts Visa & Cirrus/ Maestro, but not Plus (which is my card, not easy to use in Egypt). A general note about postcards: I figured I couldn't get as good a shot of scenery or displays as you get in postcards, so I would buy lots and send them to people & keep the camera for shots with me or my family & friends in them. In Malaysia & Thailand this is true, but the quality of postcards here in Egypt is pretty low & I can take better shots, assuming I've paid to take my camera in, which you have to do almost everywhere, except where photography is completely forbidden; and, of course, no using a flash.
4) Mary (in the chapter title) is a museum curator who's helping people of another country preserve their heritage. The museum reminds me of a Gould’s store (a huge 2nd hand bookshop), where anything you're interested in is probably in there somewhere, but finding it can be very difficult. I opted for a cursory examination of everything, reading the descriptions of a few objects but finding a few of the ones I was interested in didn't have descriptions (although later descriptions on similar objects sometimes helped). At the Luxor museum, they had help arranging stuff from the Boston museum, and it's much easier to take in everything (although some rooms in the Egyptian Museum have more stuff than the whole of the Luxor one). There were a couple of tourists having a rest on the feet of a 4500 year old statue near the entrance, around the corner from the signs everywhere saying 'do not touch or lean against the antiquities,' 'do not touch or lean against the cases,' 'do not use a flash.' Fortunately they keep their old stuff in sealed cases (eg. tools from 700 000 BC, mummified dinosaur fish), protecting it from people encouraging their children to climb on the statues so they could take flash photographs. Took me about 2 hours to see everything (as in, let it pass before my eyes in a dazed state). I think the best way to see this place is in a small group with an Egyptologist as a guide & give it a half day.
5) Found an internet cafe at 'downtown' and chatted with Suren (alias Kevin) & Melba in instant messenger. Most internet cafes I have used have Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger & ICQ, although Nick is the only one else who uses ICQ so I stopped using it, so if you have one of the former you might catch me online. So far it's been Suren, Melba, Navin, Sri & I saw Hui Ying online but she was gone too quickly (same with Suman but that probably means someone else was logged on from his computer at work). On Sat. morning in Luxor I saw every one of you, except Suman, online in 1 morning. Back to Cairo. The one I was using was Onyx at 5 EP per hour (very slow though & their building has power outs periodically), 26 Mahmoud Bassiouni St. Downtown (their price is down from that in the Lonely Planet guide, which is how I knew where to go). Told Melba I didn't have any inclination ever to come back to Egypt, but that was just a combination of culture shock, fatigue, & the hassle of trying to organise everything myself. Perhaps a better net cafe than Onyx was InterClub, 12 Talaat Harb St. Downtown, 6 EP per hour but fast & modern. Talaat Harb St. is a laneway running off Qasr el-Nil St. (in which there is an ATM), the next st. north of Mahmoud Bassiouni. There was also another 6 EP per hour place round the corner from the Midan Talaat Harb (the square at the centre of Downtown, in which thee is an ATM, accepting all except Plus) end of Bassiouni, turning left as you walked out of it, but I didn't get a chance to check it out. This is the bottom end, prices go up to 12 EP per hour (eg. for the one in the Hilton Plaza).
6) In the cab on the way home, while stopped in traffic, the driver pulled his dashboard out, fixed something in the speedo, then put it back together again. I think I've seen about 4 traffic lights since I've been in Egypt, and those that were working were being completely ignored. The drivers here do short beeps on their horns all the time to let the car 3cm to their left (driving is on the right hand side of the road here) know that you're there or whatever. I think they must be pretty good drivers, imagine intersections with 5 or more major roads leading in with no traffic lights and constant heavy traffic with rarely anyone touching. I saw cars stopped after a small bump once. I wouldn't want to be in an ambulance, though. I've seen ambulances completely surrounded on every side (as everybody else is, like the hub of a spoked wheel more than like a box with only 4 sides) & unable to move on several occasions.
