Another day in
paradise! The sun has just set on the other side of
the mountain. Here I am again, facing the blue Rea Sea,
watching the Saudi mountain range turning into different colors,
listening to seabirds sing, what a wonderful moment!
It is my last day
in Egypt. After two weeks in this country, I am ready
to move on. Indeed, Egypt has so much culture and history.
They pyramid, the nile, the ancient temples, they are the reason
I am here. For so many nights I dream about these places,
now I don't have to dream anymore, they became another chapter
in my Travelogue. Tomorrow I will be taking the ferry
to Aquba, Jordan. There, I will travel to Wadi Rum, Petra,
Amman, and then onto Israel.
There are so many
good memories while traveling in Egypt, I have shared quite
a few of them along the diary. But yet, it is only fair to
look at the other side of the coin.
Travel alone in
Egypt can be done, but it is not easy. First thing to
deal with are those awful hawkers, vendors, "friends" on the
street. They are everywhere and ruthless. They
all happen to know someone who either owns a shop or a horse
stable, and seems like they don't understand the word "NO".
I found the best way to ignore them is to listen to your walkman
while walking down the street. They WILL come up and
talk to you, but once they see you have a headphone on, they
will turn away eventually.
Then, you have
to bargain with pretty much everything you want to buy.
The simplest of purchases can drain a lot of you energy.
And you must go through this ridiculous haggling every time
you want to buy something.
And of course,
how can we ignore the Baksheesh. No matter where you
go, you will find numerious moments with men who want to "show"
you some "perfect spots" to take a picture, or some "secret
sites" that only they can get in for a little baksheesh.
But the good thing is, you can buy yourself out of trouble
if you ran into any. Read "Valley
of the King" to see how I got my unique experience.
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