I guess we’re cruise people now?
Also, why Egypt is difficult
A Nile River cruise is the classic way to see Egypt’s sights outside of Cairo, so after the pyramids it was time to overnight-bus-it south and get on a boat!
These relatively small cruise boats hold ~200 people, and stop at the major sites from Luxor to Aswan. The downside, of course, is that you’re at the big tourism places at the same time as all the other tourists (unfortunately we are here during school holidays, so though there aren’t as many foreigners as in normal times, Egyptian crowds more than make up for it). The upside is that you’re On A Boat mothaf****r (flippy floppies at the ready!), every meal is an extensive buffet, and you get transportation to everywhere you need to go!
We teamed up with an Austrian couple who had booked through the same company (yay travel friends — we were the only four backpackers on the boat), and though everything did not go as smoothly as hoped (if you do this I can tell you what company not to book with), we had a great time!
While staying on the boat and eating too much cake at every meal (jk jk, there’s no such thing as too much cake) we saw Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, Hatshepsut Temple, and the Valley of Kings in and around Luxor, Edfu and Kom Ombo temples along the river, and the Temples of Philae in Aswan.
Every site was amazing—any one of them would be The Thing To See in any other country. Hatshepsut is the only temple dedicated to a female king (interestingly, throughout Egypt they usually use “king” not “pharaoh”), where she had herself depicted in male clothes and accessories in her statues. The Valley of Kings is an Egypt highlight, where you go into the elaborately painted tombs of kings from ~1550–1069 BC. Edfu is the best-preserved cult temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, and Kom Ombo we saw at night and includes a crocodile museum full of crocodile mummies because half of the temple is dedicated to the evil crocodile god Sobek. Finally, in Aswan, we took a boat to the Temples of Philae. These temples are dedicated to Isis and were recently moved from a watery grave (they were under water from the completion of the first Aswan Dam in 1902 to 1970!) and rebuilt on a reconstructed island. Archeological engineering is amazing. [See also: the relocation of the temples of Abu Simbel, which will be in the next newsletter.]
The weird aspect of the experience was how segregated we were as foreigners. Egypt really forces you to do tourism the way I don’t want to do tourism — separate from anything local and all through travel companies. The country is designed for package tours, not for independent travelers to pick and choose à la carte experiences, do things on the cheap, and book as they go. As far as I can tell, the assumption is that foreigners do not want (or cannot handle) to mix with Egyptians. Just getting to Luxor, foreigners are not allowed to take local trains (oh but there’s a tourist train that costs $80 per person!) and have to book their cruises through third parties. Once on the cruise, the foreigners were told to come to meals 15-30 minutes early so we could go through the buffet first (“too many Egyptians for you” according to our waiter — very awkward), and the dozen or so foreigners’ rooms were all in the same hallway of the boat. I really hope people don’t think we requested this.
Why Egypt is difficult
My theory is that this weird segregation informs how Egyptians interact with foreigners. I am fully aware that everywhere I go I am a walking dollar sign, but in most places we’ve been most people make a more sincere attempt to interact with us as real people, in addition to as walking dollar signs.
What makes Egypt a uniquely difficult place to travel is that the standard “rules” don’t apply. In other places I’ve traveled, you can usually expect that once you agree on a price, the price does not change (applies mostly to taxis, tuktuks, etc.); if you need change, you may wait five minutes while a boy is sent around the corner to get it, but you’ll get it; water and food prices are generally not negotiated (you don’t usually bargain for dinner); in “official” interactions such as bus or train or museum tickets you expect to be charged the correct price.
In Egypt, however, anything goes and there are countless little tricks to extract just a little bit more money out of you. Here you should always carefully count your change; pay attention to the 50 notes—one is cents and one is pounds; you don’t have to pay bakshish (tip) every time someone demands it, and tbh you probably shouldn’t; it’s better if you have exact change to pay a taxi (to minimize the arguing opportunities); no one is helping you for free (which sucks to assume because occasionally they are! but don’t bank on it). You have to be prepared for every interaction to be an argument of some sort (exhausting), where you can choose to fight or to let it go—sometimes the fight just isn’t worth it to us, and that is what they count on.
When I’m getting really frustrated I try to think of these interactions as non-consensual contributions to a struggling economy. Part of me even respects the hustle. But it does wear on you. In the end, I know this is what we signed on for and that the hassles and hustles are just part of the travel experience if you want to see Egypt.
And of course, plenty of people have been nice and welcoming and helpful and friendly! The cruise boat concierge who texted with Chris, found his sandals days after we’d checked out, and held them for a few days more until we could meet the boat and retrieve them; the two women in Abu Simbel who offered me bread while Chris tried to track down our guesthouse (a project that included three village elders and many phone calls); the baker who gave me an actually free cheesy croissant sample while I waited for his assistant to get my change (and I got the correct change!); the woman who volunteered to help us secure non-tourist train tickets from Cairo to Luxor (ultimately to no avail).
So I guess in conclusion, Egypt is amazing and has so many super cool things to see! You just have to be prepared to deal with all the unique difficulties that go along with it.
I’m still recovering from being forced to dance on “Nubian night”… Greetings from your Cruise friends 😍