Getting Hustled and Loving It.

I was in Cairo and planning my trip out to the Pyramids of Giza. Being such a well traveled tourist I thought I had seen and done it all. The hostel highly recommended that I take the tour bus but tour buses are for tourists and not travelers right? By the end of the day I had been hustled hard, but really it was one of the best times I have ever had so I can’t be mad. What an adventure.

So it started when me and a fellow traveler decided to go it alone out to Giza. Its just a simple operation, take the subway to giza station, then hop on the bus down the street to the main entrance. But we got side tracked along the way. You see as soon as we got off at the Giza station a random college aged guy walked up and started talking to us. He was well dressed, super friendly and had perfect english. He was telling us all about how he wanted to transfer to the US to go to graduate school and it all seemed perfectly legit.

He offered to show us the right bus to get on but wanted to offer us tea and shisha before we went. He was just so outgoing that we couldn’t say no. Things were going great and hung out for a good hour moving heading over the bus. The guy even offered to let us come up on his roof and watch the sunset and view the pyramids that night. As I recall he also invited me and my buddy to his cousins wedding a few days later. Great guy.

So he takes us on two buses down the road to a government run place that gives tours on horses. They are crazy cheap and he says that this is where most locals would take their friends. He points us over to a guy and says his goodbyes and to call him later. Awesome guy. We follow this guy over to the horses and start talking prices. My buddy is now feeling really weird, hes not into this back alley operation and decides to ditch and find the main entrance. I am a lot more adventurous so what the hell I know this is shady but its cheap and I am already here. Lets do this!

So we mount up and head over to what seems to just be a guarded hole in the cement wall that surrounds the pyramids. My guide gives the guys a quick nod and they move aside from their guarded positions. Were in, and a few minutes later we are coming up the sand dunes and amazing views of the pyramids appear before me. The guide does just like he said he would and takes me over to the panorama, then over to the main pyramids, and even into the middle pyramid. But after a few seconds near the sphinx he says its time to head back!

No way, I really needed way more time here so I ask if I can just get off the horse here and just hang out and take photos. I can find my own way out no problem. He seemed really unsure about this and called the manager. I told him the same thing and he said it would be fine so I jumped off. I walk over to the sphinx and suddenly I am nearly assaulted by like a hundred guys offering me tours of the area. No, No, No I say. But one guy follows me for 20mins trying to haggle the price. Finally he gets to like $20 and says if I don’t think it was worth it I can keep my $20. What’s to lose hu?

Off we go, this guy is a pro. He has been giving people tours around here for 30 years or more. As soon as I started walking with him all of the scammer backed off. Its like once you have been claimed they rest stay away. This actually was a breath of fresh air for these people to stop bothering me. He takes me around and we snap some cheesy photos which I really didn’t want to do but I guess they were fun.

After that he offers to take me to the tomb areas to really see something special. There are no tourists here at all, its clearly off limits but once again a little bribe and a quick nod and the guards move away. It was really cool walking around the tomb area since it seemed so off limits. Another bribe and a nod and I even got to go down inside one of the tombs! Jesus this is crazy how are we able to do this.

We walk out of the tombs area and out another private entrance to the pyramids. He then brings up that I owe him for the bribes and the tour. Well yeah I guess I do owe him. He said it would be amazing and it really was. He came up some some slightly crazy bribe amount but we got down to a reasonable price. I think I gave him $100 for the tour. After that its of course on to his family’s shop to look at souvenirs and papyrus scrolls. Uggh of course… But he says we will go have tea after awards so I go along with it. The shop is really nice but you can really see that the entire tourist industry has been hit hard from the revolution. I felt pretty bad for everyone so I bought a $20 bottle of lotus oil as a gift. Small price to pay to help the community.

So my guide and I are pretty good buddies now so we head out to have tea and smoke shisha. We hung out for another hour or more just chatting about stuff, playing dominos, and drinking tea. He says he really likes me and tells me I should have dinner with his family that night. I totally trust this guy at this point we spent most of the day together. Before dinner he asks if I want to go smoke some hash with him. Sure why not! I don’t smoke at home but its so common in muslim countries that I just got used to it now.

So we hop into a cab and head way out of town. Like way way out of town in the middle of nowhere. We drive into a little village area where there are no roads and drive along the alley to the “hash bar”. This place ends up being one of his buddies houses! It only has one room, one bed, and a tv on. The whole family is just sitting in there with us and none of them speak english. The guide orders for me and the guy brings me a few beers and a hookah with a little brick of hash in it. The grand mother brings me this buffalo cheese and flat bread she makes and we watch football on tv for a little while.

Meeting this family was awesome, they were so happy to see me! Little kids from all over the village came to the door to see the white guy smoking and drinking in this family home. It was a huge deal for everyone and they were all really nice. One of the daughters was about 13 but she kept going on about how cute I was and how she wanted to marry a nice white guy. It was cute, if not a little creepy. I bet I could have left with a wife!

Its getting late so we start to head out but suddenly we have to haggle for the price of the hash. They go crazy high, $50 for this tiny tiny piece. Things are getting bad, suddenly this family turns not so nice and my guide “tries” to get us to agree on things. I think I paid $20 in the end just so we could go. I was in the middle of no where and it was best I settle things and get back to where I was safer.

We hop in our cab who was waiting this whole time and wasn’t happy we took so long! My guide says hes going to head home and tells the driver to take me to the nearest subway station. Before we part ways he runs into a store and buys a massive amount of fish and cheese for dinner we drop him off near by and the cab drives me back into town. My guide said he would pay the driver but forgot I am sure. The guy got me again! The driver was super cool though and crazy friendly. I end up paying him a little and giving him what was left of my tiny bit of hash. That dude was crazy happy like I made his week. Free hash! haha He said he knew the guy and saw him all the time so I taught him some bad names in english to call him when he sees him again. He absolutely loved this and said he would get revenge for me.

In the end it really hit me, the whole day I was totally taken for a ride. I got caught by everyone despite thinking I was such a great traveler and knew better. At first I was a little angry, how did I let myself fall for so many traps! The whole day cost me like $200! Holy shit! But then I thought about it. What an absolutely crazy adventure I had! Never in a million years would I have been able to do any of this. I just had the adventure of a lifetime and gained a amazing story that I will never forget. By buddy that ditched me was back at the hostel, he found the official stuff and saved tons of money but had a really boring day. I had the time of my life and I wouldn’t change it for the world.