7) Got up Wednesday morning with the intention of getting my laundry, checking out, going to the Egyptian Railways station at Ramses square, checking in my bags & getting a return ticket on the overnight sleeper to Luxor, then visiting the pyramis in the afternoon before coming back, getting my luggage and getting on the train. At breakfast the staff had to ring the hotel lobby to get them to tell me there's no milk. In the hotel lobby they don't know what 'Egyptian Museum' is (people often don't know the English names we have given to their sites) (the manager and his assistant are not on duty today). The taxi driver couldn't understand where I wanted to go and pointed out various people who might speak English to help us out, one of whom informed me that the bus standing in front of me went there, so I got on. This was a big A/C’ed bus for 2 EP with big comfortable seats, unfortunately this means less room between them. The A/C’ed busses have the advantage that the driver speaks English (or, at least, in my 2 encounters they did). It would have been easier getting on and off the el-cheapo busses with the amount of luggage I was carrying. When I got to the train station I found they only took cash, which I didn't have enough of on me (I assumed a 660 EP ticket at the main Egyptian train station could be bought with Visa). At the cloakroom there was a packed room full of people waiting to check in their luggage, with the guy taking 10 mins. per person. I left with my luggage & proceeded to lug it around for 2 hours looking for an ATM that accepted Plus or even Visa, then a bank that would change traveller’s cheques. Went back and checked in my bags, there were only 4 people in front of me this time so it only took 40 mins. (8 mins. to put a person's bags in a locker, 2 mins. to light up a cigarette and get to the next person). Watching someone collect & staple a couple of forms and put them in a draw is like watching someone in Asia or Sydney in slow motion, but the shopkeepers at Crescent Head would be right at home (except, of course, that in every other way they'd be totally out of their element). Government wages here are about 300-400 EP per month. A meal in a REALLY cheap restaurant costs about 10 EP. Caught a cab back to downtown, went to all the ATMs I could find, then went to Thomas Cook (Mahmoud Bassiouni St.) and got some travellers cheques changed into Egyptian pounds. Caught a cab back to the train station & bought my ticket. Caught a cab back to downtown, by now it was 4pm or later & too late to visit the pyramids, got on the internet for a while, had dinner at a cheap restaurant that worked out at 40 EP for something that listed on the menu as 22 EP (with a small bottle of water & some dry Lebanese [or rather Egyptian] bread, +10% charge, +5% sales tax - standard surcharges in restaurants) and caught a cab back to Ramses in time to catch my train with a couple of minutes to spare.
8) Dinner and breakfast were included in the price (which I didn't realise), but there was no shower. I washed myself in the sink in my room just before the man from next door, who was travelling with his wife & son, came in to share my cabin for the night (they're like sleepers on the XPT except without the bathroom cubicle, 3 persons seated or 2 persons sleeping). Then he changed his mind and slept with his son. The meal was not bad as far as travel food goes. It's one of the first meals I haven't been unable to finish in a long time (but I had just eaten). They dispense powdered soap in the lavatory. 5.30am and we arrive in Luxor. A man, Ahmed Fathi, greets me at the station and asks me if I want to stay in such & such a hotel with a swimming pool. I am highly suspicious and tell him I can't afford it. He asks me for a budget & suggests somewhere else. I check the price in my Lonely Planet Guide to find this hotel, the Saint Mina Hotel, Cleopatra St. Luxor ph. (095) 375 409, about 2 minutes walk from the train station, is suggested as a great hotel. There price lists 20 EP for a single without a bathroom, I am paying 25 which I figure is a fair mark up for someone who showed me where the hotel was, walked with me and helped me carry my luggage, lets me check in at 6am and only pay for the Thursday night, then later walked with me to the nearest ATM that would accept my card (but now I get a message saying my National account can't be accessed and please contact my bank, so I have to use Visa) (and at this point I'm still only considering options). After talking with him for a while, he proposes a plan of sight seeing during the day, followed by a cruise to Aswan on Saturday. He seems to be proposing good stuff at a reasonable price, calculating in $US he tells me the exchange rate is 4.65, which I later find out is the exchange rate for buying $US, which is a relief because at point someone said it was 4.58, and although I didn't really expect him to quote the exchange rate exactly I was a little disappointed at the thought of being gypped 70 EP (which didn't happen). He quotes $55 US for guided tours of the Kings Valley, Queen's valley & Hatshepsut's temple in the morning, and the temple complex of Karnak & Luxor temple in the evening (256 EP, he makes it 250, I calculated the included entry fees were over 100 EP of that); and $200 US for a 3 day, 2 night cruise on a 5 star cruise ship, saying that you can't really sail in a felucca from Aswan to Luxor at the moment as there is no wind. After we get the money, he takes me for a drink at a cafe where we chat & he smokes a hookah (he pays for my drink). This guy turns my whole Egyptian experience around. The thing is, what he offers is not cheap (although the hotel is), but it's of such exceptionally good value that by blowing my budget somewhat. I had thought I would spend about $1500 AUD in Egypt, then I thought it might work out less when I found out the exchange rate for $1 AUD=2.5 EP rather than the 1.5 EP I had calculated in Dubai by comparing their exchange rate for $AUD & EP at their airport (neither of which would have been as good as you can get), now it comes to over $2000 but I really am having the experience of a lifetime.
