I've lost count

Seedy characters? You got it.  To list out all the times we've been scammed and lied to and cajoled and pestered would be a long (not to mention boring) list of accounts.  But here are some highlights.

• Swindled out of time and money for a felucca ride from Aswan to Kom Ombo by a little chicken-cock of a 'tour agent'.  This little man carried an empty briefcase with him everywhere, to the enjoyment of the felucca captains as they endlessly imitated his jaunt.  What was supposed to be a trip starting at 9 am ended with us (and two other couples) shouting at the little man (when he showed up with two other people) by 2 pm, because he was trying to hustle more people to get on the boat before allowing the captain to depart. We left and went with another boat, but our time (and the deposit) had been wasted.
• The tourist police lout and tout.
• Apparently the train ticket agents here don't need to check their computers before telling us that the trains were full for 'only tourists' four days out.  We asked again two minutes later to find the answer had changed to 'five days out'.  That's when we got fed up with him shouting at us, that and the crowd behind us threatend to swarm over us towards the booth that we went and got an airplane ticket back to Cairo instead. Fuckers.
• If I hear another "Hey Japan!" shouted at me I'm going to knock someone out.  It's ok when a couple of people do it, but when kids on the streets start yelling "Hey Japan! Korea?" at me, and keep on shouting it at me when I say, "No, Vietnam" or "No, America" I'm really going to go crazy.  Not to mention that it's just a ploy for my attention, whereupon they'll accost me to buy junk like cracked alabaster jars and painted paper stand-ins for papyruses.  Imagine, each time that we walked outside, for every two minutes or so, there would be a "Hey Japan! Hey! Konichiwa!" You'd go postal.
• Getting off the bus or train in any city is an ordeal.  In Luxor, the bus driver rezendevous with a local tout before the bus stop, dropping us near the tout hotel but far away from the city center.  Four more touts swarmed as we got off, jabbing laminated pictures of their 'great cheap place, just look in your Lonely Planet!' in our faces.  One lied and said our reserved hotel was full.  Another lied and said our preferred hostel was full. Patience wears thin when you have heavy backpacks, trudging through shit strewn dirt streets, and having to keep a poker face on or keep saying no to the bastards who want to steer you to a roach infested hole.

More more more: switcheroos at hotels, overpriced restaurants, kids who grab and throw things at ya, locals who argue with you about your own country, bakeesh requests everywhere, unwanted guides, sullen men who stare at women, you have to bargain for a Coke...

Not sure how comparable it is, but being that you guys were vietnamese in vietnam (ok, some thought korean as well, but at least you KINDA blended in)I feel like you may have missed some of this fun in vietnam and are now paying double in egypt. Seriously though, Vietnam was rough in that sense. Could Egypt be worse or do you guys perceive it that way because you don't blend in?

Posted by: vinny | October 31, 2006 at 12:30 PM

Actually,

One of the main benefits about knowing the local language as a traveller, and in the case of Vietnam, is that I knew exactly how crooked the local tough guys and touts are. And while Vietnam may be rough, compared to the jaded Egyptians (after centuries of tourism), they are pansies.

Posted by: j.fisher | November 01, 2006 at 11:47 AM