The Ugly

Most backpackers would agree, some of the most memorable moments of travelling involve interacting with locals, regardless of whether there is a language barrier or not. It provides a unique window into the culture, whether you’re invited into someone’s home or simply sharing an opinion. Unfortunately, it seemed (almost!) all interactions with locals had only one agenda – hidden or otherwise – to extract money from you. It seemed everyone wants a tip whether a service was involved or not.

I suppose we have to accept due to the short time we spent in Egypt that we spent the entire time in tourist hot spots, and we’ve heard stories of the bazaars on every corner and the camel rides around the pyramids, and we’ve got no issue tipping where a service was provided but this takes it to the next level:

• Airport taxis. Ugh. Paying double the normal rate, then “Tip?”
• Going up the elevator at the airport while killing time and finding the only stairs down behind a security gate and one guard that just straight up asked for $10
• Anyone asking to check your ticket, that then turned into a guide by giving you information you never asked for (while holding onto your ticket!). “Tip?”
• Folks sidling up to you at a temple and starting to talk to you with a couple of facts or trying to lead you somewhere you were going anyway. “Tip?”
• The shuttle driver at Valley of the Kings inviting us to sit up front for a 30 second ride, showing us a picture of his son. “Tip?”
• Looking at anyone for too long in/around a temple.

Then there are those glorious exceptions, those that we could finally let our guard down with. Huge shout out to Dahab Rooftop Hostel in Cairo, and the tours that we booked through them (and the people we met as a result).

Amar though, what a guy. He was learning to become a guide and shadowing one of his best friends (our guide for Valley of The Kings), filming the talks as he went round for later study and also just generally helping out and being an all round great guy.

Then, when the tour finished, we smoked a Hookah together and after he invited us into his family home, a real honour. We met his mother and Auntie, and even though they spoke very little English, Amar was able to translate.

They said they were honoured to have us in their home, and would not stop providing us with treats, and showering Amy with compliments until she turned red.

There could be a love story in the making, Amar has been in love with his neighbour for 10 years but in Egypt, he says, it’s not as simple as asking a girl on a date and seeing where it goes. She works in the local pharmacy and he often goes to buy unnecessary vitamins just to speak with her. Our western advice had no power here, but we made Amar promise he would invite us to the wedding if they finally got together.

To bring us back to the original point, we tried to tip Amar after his hospitality (and for all the treats) and he refused. With a tear in both our eyes, we hugged, and said goodbye before heading back to Cairo.

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The Good (great, in fact)

Amy has posted in detail about the itinerary and has posted some of the better pictures, but as I’m sure everyone can appreciate, you really need to be there to absorb the gravity of where you are and it’s history.

The temples are full of narcissism – people caring more about getting the perfect picture than anything else, but the magic of ancient Egypt lies in knowing a little about the history and most importantly the stories that are being told (stories that are plastered on every wall of every temple).

The 8 year old me have been proud, having a fascination with Ancient Egypt (and dinosaurs) I had remembered the outline of story of the ‘Final Judgement’ where Kings would be judged by the weight of their heart (which has a record of all deeds in life) against the weight of a feather of the goddess Ma’at. If they scales were level they were welcomed into the afterlife. If not their heart was fed to the crocodile ‘Ammut’. Truth be told all I really remembered was the heart on the scales, but it was great to add some meat to the bones of the story.

We were fortune to have great guides on almost all our temple visits (an absolute MUST if visiting!). Most of these guys have studied for 3-4 years in Egyptology and can answer any question you can throw at them. You could spend a week at every temple and still not have heard all the stories. All we could do is cling onto as many tidbits as possible and as the week when on the things started to solidify and fall into place.

Every little piece of knowledge gained enhanced the experience exponentially and the hunger to learn more like a perpetuating cycle of fascination.

At the risk of making this post far too long I’ll spare too many details as there is almost 3000 years of history, but the walls of the temples are accompanied by changing of ages, walls plastered over with intricate Roman era paintings, Roman graffiti (up high where the level of ground used to be), Christian invaders poorly chiselling away the carvings and claiming them as their own. Alexander the Great has even depicted himself on the walls making an offering to the gods.

Our last day of visits included the very last known temple built, Philae Temple, and it wasn’t even finished. I don’t quite know why, but it felt powerful. The last breath of an empire.

It once totally underwater until 1970s when a dam was built to save Egypt from flooding, and the water pumped the water out. Then it was carefully moved further back onto land, piece by piece, which took 7 years.

A temple built for a goddess, smaller in size but with finer detailer, in the perfect location; on a tiny island studded by palm trees and surrounded by water.

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The Bad

In fairness, we can read ‘The bad’ as ‘The naughty’ as our subject in question is food. A glance at the general population in the city and it’s clear there is no shortage of calories…

Amy and I both love to try the local food, but couldn’t see much but takeaways and pizza being eaten at the hostel late in the evening.

The breakfasts were a treat; bean paste (better than it sounds), soft cheese and flatbreads, which are served with every meal.

Egyptians do breakfasts, soups and falafels very well. Tasty and fresh. The issue is carbs, including sugars. Kushari is incredibly tasty but 3 kinds of pasta. All breads, in whatever form, seem to be full of sugar. For a long time I’ve kicked most sugary snacks including drinks out of my diet, but at the end of the week in Egypt, we both were having sugar cravings. I knew it was bad as Amy was actually having sugar in her tea, usually a strictly no sugar tea girl.

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So what did we learn?

• Get a guide at every temple, including the Egyptian museum.
• Everyone will want a tip for anything. Just say no or ignore them, but if someone provides an honest service, don’t be shy, the £5 notes are used for tips most commonly and translate to 25p (UK).
• Eat Koshari as it’s super tasty but don’t live on it 🙂 other than that, street food is the way to go (the falafel wraps are very good)!