9) I get picked up in a van (15 seater) with A/C’ing but they don't turn it on until it gets hot. There is our guide & a driver up front, and someone else (2nd driver?) and 11 of us tourists in the back. During the middle of the day you don't want to be sitting at the back of the van, the A/C’ing isn't designed for a full load during 45 degree in the shade temperatures. Evidently they sometimes quote it as being cooler than it is, though, because the Egyptians can go home from work if it hits 50 degrees. I have to say that even in the back it was bearable, even though at Hatshepsut's we got out & there was a slight breeze so it was cooler outside than in. I start off sitting next to a French couple with whom I exchange a few sentences in French (and have complete conversations in English) & they say my French is pretty good. I also chat with a Canadian couple, a German father & daughter, 2 women from Spain, & 2 women from Korea during the course of the morning.
10) Our guide is very impressive, doing most of the talking outside & going through one tomb with us in the Valley of the Kings, explaining in detail what everything is and letting us know what we are likely to find in the other tombs. He knows more about his stuff than any guide I've ever met. In the afternoon one of the group (all different except for myself) asks why the beard is broken off one statue in particular (which isn't one of the most significant ones), and our guide doesn't know but he tells us all the different ways the statues have been damaged. This was the only question he couldn't answer completely (& there were heaps), and he gave us the background info. Our first stop, after the monoliths in the plain by the road, is the Valley of the Kings, where I pay the extra (which Ahmed mentioned right at the beginning of working out my itinerary) to see King Tut's tomb (which has his inner sarcophagus and mummy in a room you can look into but not enter). In the first tomb (where our guide did do some talking) we found graffiti on the walls. Early Copts and later Romans, although some is as recent as the 17th century, with chisels rather than spray cans. The stores at the Valley of the Kings are higher priced than those at Hatshepsut’s temple, water costing 3 EP for a large (although I ended up paying more from a guy with a bucket full of ice and water bottles right up at the tombs). Our guide tells us the price we should be paying for water, white cotton scarves to keep the sun off our necks (10 EP and for once I actually bargained the guy down to the reasonable price, because I gave up and was walking away) (always walk away when negotiating at some point, every time I did I got the prices I was aiming for), & 10 EP for 3 sets of 12 postcards. I asked a guy 'How much?' and he said 10, so I handed over 10 EP, and he said $10 US, ALWAYS establish which currency you are bargaining in (& make sure pounds means Egyptian pounds, a common trick is to quote a price in pounds and once you're committed, say 'British pounds'), once he had my 10 EP note I had great difficulty getting it back and by the time I got 2 sets for 15 EP I had to run to catch up with the rest of the group. The batteries in my camera ran out and our guide suggested Hatshepsut's tomb would be a cheaper place to get them than here.
11) At Hatshepsut's tomb (Hatshepsut was the female pharaoh), water cost 2 EP but was kept in freezers so it was worth more (in my opinion) than that out of the fridge (it was still cool at the end of the bottle, which stuff from a fridge was not). At this point I need to say I would much rather pay higher prices for cold water than carry heaps of cheap water and drink it when it's 40 degrees. Paid 80 EP for the batteries (it's a lot, but it was too impressive a sight to miss capturing), and the shopkeeper tied my scarf on my head in Arab fashion. This place, Luxor temple and Karnak temple are the most impressive places I have seen so far, also something inside me goes 'Yay!' about women rising to positions traditionally only male. People have often commented that I look Egyptian, often coming up and talking to me in Arabic, particularly if I say 'salaam alekum,' and once I had the Egyptian cotton scarf tied on my head in Arabic style, the people who keep pointing to a picture and wanting 1 EP for doing so etc. stopped coming up and bothering me.
12) We then checked out Valley of the Queens, where there is one 11 year old male and a foetus entombed. One theory is that under 12 they were buried with their mothers, I forget what the other theory was. They theorise the mother miscarried with the grief of losing her 11 year old son, hence the foetus in the same tomb. The guide informed us at the start that the foetus was the prince when he was still a foetus. Egyptians do have a sense of humour, which you get to experience outside of Cairo, and I must admit it's a relief when someone makes a joke because there are so many people trying to get money out of you for everything & nothing, and to get more out of you if they think they can get any, you really have to have your wits about you all the time & almost the only time you can relax is in your hotel room, so a joke relieves a bit of the tension.
