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It wasn't meant to be ...
Jan. 2nd, 2006 12:08 pmWe just returned early from our vacation trip to Egypt. Why? Because it sucked big time.
I could have tolerated the bad hotel. I could have tolerated sleeping in a room at 16 degrees C (60 degrees F) at night because there was no heating in the hotel room. I could have tolerated the bad food, which was totally inadequate for a hotel listed as four stars in the catalog. But it didn't exactly come down on the side of staying.
The problem, in a nutshell, was: I found I absolutely hated the attitude of the people there.
At first I thought it was just slightly annoying.
We arrived at the airport, got through the passport check, and the first thing that happened was someone pushed a luggage cart in my way, literally blocking me from walking further, repeating, "Hello, cart", until I finally accepted it although I really didn't need one. Only after I had put my (very small) bag of hand luggage in, he'd pester me "Hello, 1 Euro", and would not take the cart back. It's not so much that you cannot walk 10 meters in this country without someone blocking your way, actively trying to push you into their shop, going "Hello my friend I know exactly what you are looking for", which couldn't be further from the truth, it's like spam come alive in thousands. By the way, the next day I talked to a nice old lady from Germany, and she told me that for her the cart had been 4 Euros. She looked like she had more money...
Having arrived in the hotel we were handed a welcome cocktail on the beach without having asked for one. All our attempts to refuse it were steadfastly ignored. Yup, you guessed it, 10 minutes later, after I had walked back to our hotel room, my kittycat was pestered to pay for them.
But the next day we tried to visit some attractions in Hurghada. We took several taxis, in fact we did that six times during our stay. And every time, they tried to shaft us. Now, I knew you were supposed to agree on the price before going, that's not the point. But I learned there is an interesting number of ways that such a simple business agreement can be purposefully misunderstood:
And so on and so on.
It seems that 100 percent of Hurghada cab drivers will try to defraud you. As will folks trying to sell you stamps worth 150 piasters for 6 pounds, etc. etc.
Add to this the repeated trick of doing something for you like lifting your luggage on a luggage belt, not that we would have needed that help, and expecting (and loudly demanding) ridiculous tips in the dollar range for the unwanted help.
By the third day we were so bothered by all this, that we decided to just fly home. We aren't going back to Egypt, no, thank you. People there seem to think that tourists are just easy victims of all kinds of very unhospitable behaviour.
I could have tolerated the bad hotel. I could have tolerated sleeping in a room at 16 degrees C (60 degrees F) at night because there was no heating in the hotel room. I could have tolerated the bad food, which was totally inadequate for a hotel listed as four stars in the catalog. But it didn't exactly come down on the side of staying.
The problem, in a nutshell, was: I found I absolutely hated the attitude of the people there.
At first I thought it was just slightly annoying.
We arrived at the airport, got through the passport check, and the first thing that happened was someone pushed a luggage cart in my way, literally blocking me from walking further, repeating, "Hello, cart", until I finally accepted it although I really didn't need one. Only after I had put my (very small) bag of hand luggage in, he'd pester me "Hello, 1 Euro", and would not take the cart back. It's not so much that you cannot walk 10 meters in this country without someone blocking your way, actively trying to push you into their shop, going "Hello my friend I know exactly what you are looking for", which couldn't be further from the truth, it's like spam come alive in thousands. By the way, the next day I talked to a nice old lady from Germany, and she told me that for her the cart had been 4 Euros. She looked like she had more money...
Having arrived in the hotel we were handed a welcome cocktail on the beach without having asked for one. All our attempts to refuse it were steadfastly ignored. Yup, you guessed it, 10 minutes later, after I had walked back to our hotel room, my kittycat was pestered to pay for them.
But the next day we tried to visit some attractions in Hurghada. We took several taxis, in fact we did that six times during our stay. And every time, they tried to shaft us. Now, I knew you were supposed to agree on the price before going, that's not the point. But I learned there is an interesting number of ways that such a simple business agreement can be purposefully misunderstood:
- We agreed on 10 Egyptian Pounds for the trip. Later it was "no no, dollar".
- Although clearly specified that the fare was to be for both of us together, and agreed to in proper English, it was suddenly "no no, per person", and then no more English was understood.
- Twice, we agreed on 50 Egyptian Pounds, making VERY SURE we said it was not per person, it was not dollars, it was not Euros. Twice, upon handing the 50 pound bill over, the driver would quickly exchange it for 50 piasters (0.5 pounds) and say "oh, but this is 50 piasters". The first time we weren't sure, the second time we had double checked, and suddenly it was "Oh, no, this was for you, return money". Yeah, right!
- While driving to the hard rock cafe, the co-driver suddenly thrust a stack of small bills at us, asking us to change it for a bigger bill. In the ensuing confusion, some 20 pounds or so vanished.
And so on and so on.
It seems that 100 percent of Hurghada cab drivers will try to defraud you. As will folks trying to sell you stamps worth 150 piasters for 6 pounds, etc. etc.
Add to this the repeated trick of doing something for you like lifting your luggage on a luggage belt, not that we would have needed that help, and expecting (and loudly demanding) ridiculous tips in the dollar range for the unwanted help.
By the third day we were so bothered by all this, that we decided to just fly home. We aren't going back to Egypt, no, thank you. People there seem to think that tourists are just easy victims of all kinds of very unhospitable behaviour.
