Luxor - part 3 - on my own

It is hard to try to navigate a new neighborhood when there aren’t street signs, when the streets intersect at all sorts of angles and curves, and particularly when you are on your guard. I figured as long as I know where the Nile is in relation to where I am, I could get back to the hotel. I made the mistake of letting a young boy fall in step with me—he begged to practice his English. I told him I wanted to find the Fair Trade Cooperative of Luxor and showed him the street name. I don’t know why I bothered. Even though Egyptians have lived in a place all their lives, many people don’t know the names of their streets, much less the location of an unfamiliar shop. He offered to take me there, and offered to show me the fruit market on the way. Before I knew it, we were in a real back alley with bare bottomed toddlers and sleeping bodies. Baskets of colorful fruit artfully arranged were interspersed with plastic colanders, cheap shoes, bolts of fabric, and other stuff. The walkway through this market was less than six feet wide and was strewn with trash, fruit peelings, and muddy puddles. Hanging above us were blue plastic tarps designed to provide shade. I was in search of authentic—and found it. We marched past an empty lot festooned in tinsel. He remarked it will be the site for a wedding tonight. Before I knew it, I was back on the street where I first met him. He urged me to take a look at a shop, which he insisted was the one I was looking for. It wasn’t, but I went in anyway. It was good to cool off in the AC and there was no harm in looking around. However, these guys were so pushy they made my skin crawl and I just wanted to get out.. So I did, despite their efforts to make me buy something. My young friend then insisted another store would have the pretty Coptic cross I was in search of. It didn’t but the owner asked me to just wait a few moments. He dashed out of the store to some buddy’s shop and came back with plain silver crosses that were not Coptic. I drew what I wanted and he said he could cut one to my specifications. By this time I was more than ready to walk home to the hotel and call it a day. I know that unemployment is high in Egypt with 30 percent of people without jobs, and these guys see tourists as fair fodder. A little bit of money goes a long way for them. I have to remember than when their hawking becomes disturbing and remember to be grateful for the chance to walk through their market place.

After an Italian dinner by the pool where we swatted flies, we were taken to the Karnak Temple for the sound and light show. It is very cool to see the these ancient ruins at night, but the narration was a bit too Disneyesque and long winded.