Egypt + Third World Travel
I’ve been back from Egypt for a couple of months now, but I’m just now posting some thoughts. Overall the trip was amazing. The country as a whole is more “third world” than I expected it to be. In comparison, Egypt is neither as wealthy as, nor as poor as India. The median standard of living also seems to be higher in Egypt than in India. The Egyptian pyramids and temples are all as amazing as you’d expect – and sometimes more, given the times in which they were built.
Third world travel is tough. Things just don’t work the same way they do in the States. No matter what you do, or how you dress, you stick out like a sore thumb. Because of who you are, you are treated differently. A lot of times, this is in a bad way. You are sought out by locals looking for money – by either trying to sell you something, or by just sticking out their hand and begging. Because there are so many of these people, as soon as you give in to one, you can be surrounded by others looking for their sale or handout too. It can get so bad that it feels like all you can do is to run away from the crowd.
Sticking out like a sore thumb has its advantages too though. Outside of major transportation sites (airports), security measures don’t generally apply to you. Where any other local is stopped and questioned intently before being allowed through (if at all), the color of your skin allows free passage without question, and without even the need to stop.
Because you’re an American, people assume you’re made of money. There are different prices for you, apparently because you can afford it. After leaving an Egyptian temple, we tried to buy 12-oz cans of Coke. We were told the price was 25 Egyptian Pounds for each drink, which translated into roughly $5. When we left without buying anything, the store owner was honestly surprised. He then started negotiating as we walked away, but it was too late.
Negotiating the price of everything is a way of life in these countries. It is the local’s job to extort the most amount of money possible from you in each sale. As tourists, it is your job not to get screwed. This task is actually much more difficult than you’d expect, even for an experienced traveler. You’re on their home turf, you’re trying to convert the foreign currency to your own for comparison, and you don’t always know what’s reasonable to pay for something anyways. On the other hand, the locals are expert salesmen (con artists), they don’t let you walk away easily, and they pull on your heart strings about their own poverty to close the deal. Some tourists enjoy the challenge of negotiating. My brother will take great pride over negotiating an extra 50 cents of the price of a $4 item. Personally, I pay whatever I’m comfortable with. To the chagrin of my brother (liberal), I (conservative) rarely negotiate as hard as I could, and always pay a little more than I maybe should. I guess you could call it my own personal form of wealth re-distribution. Ironic, huh?
As different as things are in third world countries from the United States, I still love traveling there. You get a perspective on life that would otherwise not even be possible to experience, and you are reminded that life in the United States is the exception to the rule. We really are different. Very different. It’s humbling to be reminded how good we have it here.
You and my mom have similar negotiating styles – though many times she actually goes the other way. They say “4 monetary units”, and she says “I will give you 5.” They get really confused. She reasons that they need the money more than she does. My dad, on the other hand, will bargain to the absolute lowest price apparently possible…and then get them to go 1 unit lower. He reasons that “winning” isn’t everything, it is the only thing.
I appreciated this! Looking forward to going there one day…and not getting ripped off!
What was your favorite thing?
Emily – My favorite was Abu Simbel. It’s tough to get to, about 75 miles north of Sudan, but it’s amazing.