13) Things you can expect: getting a quote, handing over some money and finding out it's in $US, getting a quote in pounds, handing over some money or getting to the end of your ride and finding out it's in British pounds (I know I said this earlier, but British pounds are 7.25x Egyptian pounds, so it's worth repeating), having someone tell you something you've just seen written on a sign and expecting 1 EP, having someone show you something from a different angle which doesn't add anything and expecting 1 EP, handing over 10 EP, they don't have change so they keep your 10 EP (also in Cairo), working out a price, then finding out they mean 'each' for repairing your sandals, handing over 20 EP and having someone say point blank that you didn't give it to them, going to Banana island and getting charged 10 EP for two handfuls of bananas, having someone take you on a short walk and want 10 EP (he got 6.25 EP), agreeing to 14 and finding out the guy was saying '40' (happened in Cairo & was just difficulty in my understanding his accent - in this respect others may have an easier time as I have hearing problems). At all times, for everything & nothing, in every way, people will try to get money out of you.
14) After lunch I went the wrong way after leaving the restaurant and got a bit lost (Luxor's not all that big, though). A man came up to me and asked me what I was looking for, and walked me to my hotel. He said he was a horse drawn cab driver and would I like to go for a tour around town for 5 pounds per half hour. Alarm bells should have started ringing at this point because that's too low a price (and, of course, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is). He picked me up about 8.40pm and took me for what was an interesting tour, going through various markets & bazaars, past the free animal hospital, and finally came to a 'papyrus' factory. I realised at this point it was a scam, and kept thinking I had heard of this somewhere, then I realised it was the same as the BKK tuk-tuk drivers who take you on a really cheap 'tour' and drop you at all these gem shops that try to rip you off. I figured I'd go in and look around so he could get his commission as I was getting the tour so cheaply, but this isn't BKK. Eventually I bought a 'papyrus' (probably banana paper, although the place did have a ministry of tourism seal, so possibly not) with my name in hieroglyphics in an oval shape with a line underneath (a cartouche, like the names of the kings) next to an ankh. Although the place had the ministry of tourism seal, he offered me 50% off as soon as I walked in the door (memories of paying over $13 AUD for a picture of an elephant in BKK), and there were no seals of authenticity on the 'papyrus'. I had decided it was worth 10 EP to me to have my name in fancy letters. He asked me what I wanted to do next and I mentioned I had been looking at small alabaster vases, throwing in that it was marvellous how you could hold alabaster up to a light and see it shining through. Now I was being really foolish. I ended up getting hassled into buying a small vase for 60 EP (he started at 350 EP & I definitely wasn't interested) which I could have bought for 20 EP earlier (25 EP price tag, even I could bargain to 20 EP). On that occasion (a shop we had stopped at with our guide), I had said that I couldn't carry it and the assistant said he would carry it for me (I just had to buy his ticket). One restaurant I went to, the Amoun Restaurant in Temple of Karnak St., behind (or beside) Luxor temple, the restaurant that they had given me lunch at earlier this day, after giving me a great lunch with the best ice cream I have ever tasted (probably biased by the absence of it and dairy products in general, but it really was exceptional, better than Baskin Robbins'), the waiter said '300 pounds,' smiled and laughed and got me the bill for 22 EP (I had been drinking water & a tropical cocktail as well). I left them 40 EP. Anyway, back to Thursday night and we get back to my hotel to be informed 5 British pounds per half hour for one hour equals 80 EP. I was so upset I just left the vase & the papyrus, and said 'keep them' after saying he didn't use British pounds & I had never even seen one. He relented and said he'd take 10 EP, the fact of a police officer walking towards us perhaps in my favour, but I didn't have a 10 EP note so he got 20 EP.
Blessings,
Joe Krishna Mithiran
2) Getting to the museum.
3) Of postcards, water & the Hilton Mall.
4) The Egyptian Museum (Mary, they need your help!)
5) Internet cafes in Cairo.
6) Cairo driving.
7) Getting my train ticket.
8) Arriving in Luxor.
9) Our tour group, van & guide.
10) Valley of the Kings.
11) Hatshepsut's Temple.
12) Valley of the Queens.
13) Luxor - 'hassle capital of Egypt.' Common scams.
14) A night not to remember.
1) When I said 'they' checked my passport holder, I meant airport security. Metal detectors are outside all plush malls & arcades, museums, temples, anywhere where tourists go. On the more important ones it's even tighter, eg. at the Egyptian Museum you go through 2 checkpoints with metal detectors and X-ray machines. In Luxor the police drive armoured 4-WD cars with armoured machine gun turrets. As I mentioned, there are police with automatic rifles everywhere. This is not the place to pull a bank heist!
