Nile Cruise

species

One more bit of advice - whilst there's no real trick to stop getting pestered by the locals (they are like terminators, they never, ever, ever stop!!), I found that the best way to deal with them is not to say anything. Once you start talking you give away where you are from & that you speak English - if you dont say anything then they aren't really sure if you can understand them, and it seems to throw them off guard a bit.... And if you think Luxor is bad... wait till you go to the pyramids!!! Abu Simbel is must though.

joop

Wow Species! Thank you so much! Loads to think about there!

david39

That's good advice from species, begging is a real problem. To illustrate this, one of our travelling companions on the Nile cruise related this story:

On the Nile, the ships pass through a very large lock. It is quite interesting to see this in action and, as our boat was to pass through it during the night, the captain warned us in advance that to see it, we would need to be awake at 2.30 in the morning.

Dutifully, our friend woke and watched as the boat manoevered into the lock. He was standing, in his pyjamas and dressing gown, on his cabin's little balcony.

The lock is quite tight so, as we were at the lower level, and the boat was going up, all he could see was its concrete sidewalls, which he said were close enough to reach across and touch. As the water level got higher and higher, slowly the top of the loch wall started to appear at the top of his view and as he got further up, two boots were standing on the edge. Then appeared two ankles, the bottom of a white robe, a cotton belt at the waist and then a hand, stuck out, palm up, asking for money!

As our friend said, how did the person expect me to have money available at 2.30 in the morning with me dressed only in pyjamas and dressing gown.

But it is true, they do try every opportunity!

katieclampet

I went on a nile cruise earlier this year, and loved egypt. The weather, sights and the nile itself were amazing, but the constant demand for money was a bit wearing after a while. Mostly it was good humoured, one cheeky chap said "I'm not going to sell you anything, can I have some money?", with a smile on his face, and his hand out!!

The worst place was the pryamids, where we really were harrassed, but you just have to ignore it. Be warned though, as you go into some tourist places, they might give you a small "present", a hanky or postcard, then when you come back out, they demand money, since you "bought it".

All that aside, it was an amazing place, the people were friendly & the sights were spectacular. We went with cosmos, and were on the magic 2, but there were loads of people with hayes & jarvis, who did all the same trips, but seemed to have paid quite a bit more.

katiex

ps, loads of advice & info on Trip Advisor