TT Economics

2 July.
We are staying on the west bank of the Nile River, opposite the town of Luxor where the tourist infrastructure is. Jacqueline stayed here, in the Amon Hotel and recommended it to us. We like it, but it requires a willingness to walk through the somewhat rough village to get to the ferry across the river. The other option is to take a taxi, traveling about 15 minutes up river to cross a bridge then back down to reach Luxor. The ferry takes 10 minutes, but the total time is about the same by the time we walk to it, sit on it until it fills and then sails. Jim and I love ferries, and it is a pleasurable commute which we share with a cross section of locals. It costs 1 EP per person each way, about 18 cents. The hotel is quite new, comfortable and spacious, and quiet. We hear a braying mule, wild turkeys and birds. It is centered on a lovely garden, but in this 100-105 degree heat, we retreat to the AC. In season it would be nice, it has ceiling fans and window screens -- our normal preference for climate control. The outdoor dining room also has ceiling fans, which didn't prevent butter from liquifying in its container. No one is around this off season. The staff makes us food whenever we want it -- we didn't make it to breakfast today until 11:30.

It was our laziest day ever. We joke about typically being out by the "crack of noon", when we are on vacation. We crossed the river, arriving in Luxor at 3pm yesterday. We headed for the Luxor Museum, a 5 minute walk from the ferry stop.

All tourists are keen prospects for those making their living "serving" visitors, and they all congregate on the Corniche to greet folks stepping of the floating hotels that ply the Nile between Luxor and Aswan. There are felucca sails, horse-drawn carriage rides, drinks and tchotchkes -- with scads of vendors in every category. As we stepped off the ferry, "Jusef", his tourist name, offered us an hour long carriage ride for 5 Egyptian pounds, less than one dollar. The people are very poor, but not stupid nor without pride. A face-saving way of saying no is "maybe later". Asking us where we were headed, Jusef told us the museum was closed, a common ruse the world 'round to capture a tourist for one's own uses. We walked in the 105 degree heat to the museum, to find it closed between 3-5 as Jusef had said. He had followed us, with his one-eared horse Cinderella, so we climbed in. The carriage's bimini top allowed us to cover some territory in the shade, at least.

Most of the tourist vendors speak limited English they have learned from their charges. As we've seen in other places, once a driver has you in his vehicle, he'll eventually take you where you want to go, via the retail establishments that pay him a commission. Jusef was upfront about his, telling us where he would park Cinderella, how much he would earn from taking us to the "Government Store" that was -- lucky us -- only open on Wednesdays, and where all things were 1/2 price. Since we knew the game, and it was too hot to do anything else, and the store had AC, we played along. We have a drawer of little things we've bought in similar situations over the years -- in fact as we rode behind Jusef and Cinderella, knowing we were going to be adding to the stash, I had an idea to create big sculptural book entitled TT (for tourist trap) to store the pile in. Pat and Jerry have taught us on earlier trips that even TTs can yield treasures, so we are generally game.

The Government Store was selling Egyptian images on "real" papyrus (as opposed to banana leaves). We saw a demonstration of how to make "real" papyrus, and I hung out in front of a cooling fan, and drank my "free" coke. We took our time to choose, settling on our Egyptian TT entry for 50 EP. These professionals are not to be underestimated. In their enthusiasm over our selection they steered us over to the "cartouche" section, where we chose another typical Egyptian illustration of goddess Isis (of magic) standing behind her man Osiris, god of the afterworld, which also included OUR VERY OWN names hand painted in Egyptian hieroglyphics for only 40 more EP -- which they conveniently converted for us as less than $8. Jim thought it was cool, so now our selections totaled 90 EP. You can see it coming...we were ripe for a nice little image for 10 EP more, from a selection they happened to have at the cash register. So, the TT gets 3 entries from this trip, plus the little scarab beads Jusef gave to us later. 100 EP is about $18, and Jusef earned 20 EP (less than $4, but 4x our price for the carriage ride.)

Jim and I wanted to see an old souk we'd read about in the guidebook -- it was a real market, not a TT. As we were at the whim of Jusef and Cinderella, we ended up at a souk alright, but one of his choosing. We took the opportunity to buy gifts and Jusef benefited, counseling us to also tip the assistant who wrapped our purchases. We directed Jusef to the Sheraton on the water -- Jacqueline had said to see the view of the Nile from there -- and we needed to eat something before our second sunset felucca ride with AbdulMawgoud. By now we were wise to the local schedule, and knew it would be 10pm before we ate dinner. The Sheraton was a long run for Cinderella, and Jusef was in a good mood, so had her galloping. It was 42 degrees centigrade, and I felt sorry for her, so we stopped at a closer spot, the Isis Hotel, where AbdulMawgoud was a receptionist during his undergrad days. We were the only people in the pizza restaurant at 6pm. Jusef took us back to the Corniche to meet the felucca and told us his real name, Ahmed. We gave him a $10 tip; he had a good day. So did we.