2) Woke up Tuesday morning & had breakfast, which included milk (made up from powder & boiled water) with my coffee, which was the only time I saw milk (powdered or otherwise) while in Egypt. Asked which direction the Egyptian Museum was (I knew approximately where we were in Cairo, but wanted to check which side of the Nile we were on) & the manager told me the cab fare should be 4 or 5 EP and wrote where I wanted to go on a piece of paper for me to give to the cab driver. I think it worked out about 50/50 who could understand enough English to know where I wanted to go, or who couldn't. That piece of paper became extremely useful as the museum was where busses to the pyramids left from and was right next to 'Downtown' (where I had been trying to get to on that first horrible night), where all the internet cafes and ATMs are. No cab driver accepted less than 5 EP, and none of them ever used their meters anywhere in Egypt (maybe they're all set to some outdated price or something).
3) Checked out the gift shop and cafe and found water was 3 EP (1.5L), hallway decent postcards were 1.5 EP and daggy ones were 1 EP. This was the same price for cards as inside, but you can't buy water inside, so you're best option is to get it from the cafe on the corner of the Hilton mall opposite the museum for 2 EP (1.5L), the mall also having an American Express office and an ATM that accepts Visa & Cirrus/ Maestro, but not Plus (which is my card, not easy to use in Egypt). A general note about postcards: I figured I couldn't get as good a shot of scenery or displays as you get in postcards, so I would buy lots and send them to people & keep the camera for shots with me or my family & friends in them. In Malaysia & Thailand this is true, but the quality of postcards here in Egypt is pretty low & I can take better shots, assuming I've paid to take my camera in, which you have to do almost everywhere, except where photography is completely forbidden; and, of course, no using a flash.
4) Mary (in the chapter title) is a museum curator who's helping people of another country preserve their heritage. The museum reminds me of a Gould’s store (a huge 2nd hand bookshop), where anything you're interested in is probably in there somewhere, but finding it can be very difficult. I opted for a cursory examination of everything, reading the descriptions of a few objects but finding a few of the ones I was interested in didn't have descriptions (although later descriptions on similar objects sometimes helped). At the Luxor museum, they had help arranging stuff from the Boston museum, and it's much easier to take in everything (although some rooms in the Egyptian Museum have more stuff than the whole of the Luxor one). There were a couple of tourists having a rest on the feet of a 4500 year old statue near the entrance, around the corner from the signs everywhere saying 'do not touch or lean against the antiquities,' 'do not touch or lean against the cases,' 'do not use a flash.' Fortunately they keep their old stuff in sealed cases (eg. tools from 700 000 BC, mummified dinosaur fish), protecting it from people encouraging their children to climb on the statues so they could take flash photographs. Took me about 2 hours to see everything (as in, let it pass before my eyes in a dazed state). I think the best way to see this place is in a small group with an Egyptologist as a guide & give it a half day.
5) Found an internet cafe at 'downtown' and chatted with Suren (alias Kevin) & Melba in instant messenger. Most internet cafes I have used have Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger & ICQ, although Nick is the only one else who uses ICQ so I stopped using it, so if you have one of the former you might catch me online. So far it's been Suren, Melba, Navin, Sri & I saw Hui Ying online but she was gone too quickly (same with Suman but that probably means someone else was logged on from his computer at work). On Sat. morning in Luxor I saw every one of you, except Suman, online in 1 morning. Back to Cairo. The one I was using was Onyx at 5 EP per hour (very slow though & their building has power outs periodically), 26 Mahmoud Bassiouni St. Downtown (their price is down from that in the Lonely Planet guide, which is how I knew where to go). Told Melba I didn't have any inclination ever to come back to Egypt, but that was just a combination of culture shock, fatigue, & the hassle of trying to organise everything myself. Perhaps a better net cafe than Onyx was InterClub, 12 Talaat Harb St. Downtown, 6 EP per hour but fast & modern. Talaat Harb St. is a laneway running off Qasr el-Nil St. (in which there is an ATM), the next st. north of Mahmoud Bassiouni. There was also another 6 EP per hour place round the corner from the Midan Talaat Harb (the square at the centre of Downtown, in which thee is an ATM, accepting all except Plus) end of Bassiouni, turning left as you walked out of it, but I didn't get a chance to check it out. This is the bottom end, prices go up to 12 EP per hour (eg. for the one in the Hilton Plaza).
6) In the cab on the way home, while stopped in traffic, the driver pulled his dashboard out, fixed something in the speedo, then put it back together again. I think I've seen about 4 traffic lights since I've been in Egypt, and those that were working were being completely ignored. The drivers here do short beeps on their horns all the time to let the car 3cm to their left (driving is on the right hand side of the road here) know that you're there or whatever. I think they must be pretty good drivers, imagine intersections with 5 or more major roads leading in with no traffic lights and constant heavy traffic with rarely anyone touching. I saw cars stopped after a small bump once. I wouldn't want to be in an ambulance, though. I've seen ambulances completely surrounded on every side (as everybody else is, like the hub of a spoked wheel more than like a box with only 4 sides) & unable to move on several occasions.
