Camel, Camel, Camel, Camel. Camel make it easier.

Egypt is the land of 24 hour non-stop tourist activities. The busses run at night, so you can get places in the morning, spend a complete day there and then return on the bus that night. Next day, completely over-tired, you can do it all again.

That said, we've found it very hard to break from the tourist nature of this country and find the "real" Egypt. The places we've gone, people have been selling everything. So far, we've had the following offered to us :

1) Taxi rides. We took a short walk in Dahab here and in 30 minutes received over 40 offers for taxi rides. Apparently, people don't walk anywhere around here

2) Camel Rides. Climbing Mt. Sinai, camels and their owners were everywhere and trying to get you to take a ride. They'd repeat "Camel Camel Camel Camel, Camel make it easier, you want camel ride" over and over again. I spoke with some girls who did break down and get a camel ride and they actually got off early, because it was so freakishly high and tipsy. I actually had a camel follow me down the street here in Dahab, as if to solicit a ride from me

3) Restaurants. Here in Dahab, there's a boardwalkish thing that runs along the water. A lot of restaurants are off of this and the "Matre D" comes out to greet you as you walk by, actually impeding your progress, asking you to come check out his menu. Although he's got pretty much the same diverse menu as all the other restaurants in town, there's some unique selling point that makes his restaurant unique like "25% off" or "special price for you my friend" If you ask about their fish of the day, they won't just tell you, but take you over to the fish case and show you the fish, show that the gills are still pink, and the eyes are still clear. Overall though, I have no complaints about the food - it's been relatively fresh, edible (no digestive issues) and inexpensive.

4) Shops. People who run shops that sell tourist stuff like Hookas, pyramids, blankets, traditional clothing, t-shirts that have a ridiculous English phrase on them will take the same approach as the restaurants and actually come to block your path as you're walking by.

5) Bracelets, trinkets, marble eggs, geodes etc. Some of the most aggressive sellers are the kids as they walk along the beach here in Dahab and peddle their trinkets. The usual phrase is "BUY ONE!" with little regard to tact. When you tell them "La!" (no) they don't go away.

6) Blankets and Mattresses. Again, agressive kids were renting these at the top of Mt. Sinai. They couldn't understand why we didn't want any and continued to follow us while we looked for a spot to sit and watch the sun rise. At one point, I had to ask one boy to stop following us. They then proceeded to get us back by laying out blankets for others all around us.

7) Snorkel guide. So we're snorkeling off the coast of Dahab here, and some guy swims up and trys to "show us where the pretty fish are, special price". No thanks, I can look at a reef myself.

8) Bathroom attendant. This is something, I'll never understand. Why should I be charged for a bodily function that I really can't control. It's not like the bathrooms are even remotely clean. I feel for the females that might actually have to touch something in the bathroom.

I think this is effecting us so greatly because we're here to just observe (which is impossible without being heckled) and experience the "real culture" not the tourist culture. Maybe we need to rethink the places we visit.

~S