Hi Madalene, I’m not sure this is entirely the right forum for you to post this question, and I think many pen pal organisations have now moved online. Why don’t you visit http://www.globalpenfriends.com — they have a section for people who prefer to use postal mail rather than email? Theodora

Yeah, it’s a shame Egypt can be like that. I do know some wonderful Egyptians, and we were very happy in Dahab, but it’s a total assault course around the tourist sites.

That poor Japanese lady!

Of all countries, Egypt is definitely on the bottom of my list. I will be showing this article to anyone travelling to the region so they are aware of the constant negative attention. Thankfully I have probably only been scammed at most $50US over 4 weeks here but hearing the stories of other tourists is worrying.

At Abu Simbel I witnessed one tout constantly harassing and touching a Japanese lady who I coincidentally met the day before. He even went so far as to try and take her purse out of her bag. “I just want to show her how much” was his response when I has had enough and stepped in. Throwing his purses into the ground (which were been advertised as 100E£ – the same item at Luxor souk is 5E£) was the only way to get rid if him. He looked for a moment to decide if he should start a fight, but the 6’3″ 27yo man in front if him obviously wasn’t a good target for him.

My only outlet was to say “stop been rude to me” to anyone who asked the usual questions. This seemed to work quite well. For those who would pester me or grab my hand a firm LOUD “moxxu gazma” worked wonders. I know this is extremely rude but it is the only way to get rid of these relentless touts.

Well, Petra obviously felt like a walk in the park to us after, say, Giza, but, you can imagine how persistent the donkey/horse/camel/carriage boys were with a fair-skinned child in tow….

I really wish we’d actually hired a car in Jordan — I’d have loved to get out into the desert proper and pootle around those bits instead — or even done the typical thing of flagging rides, except my Arabic’s so bloody limited.

And, yes, I agree with you that the Jordanian government is doing things wrong. It’s a wealthy country compared to Egypt, and there shouldn’t be that level of desperation in play.

What a change, so much hassle from the ‘donkey boys’ as I ended up calling them, although there were camel boys, horse boys, carriage boys, postcard boys etc etc.

I was lucky I escaped into the wilder parts with few people and enjoyed the experience.

while I understand that people have to make a living, the Jordanian government are in danger of turning the place into ‘Blackpool’
It’s a difficult balancing act in an already very fragile economy.

I found that sexual harassment was relentless in Cairo and Luxor, also happened in Alexandria. The Sinai was sexual harassment free, and Nubia was also remarkably easy (one might attract the odd compliment but none of the hissing or staring or grabbing). It’s the touching themselves in front of me that was mot annoying, I thought. Like you, I met many wonderful, helpful and lovely Egyptians. But, like you, the sexual harassment was really rather epic.

They do have some women behind the counter in Cairo, in fairness — central Cairo coffee houses, and Western-run chains, seem to have some equality measures in place. But, boy, it’s exhausting. On the other hand… Pretty much anywhere else is a walk in the park. We’re in Nepal at the moment and the touts just seem so polite and uninsistent!