7) Got up Wednesday morning with the intention of getting my laundry, checking out, going to the Egyptian Railways station at Ramses square, checking in my bags & getting a return ticket on the overnight sleeper to Luxor, then visiting the pyramis in the afternoon before coming back, getting my luggage and getting on the train. At breakfast the staff had to ring the hotel lobby to get them to tell me there's no milk. In the hotel lobby they don't know what 'Egyptian Museum' is (people often don't know the English names we have given to their sites) (the manager and his assistant are not on duty today). The taxi driver couldn't understand where I wanted to go and pointed out various people who might speak English to help us out, one of whom informed me that the bus standing in front of me went there, so I got on. This was a big A/C’ed bus for 2 EP with big comfortable seats, unfortunately this means less room between them. The A/C’ed busses have the advantage that the driver speaks English (or, at least, in my 2 encounters they did). It would have been easier getting on and off the el-cheapo busses with the amount of luggage I was carrying. When I got to the train station I found they only took cash, which I didn't have enough of on me (I assumed a 660 EP ticket at the main Egyptian train station could be bought with Visa). At the cloakroom there was a packed room full of people waiting to check in their luggage, with the guy taking 10 mins. per person. I left with my luggage & proceeded to lug it around for 2 hours looking for an ATM that accepted Plus or even Visa, then a bank that would change traveller’s cheques. Went back and checked in my bags, there were only 4 people in front of me this time so it only took 40 mins. (8 mins. to put a person's bags in a locker, 2 mins. to light up a cigarette and get to the next person). Watching someone collect & staple a couple of forms and put them in a draw is like watching someone in Asia or Sydney in slow motion, but the shopkeepers at Crescent Head would be right at home (except, of course, that in every other way they'd be totally out of their element). Government wages here are about 300-400 EP per month. A meal in a REALLY cheap restaurant costs about 10 EP. Caught a cab back to downtown, went to all the ATMs I could find, then went to Thomas Cook (Mahmoud Bassiouni St.) and got some travellers cheques changed into Egyptian pounds. Caught a cab back to the train station & bought my ticket. Caught a cab back to downtown, by now it was 4pm or later & too late to visit the pyramids, got on the internet for a while, had dinner at a cheap restaurant that worked out at 40 EP for something that listed on the menu as 22 EP (with a small bottle of water & some dry Lebanese [or rather Egyptian] bread, +10% charge, +5% sales tax - standard surcharges in restaurants) and caught a cab back to Ramses in time to catch my train with a couple of minutes to spare.
8) Dinner and breakfast were included in the price (which I didn't realise), but there was no shower. I washed myself in the sink in my room just before the man from next door, who was travelling with his wife & son, came in to share my cabin for the night (they're like sleepers on the XPT except without the bathroom cubicle, 3 persons seated or 2 persons sleeping). Then he changed his mind and slept with his son. The meal was not bad as far as travel food goes. It's one of the first meals I haven't been unable to finish in a long time (but I had just eaten). They dispense powdered soap in the lavatory. 5.30am and we arrive in Luxor. A man, Ahmed Fathi, greets me at the station and asks me if I want to stay in such & such a hotel with a swimming pool. I am highly suspicious and tell him I can't afford it. He asks me for a budget & suggests somewhere else. I check the price in my Lonely Planet Guide to find this hotel, the Saint Mina Hotel, Cleopatra St. Luxor ph. (095) 375 409, about 2 minutes walk from the train station, is suggested as a great hotel. There price lists 20 EP for a single without a bathroom, I am paying 25 which I figure is a fair mark up for someone who showed me where the hotel was, walked with me and helped me carry my luggage, lets me check in at 6am and only pay for the Thursday night, then later walked with me to the nearest ATM that would accept my card (but now I get a message saying my National account can't be accessed and please contact my bank, so I have to use Visa) (and at this point I'm still only considering options). After talking with him for a while, he proposes a plan of sight seeing during the day, followed by a cruise to Aswan on Saturday. He seems to be proposing good stuff at a reasonable price, calculating in $US he tells me the exchange rate is 4.65, which I later find out is the exchange rate for buying $US, which is a relief because at point someone said it was 4.58, and although I didn't really expect him to quote the exchange rate exactly I was a little disappointed at the thought of being gypped 70 EP (which didn't happen). He quotes $55 US for guided tours of the Kings Valley, Queen's valley & Hatshepsut's temple in the morning, and the temple complex of Karnak & Luxor temple in the evening (256 EP, he makes it 250, I calculated the included entry fees were over 100 EP of that); and $200 US for a 3 day, 2 night cruise on a 5 star cruise ship, saying that you can't really sail in a felucca from Aswan to Luxor at the moment as there is no wind. After we get the money, he takes me for a drink at a cafe where we chat & he smokes a hookah (he pays for my drink). This guy turns my whole Egyptian experience around. The thing is, what he offers is not cheap (although the hotel is), but it's of such exceptionally good value that by blowing my budget somewhat. I had thought I would spend about $1500 AUD in Egypt, then I thought it might work out less when I found out the exchange rate for $1 AUD=2.5 EP rather than the 1.5 EP I had calculated in Dubai by comparing their exchange rate for $AUD & EP at their airport (neither of which would have been as good as you can get), now it comes to over $2000 but I really am having the experience of a lifetime.
