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 Tourism is rampant in Egypt just now.
It's supposed to be a little slower just
before the Christmas rush, but one would hardly believe it at five a.m. in the
Cairo Airport as we get ready to move on to Aswan and our
Nile Cruise aboard the
Radamis I. Thankfully, while we must clear our way through security, Misr Travel
handles what would have been a long line for boarding passes, getting us a block
of seats on a jam- packed plane. We are scheduled to fly from Cairo, landing in
Luxor and then on to Aswan, but the flight ends up being a direct one, and
therefore a much shorter ride of only about forty-five minutes.
 The
airport at Aswan is much better, and we and our guide Soha were met by the
local office of Misr Travel just as arranged, soon to be whisked away to our
Nile Cruise Boat. Considering the early hour we left
Cairo, it remained very early in
the morning, so not all of our rooms were ready at this point. We were, after
all, ahead of schedule. No problem. Though some of the rooms were ready, those
of us without rooms headed up to the bar to sit and relax, and even have a drink
just a tad too early in the day. Although no one was in the bar at this hour, we
had our own supply of refreshments and simply helped ourselves to glasses and
ice behind the bar. This was a nice little interlude, but sooner than promised,
all the rooms were ready and we took a little rest before our afternoon
tour.
Actually, on this third day in Egypt, we were supposed to
tour Philae Temple just south of Aswan
and the High Dam.
However, Johnny, one of our tour members, could not stay for
the entire duration of our trip to Egypt. After
Luxor, when
the rest of us were scheduled to move  on
to Sharm el-Sheikh, he was to fly back to
Cairo and head home.
At this point we had not visited any of the bazaars, and so
rather than visiting the High
Dam, we elected to do a little
shopping in the Souk at Aswan.
So after a fine lunch aboard the
Radamis I, our well air
conditioned Misr Travel
bus arrived and we headed to Philae
Temple with Soha, our guide. What fun it is to need air conditioning
in the middle of December! Getting to Philae was rather fun,
and involved everyone's first small boat ride on this tour.
One passes over the old British Dam in order to reach the
dock, which is crowded with Nubian vendors and clusters of
Egyptian motorboats. To their credit, the vendors along the
dock are not very pushy and many of their wares are somewhat
unique. In fact, even I purchased a few inexpensive trinkets
for the folks back home (Christmas is very near, and my wife
and I had already planned on purchasing most of our gifts in
Egypt). This was one of the few excursions where almost every
one in our tour was present, save for my wife who had already
seen Philae Temple on a prior visit and who  elected
to sit it out reading on the deck of the boat). Even
Tigger (Rachel), who was notorious for missing many of the
sites, came along, and we soon boarded our small boat for the
quick ride to the temple.
Heading out, we all noticed a good variety of bird life
along the shoreline, and for some reason, I almost expected a
large croc to dart out of the water and gulp one of them down
at any moment, though of course in this part of the lake there
are probably no crocodiles to be found. We soon landed on the
island, where we spent the next hour and a half touring these
ancient ruins.
I had convinced most of our tour to visit the temple
because of its importance. Of course, this temple was moved
from its original island shortly after the construction of the
High Dam (not before, as some might
believe) to a higher island called Agilika. It was the only
one of the rescued monuments that we would visit on this trip,
and is also notable as the last bastion of the Ancient
Egyptian religion. Here, the pagan gods were worshipped well
into the Christian
period, though eventually it too was
converted to a Christian
church. Though there are certainly  grander
temples in Egypt, Philae has it's own magic, on it's own small
island and with its Coptic crosses mixed in among images of
pagan gods. And while Tour Egypt currently has a good section
on Philae
Temple, I had decided to do some extensive documentation
for an upcoming series of articles. Hence, I set about taking
well over two hundred photos while most of the group followed
Soha, who I provided with a recorder, about the temple.
Excursions such as this one were nicely arranged. Here and
elsewhere, Soha would first sit everyone down and provide a
general overview of the facility before the walk through. Time
was provided for the normal tour of the ruins, with some
additional time afterwards for people to roam around on their
own. A prearranged meeting point was provided where the group
was supposed to meet back up at a  specific
time. In this case, it was the outdoor restaurant on the
island. Of course, this is not to say that anyone would be
left behind if they did not show up on time, a factor that
would come into play a little later on this day.
As we had more or less spontaneously planned, rather than
visiting the High
Dam, we next moved on to the Aswan
Bazaar,
where most of our group, for the first time, experienced the
required price negotiation process. This is a rather
interesting aspect of shopping in an Egyptian Bazaar. It is
probably most fun to those least experienced. Most of us
experienced enough to get the best price on a product would
just as soon have the  prices
fixed. And even though I know how to work this process, I
usually prefer to take along an Egyptian friend, frequently
spotting out what I want and sending my friend in to purchase
it for an Egyptian's price. Nevertheless, there are a few
simple pointers that can greatly aid the uninitiated.
