egypt, the wrap up

our comments and observations of egypt:

• egyptians are kind, helpful, smiling, and happy people.
• egyptians are welcoming. a most common greeting is "welcome to egypt!"
• the pyramids and ancient sights of egypt are definitely some of the best we've seen on the trip. they are astounding sights that we will not soon forget.
• a huge percentage of tourists in egypt are on package tours. as independent travelers we were definitely a part of the minority.
• egyptian men are rather forward and a bit too flirtatious for my taste. even though i dressed conservatively and was accompanied by two men (one being my husband), i still received an inappropriate amount of unwanted male attention. i can only imagine the amount of headache female travelers must deal with when traveling to egypt on their own…
• i'm over the leering…
• hassles, hustles, and scams…they say egypt is full of them. we actually weren't hassled nearly as much as we expected. the worst we dealt with were obnoxious souvenir touts with their "do you know how much?" - which was actually kind of amusing at times. thankfully, we traveled the country without being hustled or scammed…of course, we didn't start traveling yesterday.
• we quickly realized that many numbers are displayed primarily in arabic and not in roman numerals. needless to say, we gave ourselves a crash course on reading arabic numbers so we could simply ride the bus or decipher signs.
• the mcarabia: lamb patties with tomatoes, cucumbers, and tahini sauce on a pita bread - another unique mcdonalds menu item.
• the food in egypt is delicious! i was thrilled to finally have so many raw fruits and vegetables readily available. prior to egypt, i was craving salad in a mean way.
• egyptians smoke as if they are exempt from lung cancer. shisha and tea seems to be a part of daily (or all day) culture. shisha = water pipe with flavored tobacco such as apple, mango, peach, lemon, or honey - actually quite nice and relaxing on occasion.
• we love the call to prayer! to us it sounds magical and beautiful.
• many egyptian buildings lack a proper roof. it appears that additional floors are a plan for the future - perhaps for new wives?
• with egyptian wages being very low, many workers depend on the baksheesh (tip) as a vital component of their income. unfortunately, it often seemed that people wanted a baksheesh for doing…nothing. rather annoying at times.
• with a lack of fixed pricing, signage, and price lists, egypt is another country that tends to "tax" foreign tourists almost constantly. a pound here, a pound there, its easy to feel that your constantly being overcharged. we learned to accept it and deal with it without letting it ruin our day. steep admission fees are the biggest expense for travelers to egypt - and even with the foreign "tax", it still remains affordable to the western traveler.

what things cost in egypt:

• a triple ensuite a/c room at the tutotel hotel in luxor $31.00
• the 9 hr. overnight tourist train from cairo to luxor $60.00
• a short ride on the cairo metro $0.20
• a 9hr. hour bus from cairo to dahab $17.00
• a city bus to the giza pyramids $0.40
• admission to the giza plateau $10.00
• photos with a camel in giza $4.00
• admission to the egyptian museum $10.00
• additional museum fee to see the royal mummies $14.00
• admission to luxor temple $8.00
• a hired cab for the day in luxor $30.00
• mt. sinai excursion $20.00
• mint tea at a local café $0.60
• shisha with apple tobacco $1.00
• turkish coffee $0.80
• a large bottled water $0.40
• a bottle of stella beer $2.25
• 12 oz diet coke $0.50
• large shwarma sandwich $1.75
• hummus dip $0.40
• felafel sandwich $0.30
• fuul in pita $0.20
• stuffed grape leaves $2.50
• a large salad with feta cheese $2.25
• half-chicken dinner with salad and rice $5.00
• a large selection of mezze for 3 people $12.00
• a nice seafood dinner for 3 in Alexandria $40.00
• a cotton scarf $2.00
• shell earrings $2.00
• the egypt mask $7.00
• postcard $0.20
• postage to the usa $0.55

what's next?

tomorrow we'll take a one hour bus to the port town of nuweiba, then a one hour ferry across the red sea to aqaba, jordan. we'll see you in the middle east!

onward!

alina