Lines Egyptians use to sell you stuff

Souks in Egypt are full of vendors that want to sell you things (shocker).  They make no bones about trying to lure in tourists and driving the bargaining process.  If you’re an aggressive type that enjoys a friendly battle of wills and currency, this scene is right up your alley.  If you like to shop and be left alone, then you’re going to be rather annoyed.

But no matter personality and shopping type, you have to hand it to these Egyptian vendors for some of their creative approaches to lure in the buyers.  I’ve complied the following list of lines that were fed to my friends and I on our trip to Egypt two years ago:

“Hello, hello!  Where you from?”

“Obaaaamaaaaa!”

“Hello, I help you spend your money!”

“No hassle, no hassle!”

“Only 10% hassle!”

Same vendor, 10 minutes later:  “Only 8% hassle!”

Same vendor, yet another 10 minutes later:  “Ok, only 5% hassle!”

And then there was the guy that merely plucked a huge live lizard from a bucket and wordlessly held it out to us in hopes that we were in the market for a live reptile. 

So whether you enjoy or loathe the bargaining challenge that comes with the souks in Egypt, you can at least enjoy the creative efforts to grab your attention - and your money.

These are a few of my favorite (Vietnamese) things

Dan and I made it to Cambodia today.  We celebrated not killing each other or ourselves by enjoying a lovely, ice cold Angkor beer at lunch!  There are a lot of fantastic things from Vietnam that warrant their own write-ups, but they will have to wait a bit.  Frankly, it'll be easier to do so when I have access to a computer that doesn't try to auto-correct my typing to, say, Vietnamese or Cambodian.  So when I return to the states next week (BOO), I will go back and fill in the blanks.  But until then, here are a few of my favorite things from Vietnam:

1.  Watching our homestay host in Sapa go to town on a bong while his 2-yr old son sat in his lap.

2.  Eating pho on the street on a plastic stool that was clearly meant for the 2-year old in #1 above.

3.  Realizing that Dan and I were the only people in the country not wearing face masks. 

4.  Buying a conical hat, then 48 hrs later actually putting it to use in the rain.

5.  Dan wearing a conical hat with a big yellow ribbon.

6.  Finding beer for 20 cents a glass in Hoi An.

7.  Having said beer in Hoi An served to us by a 3-year old.

8.  The one phrase that everyone in Vietnam knows:  "Hello, you buy!"

9.  Laughing at sunglasses vendors trying to sell me sunglasses despite the fact that I was wearing... sunglasses.

10.  Attending Champocalypse:  the all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink-Veuve-Clicquot brunch at the Intercontinental Saigon (my stomach is still in recovery from that).

11.  Dan getting attacked by a chicken.

12.  SUPER MUCH FUN!!