- Shopping late in the day helps. Egyptians like to make
that last sale of the day, and have a tendency to go lower
on the price near closing time.
- As a general rule, shoot for a price about half as much
as the merchant's first offer. For very typical Egyptian souvenirs,
the price may even go lower, but for some products such as
gold or precious stones, and other specific products,
there may be less negotiation range.
- Ride the success of others. If you are shopping with
others and some of them seem better at it than yourself,
you can get the same price that they negotiate.
- Pick shops that are not crowded with shoppers. If there
are lots of buyers, the merchant may move on to others if
facing a tough negotiator.
- Never act like you simply must have the product. After
some negotiations, act like the price is still too high
and walk away. The further you go, the lower the price
will usually become, unless other shoppers are waiting to
be helped by the same merchant. This is why it is best to
find a shop with few, if any other shoppers, besides
yourself.
 It
is best for people to know before visiting an Egyptian bazaar
that the merchants can be very pushy, trying to get tourists
into their shops. Walking through any of them in Egypt, one
will be approached with every ploy imaginable. We have found
that it is much better to prepare tourists for this, rather
than them being surprised by the process. I have found that it
is best simply to ignore the pushy merchants as I walk along,
though sometimes I must be very firm with a few that are too persistent.
I make a point to choose the shop I wish to visit, rather than
allowing the merchant to choose me. In fact, near the end of
our bazaar experience, I was getting tired and found a chair
in front of one of the shops. Rather than harassing me to come
in, the owner of the shop was very polite and cordial. Hence,
I rewarded him with one of the few purchases I made that
day.
 All
of that said, our group enjoyed our time in the Aswan
bazaar,
making a few good deals along the way. Many in our group
purchased spices, while others bought a variety of Nubian
items, a specialty in this location.
Now, while most of our group remained fairly well together,
others broke off and looked about on their own. This actually
caused a bit of a stir. We were, as usual, provided with a
tourist policeman while in the bazaar. While I was really
unaware of what was happening in the background, our dispersal
generated a cry for backup and soon there were other tourist
police for our splintered group.
Upon leaving the boat for Philae earlier in the day, we
were all issued boarding passes, and informed that the boat
would depart at about five in the afternoon. Hence, everyone
knew at what time they should return to the boat. This being
my first time as a tour leader, I nervously returned to the
boat somewhat early to make sure everyone made it back on
time. As 5:00 p.m. rolled around, and we were still missing
several people, I pictured myself staying behind as the boat
left dock to round up my missing tourists and transport them
by alternative means to the next docking point. Not to worry.
The boarding passes issued earlier were in reality a head
count to make sure everyone who left the boat were back on
board. The boat manager, I was informed, would not have left
anyone behind, irregardless of the boat's scheduled departure.
Anyway, our last two tour members finally showed up (Allen and
his cousin, Tigger), just a bit late, and each accompanied by
their own tourist police who were working overtime to look
after our small band of travelers. I am always impressed by
the efforts Egypt  makes
in protecting their tourists, even though I have actually
never felt threatened in this friendly land.
While all of the meals aboard the
Radamis I are inclusive
in the cruise price, not all were buffets (which were always
very good). That night, as our boat smoothly moved north, we
were offered a very good menu including our choice of various
fish and beef. Later, being the first evening of the cruise
and as is usual on most Nile Cruise
boats, we were given an
orientation with introductions to the ship's staff. I am
indeed most impressed with these people. The entire crew of
the ship made a notable effort to make passengers feel
welcome. By the end of the voyage, it seems that most of the
crew knew something about every guest on the boat, and greeted
them personally. After the orientation, most of us then
retired for the evening after a long day which began in
Cairo very early that morning.
The next morning I was a very poor tour leader. Most of our
tour woke up in a new dock at Edfu, but I had been to Edfu
many times, and I slept through the first excursion of the
day. Afterwards, we moved further north to Kom
Ombo, one of my
favorite small temples in Egypt.  I
also documented this interesting, dual temple with nearly 200
photos for a future series. However, the real highlight of
that visit for me, having been to Kom Ombo several other
times, was the snake charmer. I knew they existed in Egypt,
but had actually never stumbled across one before.
Afterwards we moved on to Esna. Esna is where the locks are
located, but this time of year they are closed. When the locks
are closed, most tourists must switch boats, but rather than
having to pack up and then unpack, we stayed aboard the
Radamis I, electing to take a fairly short bus ride into
Luxor the next day to tour the famous temples on the east bank.
However, I will leave our visit to Luxor for the next in this
series of articles about our visit to Egypt, for there were
some very special moments that that need just a little more
space than I can devote at this point. However, as a
final note, we will be doing a complete review of the Radamis
I in the very near future.
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