Haggling...

So I've done really good in the haggling so far. Sometimes insulting the guys by offering too little, but then I factor that into my exchange with the next booth for a same or similar item. It's amazing on how you'll be walking away and they'll keep offering lower offers. If they just had it priced in the first place I probably would have paid a higher price that it might have been marked.

The best I did so far was some guy wanted 120 LE for an item and I got him down to 50 LE for that item plus a larger similar item. Who knows, maybe I could have actually done better.

I've walked into a few shops and I can see them debate the price before they figure out what to charge me. Sometimes I just give them this look like “are you kidding?” and it seems like they don't nail me too much. Most things as still less than you'd pay anywhere else. Even in a fancy resturant I don't think I've every paid more than $2.50 for a Coca-Cola, most times it's less that $1.

Security

So I haven't had a chance to talk about security here, it's been on my mind since day one. We've had an armed guard with us whenever we travel as a group. This didn't surprise me, I actually expected a police escort so it was tamer than I thought.

Plus every hotel or museum has one or metal detectors and may check bags (but not likely). I know it sounds crazy but you really get used to it.

I got so used to the guns that one night a few of us were walking in an area that got kind of dark and heard footsteps behind us when I looked and saw it was men with guns my thoughts of fear went out of my mind.

Security seemed to pick up when we went south (especially in Aswan). In the south we did have an escort pickup with one to four security folks and the security guy on the bus.

Aswan to Cairo

So now we're off to Cairo, with a stop over in Luxor on the way. Security did a big inspection on my laptop bag. With a few spare batteries, four or five chargers, cables, adaptors, a variety of gizmos it's probably a total of 20-30 feet of wiring and cables. Fortunately, I don't get stopped more often. The upside was that I did find something that I thought I lost earlier in the trip.

We had a second security checkpoint and they ignored the bag but I had to remove my belt and check my pockets. I accidentally threw my chapstick in the bin and he opened it up to check it. In Abu Simble (the part I didn't go on), they said there were eight checkpoints (although that was the day after the bombing).

Later: So after a what seemed like a long flight we spent forever in traffic. But I've had lunch now and we're back in the neighborhood of the pyramids!

More Bombings...

I heard there was another bombing. I'm in Cairo and plan to be in the immediate vicinity for the rest of the trip (just so you know).

Me on a camel

meonacamel
Originally uploaded by garylapointe.

We rode them up a dune (15 minutes) and then back down across the Sahara desert to a village where we had a tour.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be!

Time Change

They do the change due to Daylight Savings tonight so while it feels like 10 PM it's really 11 PM (so I'm off to bed)!