9) I get picked up in a van (15 seater) with A/C’ing but they don't turn it on until it gets hot. There is our guide & a driver up front, and someone else (2nd driver?) and 11 of us tourists in the back. During the middle of the day you don't want to be sitting at the back of the van, the A/C’ing isn't designed for a full load during 45 degree in the shade temperatures. Evidently they sometimes quote it as being cooler than it is, though, because the Egyptians can go home from work if it hits 50 degrees. I have to say that even in the back it was bearable, even though at Hatshepsut's we got out & there was a slight breeze so it was cooler outside than in. I start off sitting next to a French couple with whom I exchange a few sentences in French (and have complete conversations in English) & they say my French is pretty good. I also chat with a Canadian couple, a German father & daughter, 2 women from Spain, & 2 women from Korea during the course of the morning.
10) Our guide is very impressive, doing most of the talking outside & going through one tomb with us in the Valley of the Kings, explaining in detail what everything is and letting us know what we are likely to find in the other tombs. He knows more about his stuff than any guide I've ever met. In the afternoon one of the group (all different except for myself) asks why the beard is broken off one statue in particular (which isn't one of the most significant ones), and our guide doesn't know but he tells us all the different ways the statues have been damaged. This was the only question he couldn't answer completely (& there were heaps), and he gave us the background info. Our first stop, after the monoliths in the plain by the road, is the Valley of the Kings, where I pay the extra (which Ahmed mentioned right at the beginning of working out my itinerary) to see King Tut's tomb (which has his inner sarcophagus and mummy in a room you can look into but not enter). In the first tomb (where our guide did do some talking) we found graffiti on the walls. Early Copts and later Romans, although some is as recent as the 17th century, with chisels rather than spray cans. The stores at the Valley of the Kings are higher priced than those at Hatshepsut’s temple, water costing 3 EP for a large (although I ended up paying more from a guy with a bucket full of ice and water bottles right up at the tombs). Our guide tells us the price we should be paying for water, white cotton scarves to keep the sun off our necks (10 EP and for once I actually bargained the guy down to the reasonable price, because I gave up and was walking away) (always walk away when negotiating at some point, every time I did I got the prices I was aiming for), & 10 EP for 3 sets of 12 postcards. I asked a guy 'How much?' and he said 10, so I handed over 10 EP, and he said $10 US, ALWAYS establish which currency you are bargaining in (& make sure pounds means Egyptian pounds, a common trick is to quote a price in pounds and once you're committed, say 'British pounds'), once he had my 10 EP note I had great difficulty getting it back and by the time I got 2 sets for 15 EP I had to run to catch up with the rest of the group. The batteries in my camera ran out and our guide suggested Hatshepsut's tomb would be a cheaper place to get them than here.
11) At Hatshepsut's tomb (Hatshepsut was the female pharaoh), water cost 2 EP but was kept in freezers so it was worth more (in my opinion) than that out of the fridge (it was still cool at the end of the bottle, which stuff from a fridge was not). At this point I need to say I would much rather pay higher prices for cold water than carry heaps of cheap water and drink it when it's 40 degrees. Paid 80 EP for the batteries (it's a lot, but it was too impressive a sight to miss capturing), and the shopkeeper tied my scarf on my head in Arab fashion. This place, Luxor temple and Karnak temple are the most impressive places I have seen so far, also something inside me goes 'Yay!' about women rising to positions traditionally only male. People have often commented that I look Egyptian, often coming up and talking to me in Arabic, particularly if I say 'salaam alekum,' and once I had the Egyptian cotton scarf tied on my head in Arabic style, the people who keep pointing to a picture and wanting 1 EP for doing so etc. stopped coming up and bothering me.
