In Ancient Egyptian civilization one of the most important aspects talked about is the “Judgement day”, where your “good” shall be weighed with your “bad” (heavy heart) as the final decision before you go to the “Kingdom of Oasis”.
Let’s talk about Cairo vs. Luxor, because to sum our “Judgement” of Egypt as a whole one must compare these two experiences and put the on the balance.
CAIRO (The good)
The city is huge. 20 million+ huge. It’s sprawled over a large portion but the population density gets very high the closer you go to the center. The Egyptian people are nice, sociable, and proud - much like other major cities where everyone is trying to make a buck or 12 there is haggling but it’s nothing excessive. The policemen are stern, and they are everywhere especially in downtown areas. Food was delightful. From the famous pasta dish Koshary (at Abou Tarek) and shawarma (at Karam El Sham), to the bread pudding (Om Ali) and rice pudding they were so well executed and delicious. I will be thinking about some of the dishes we had for a long time. The people are social, again like Morocco, people seem to know each other and “bumping into someone you know” is often and plenty. That is softly intertwined with the individuality of the city of purposeful walking.
LUXOR a.k.a. the tourism factory
Whether you are at the Luxor in Vegas or Luxor in Egypt, they will both find a way to take your money. People in Egypt praise Luxor and I’m sure their experience was very good….. but the same cannot be said about foreigners.
It’s very unfortunate because there is so much history here. The valley of the kings and the Karnak Temples hold some of the most interesting and oldest live artifacts we have to do date from the Ancient times. I honestly think both are worth doing… without a tour guide. Since tour guides “are not allowed” inside the tombs, it’s really quite useless to have a guide. Possibly the most aggravating part of this town, is literally almost everybody we met wanted a tip. I made the joke that if a word is said, they’ll ask for tip. And although that is a bit excessive, there is some truth in it. Men would point at the hieroglyphs on the wall and then expect tip. It’s so ironic because in the Luxor airport they have a billboard that praises Egyptian hospitality. It’s not hospitality if you are constantly looking for something in return. It’s a transaction.
And lastly, there is no transparency of what anything costs. We met a man from Finland at Abou Tarek and he said the following : “don’t ever go to a restaurant where they won’t show you the menu and prices” and there could be no more truth to that. Anything that an Egyptian helps you with, makes for you, gives you, make sure you know the price up front because they will create a price for you depending on how you look, etc. Despite there being obvious poverty in Egypt (25% overall) and especially in Luxor (~47%), they end up losing in the long run with their cut throat, squeeze every dollar drop, approach to each tourist.
That’s all for now folks - Go to Cairo, stay in downtown, skip Luxor.
Much love,
Adi & Daia.
Adi's favorite pic of the trip:
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