It’s a bit longer post, so I’m going to divide it to 7 chapters.
Chapter 1: Bartering
Which for me, a European citizen who comes from a little country called Estonia the most gear-grinding was that those “salesmen” are annoying and insist themselves on you with their merchandise like belts, bags, sunglasses, wrist-watches, bags and so on. They approach you like flies to shit and start enforcing their goods to you. Some of them even put their good (like they did to me with some kind of leather belt) already in your hand and say try and/or touch that even if you say “no” countless times.
I get it, the poorness runs through-out the country mostly. People live in huts, but as seen and heard on my trip then tourists have visited Hurghada even less than years before. I’ve thought about it a little and think it’s because the “salesmen” are just tiring and annoying tourists. Because most tourists (at least I think, I could be wrong) come from places where are fixed prices and not set by current emotion by the seller and by the looks from the client.
Most of the tourists come to take some time off, rest and relax, but the locals just tire them even more. It could be just me but I think the hypothesis I have might have some influence.
One example more annoyance. We stayed in Elysees hotel and there was the hotel Dream Beach right next to it. I and my lovely significant other went to the beach to catch some sun, swim and rest (she also studied), but after a while, some SPA workers there came to sell us some massage and SPA package. We said “no thank you” and so on multiple times but the guy just insisted himself onto us, gave us some “trial” of massage by massaging hands and neck. The first time we said maybe to get him just off of us, but after and 30 minutes he came back to write us a checked and that we paid an advance and today even if we said that maybe in 2-3 days. Finally, we managed to get the SPA salesmen off and after 20 minutes or so came some boat trip guy who tried to sell us a tour in the sea. He was more understandable and got the “no” message faster. Another ~20 minutes after came to ANOTHER SPA salesmen who tried to sell us the same stuff the first guy was. Like geez, give us some break and get off our backs.
When I want a massage or some boat trip then I know where to find you, stop insisting yourselves. Please stop annoying tourists who are trying to rest and relax. Like this trip has shown me if I want to just rest and relax, catch some sun in peace then the best place to do that is in my own country’s beach. So see what has happened? I don’t want to visit Egypt pretty much anymore because of that.
Chapter 2: Traffic
I can only say what was in Hurghada, Luxor and near Qena city because I visited those. Most likely this kind of traffic goes through most of the country. Hurghada’s central city district’s traffic was the most insane. They constantly flashed their lights and fired their horn and most of them didn’t wear a seatbelt. I guess they are under Allah’s protection then. As much I understood then firing horn indicated that “everyone watch out I’m coming”, overtaking the vehicle or “move aside”. Pretty much same was with flashing lights but it seemed to be more polite or outside of the city where you didn’t yell over all the city noise. I remember the first day I drove a taxi there I thought this is where I’m going to die.
People didn’t acknowledge traffic lights, the speed limit in the city was everywhere 40km/h by looking at the signs. but everyone drives up to 100km/h. In one taxi ride, I even remember a local police car was in traffic and others just flew passed the police and police did nothing. Most of the cars were banged up. Brands there were mostly Hyndays, KIAs, and Mitsubishis. There were also few BMWs and Mercedes and even see once a Volvo.
So… Nice traffic culture I guess. Good luck luring wealthy people to live in your country like this.
Chapter 3: Education
Education there is more like a privilege than a requirement to match. If I remember correctly then I heard somewhere that only 5% of them can read and write. They can speak their native language and even a few foreign ones at a basic level to sell you some rags or what-not, but if you show them some text then they pretty much crash. Also, math isn’t their strongest side, even the most basic multiplication required them to use a calculator.
We heard from our guide that most of the children pretty much learn how to do local stuff (farming and such) and then they go to work or beg some food from tourists. Many locals try to make their way to Hurghada or bigger cities where tourists are. Because a decent salary was there like 70-100€ and most of the hotel workers who grind their ass there like 24/7 get that kind of salary.
Photo by Triin Avistu
Chapter 4: Food
As European food in the hotels was pretty low on fat. We had an all-inclusive package so we had breakfast, lunch and dinner served in a hotel restaurant. Every mealtime I ate pretty much as I could because there were lots of things to try out and when I came back from the trip then I weighed a kilo less. If I would’ve eaten so much in Estonia then I would’ve gained like 10kg’s in that week. Overall the food tasted a little different and wasn’t so salty but it was pretty good and nice changes to European food. Potatoes were weird like a bit stringy and fish tasted like it would’ve swum in wastewater all its life.
Chapter 5: Waste management
It’s pretty much none existent. All the thrash there is going to be dropped on the ground. Only places where they clean are near the hotels. As heard from one of our friend is that they keep their homes clean, but everything outside they don’t care about. This is also I think one of the reasons why maybe tourists aren’t fond of Hurghada, because it’s dirty and lots of nature and beauty is ruined by garbage.
Chapter 6: Hotel incidents
The penultimate night we stayed in a hotel I think one of the Russian couple checked-in and got their room right next to ours if I’m not mistaken. Nevertheless, they started yelling and cursing in their native language, did that from like 20:00 or so up to something around 22:00. It was kind of funny but also annoying to here their family issues being solved like this. With banging cupboard doors and such. But we also wanted to sleep. Then it calmed down for a while but then started again around 3:00 in the morning and ended about 4:15 or so. Through-out this time we heard all of those lovely words like: “idi nahui”, “bljat”, “zuka”, “urod” and so on.
We had 2 lifts on our side of the hotel. One of them started to make weird thumps and clinks in the midway of our vacation. Every time we called the elevator we pretty much felt like playing the lottery. Which one would come and if the thumping one then would it be our last ride. Fortunately, nothing happened during our time. Sometimes the elevators were offline so we took the stairs and we were somewhat even happy about that.
PS: Don’t take baths in hotels in Hurghada, just in case.
Chapter 7: In conclusion, recommendations and such
In conclusion, as heard that tourists have been less in Hurghada and it kind of gives itself out also because my girl said that a few years ago there weren’t so many closed shops everywhere. I know those suggestions ain’t going to happen but I’m still saying it out. Maybe someone reads it from Egypt or so and can learn from it.
Suggestions:
#1: Keep your store clean. On one occasion shop right next to our hotel which was like 10 times more expensive, had on the ground one of those rice meal plastic bowls which was empty and had some food and fork in it.
#2: If you live in a tomb or other sightseeing region, have some time to learn the history nearby so if tourists come then you can at least say something about the place. Not rob tourists like a total douchebag like one of the doorkeepers in Valley of the Kings was who asked 1€ per person to give their tickets back after stamping them.
#3: Do something about waste management and clean out the city. Start cleaning the streets so tourists won’t feel like they’re visiting local dumpsters.
#4: Start controlling your traffic and make people respect the laws of the road.
If those could be covered then maybe some new people from other places of the world would come to live there. Currently, it’s pretty unliveable conditions and so dirty (at least in Hurghada) for people from more developed countries. This also makes tourists more pleased to choose this to be their next vacation and who would also come back more.