12) We then checked out Valley of the Queens, where there is one 11 year old male and a foetus entombed. One theory is that under 12 they were buried with their mothers, I forget what the other theory was. They theorise the mother miscarried with the grief of losing her 11 year old son, hence the foetus in the same tomb. The guide informed us at the start that the foetus was the prince when he was still a foetus. Egyptians do have a sense of humour, which you get to experience outside of Cairo, and I must admit it's a relief when someone makes a joke because there are so many people trying to get money out of you for everything & nothing, and to get more out of you if they think they can get any, you really have to have your wits about you all the time & almost the only time you can relax is in your hotel room, so a joke relieves a bit of the tension.
13) Things you can expect: getting a quote, handing over some money and finding out it's in $US, getting a quote in pounds, handing over some money or getting to the end of your ride and finding out it's in British pounds (I know I said this earlier, but British pounds are 7.25x Egyptian pounds, so it's worth repeating), having someone tell you something you've just seen written on a sign and expecting 1 EP, having someone show you something from a different angle which doesn't add anything and expecting 1 EP, handing over 10 EP, they don't have change so they keep your 10 EP (also in Cairo), working out a price, then finding out they mean 'each' for repairing your sandals, handing over 20 EP and having someone say point blank that you didn't give it to them, going to Banana island and getting charged 10 EP for two handfuls of bananas, having someone take you on a short walk and want 10 EP (he got 6.25 EP), agreeing to 14 and finding out the guy was saying '40' (happened in Cairo & was just difficulty in my understanding his accent - in this respect others may have an easier time as I have hearing problems). At all times, for everything & nothing, in every way, people will try to get money out of you.
14) After lunch I went the wrong way after leaving the restaurant and got a bit lost (Luxor's not all that big, though). A man came up to me and asked me what I was looking for, and walked me to my hotel. He said he was a horse drawn cab driver and would I like to go for a tour around town for 5 pounds per half hour. Alarm bells should have started ringing at this point because that's too low a price (and, of course, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is). He picked me up about 8.40pm and took me for what was an interesting tour, going through various markets & bazaars, past the free animal hospital, and finally came to a 'papyrus' factory. I realised at this point it was a scam, and kept thinking I had heard of this somewhere, then I realised it was the same as the BKK tuk-tuk drivers who take you on a really cheap 'tour' and drop you at all these gem shops that try to rip you off. I figured I'd go in and look around so he could get his commission as I was getting the tour so cheaply, but this isn't BKK. Eventually I bought a 'papyrus' (probably banana paper, although the place did have a ministry of tourism seal, so possibly not) with my name in hieroglyphics in an oval shape with a line underneath (a cartouche, like the names of the kings) next to an ankh. Although the place had the ministry of tourism seal, he offered me 50% off as soon as I walked in the door (memories of paying over $13 AUD for a picture of an elephant in BKK), and there were no seals of authenticity on the 'papyrus'. I had decided it was worth 10 EP to me to have my name in fancy letters. He asked me what I wanted to do next and I mentioned I had been looking at small alabaster vases, throwing in that it was marvellous how you could hold alabaster up to a light and see it shining through. Now I was being really foolish. I ended up getting hassled into buying a small vase for 60 EP (he started at 350 EP & I definitely wasn't interested) which I could have bought for 20 EP earlier (25 EP price tag, even I could bargain to 20 EP). On that occasion (a shop we had stopped at with our guide), I had said that I couldn't carry it and the assistant said he would carry it for me (I just had to buy his ticket). One restaurant I went to, the Amoun Restaurant in Temple of Karnak St., behind (or beside) Luxor temple, the restaurant that they had given me lunch at earlier this day, after giving me a great lunch with the best ice cream I have ever tasted (probably biased by the absence of it and dairy products in general, but it really was exceptional, better than Baskin Robbins'), the waiter said '300 pounds,' smiled and laughed and got me the bill for 22 EP (I had been drinking water & a tropical cocktail as well). I left them 40 EP. Anyway, back to Thursday night and we get back to my hotel to be informed 5 British pounds per half hour for one hour equals 80 EP. I was so upset I just left the vase & the papyrus, and said 'keep them' after saying he didn't use British pounds & I had never even seen one. He relented and said he'd take 10 EP, the fact of a police officer walking towards us perhaps in my favour, but I didn't have a 10 EP note so he got 20 EP.
Blessings,
Joe Krishna Mithiran
posted by Joe at
Thursday, August 01, 2002
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