its been a few days since you had a REAL shower, with hot water and GOOD water pressure,
As you round the corner, you seem them,
their eyes are bright
Money envelops their brain
One goal is upon their mind
Sell
Muuuney
and it begins...
Tax.."
Where u go"
Where u frm?
good deal here...
The incessant haggling that any tourist receives is enough to set your brain in spins. For those of you who travel, I need not say more, but for those who have never had this experience, its certainly not one you will ever forget...
So I will share a brief story from just yesterday here in Luxor...
For information, Luxor is EXTREMELY hot right now, around 40 Celcius
With a full day in the heat, rediscovering ancient Egyptian history, any person can get extremely hot, tired and annoyed by the end of the day.
On this particular day, this was exactly my condition.I was riding the bike I rented back to the ferry to cross back over to the East Bank from the West Bank. The west Bank has the valley of the Quenns and the Valley of the Kings, both incredible tombs from kings and rulers ofthousands of years ago...
Upon approaching to the ferry, I see what looks to be a great photo, with the Nile, in the background covering over by the temples of Luxor..
And as I approach, I see what any tourist learns to turn their head to, a few young Egyptian men approaching from a few directions, inquiring and attacking my position and determining how much in this moment that may be able to make from me.
They size me up..
Determine around my age andexperience and begin to run prices through their head..
(in general, every price I get for buying ANYTHING i cut in 1/5 to 1/3 depending on the product.)
Now with this particular approach, there was nothing extraordinary about it, but for me it was the first time I felt like prey...
now in psychoanalytical viewpoint, this now gives me an opportunity to look at times in my life when I have felt this way before, analyze the situation, apply some compassionate self-forgiveness and in turn have gratitude...
blah
blah
blah
blaf
in this situation, I just simply felt like prey, they sized me up and came in for the attack...
And as any prey typically does when they feel the aggressor coming in, is they in turn fight back...
now you may wonder...oh boy, Aaron has lost it, he took out all his frustrations upon these Egyptians and now sits in a cell writing from his computer....
Well sorry to say if that was the case, I would nothave that luxury...
but it does remind me of an Egyptian story I will share another time...
So in this particular situation, I simply lashed out, which for those of you who know me well, is not a typical reaction.
And the faces upon these young men as I simply yelled in return at them was perfectly priceless
I do feel they had never quite had a response of my nature and within just about a minute or two, smiles returned, they realized that had been overly aggressive and I equally reactive...
So, at the end of the day, I learn about my temperment, the effects of the heat upon it, and I take my 1 pound ferry ride and not the 20 pound one they were trying to sell to me...
This was a great experience for me and them as I realized it is time to get out of the heat, get back to the oceanside and up into the mountains of Russia...
Egypt has been amazing, I still have Mt. Sinai to tackle before my return to Tel Aviv, and the beginnings of my Russian Adventures...
more fun for another day...
and a pictures you may enjoy whenyou simply let the light in...
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