Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Danger: Souk

Aswan—To expiate my sins I am introducing you to a man I knew would be laying for me when I came to Egypt, and who managed to separate me anyway from many, many unbudgeted pounds.

Meet Muhammad.



I was brought to Muhammad by his "cousin" who spotted me looking up at signs for "internet cafe" in an alley market just off the Nile. When he asks if I am interested in looking at his shop, something about his lack of urgency makes me pay more attention. I notice there's no one inside and agree to because I'll have him all to myself.

Muhammad is Nubian and his English is excellent. He asks what I'm interested in seeing. Since I don't know, he asks who I might like to bring souvenirs home to. My sister and three sisters-in-law have rooted for me on this adventure and supplied VERY helpful accoutrements (like this iPad!), so that's how I end up in the jewelry area. I know nothing about jewelry. But here I am, seated on a bench that another "cousin" brings, and soon I have tea in my hands and the selling is under way.

(Note the tea on the tray above: It's about my fourth cup. It takes a long time to choose suitable things for four wonderful women, longer to work down from the lung-sucking 3,000 pounds Muhammad suggests as the starting point of our negotiations.)

But I am enjoying the game anyway. Haggling was invented in the East thousands of years ago, and the idea of a price tag is as foreign as I am here. I quickly do the math in my head and try to come up with a figure to limit my spending to, then do the conversion once again to suggest the price I really want to pay. Muhammad does his own bit about the fine quality, pure silver, hand-craftsmanship, etc., etc., but I know my budget and start removing items from the bowl that has been collecting things I'd like to consider.

We go along like this for what seems like hours (measured in tea), until he starts working within my price range. In the end I pay exactly what I had wanted to limit myself to, and he has replaced in my bowl all the items I had removed to bring down the price.

After he wraps all the items in little velvet bags, he bids me goodbye with a handshake and his warmest Nubian smile. This is service apart from any price tags. I have no doubt I've been robbed blind but we both get what we want.

In the evening at my hotel I will compare notes on prices with various fellow travelers, and we will be variously amused or outraged at the degree of suckering we've suffered.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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