Anecdotal Evidence

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Old Winter Palace Hotel

Luxor, Egypt

Agenda

Karnak Temple

Luxor Temple

Avenue of the Sphinxes. Luxor.

We just got back from a visit to Karnak temple. It was 40 degrees in the shade, and seriously hotter in the sun. I could feel my lips burning and my camera body was hot to the touch. The locals wisely huddled in the shadows, but under the open sun, I saw Japanese tourists weeping openly with looks of uncomprehending confusion. It was an ugly scene, but the light was good, and I managed to take many fine pictures.

When hit with this kind of scorching heat, conversation inevitably suffers. I trotted out my favourite story about the heat in Luxor: Some years back, I was here in a much cooler January, and by cooler, I mean 30 degrees rather than 40. We were over on the West Bank, waiting at a tomb entrance for one of the guards to get the keys and open its door for us. The western hills are desert – an incandescent beige that hurt the eyes no matter how much squinting one does, or how thick the sunglasses. Fanning myself with my hat, I said to one of the other guards, “Sure is hot.” He nodded. “What's it like in the summer?” I asked. “It's horrible,” he said.

The 2011 revolution has been good for Egypt; that's what everybody here says, and I believe them. But it has been very bad for business, especially in a place like Luxor which is intimately dependent on tourists for the economy. Luxor (city) recently split off from Luxor (state) so that it could have more control over how it spent the massive amount of tourist money that flows into this city as a result of its close proximity to the Valley of the Kings and four of the largest and most famous temples in the country. A wise decision in the good times, but today, everyone here is hurting. You can hear it in their voices as they harangue you to take a kalesh ride or to sail in their felucca.

“Five pounds to take you to the market and back!” they offer. This is good price, assuming they're talking Egyptian Pounds, not British Pounds, a sucker's trick that shouldn't work on anyone, and yet you always hear it. I walked around Luxor Temple at lunch today, and had one kalesh driver follow me more than half-way, asking if I wanted to see this, or be taken somewhere else. A polite “No, thank you” escalated to “I don't need a kalesh today, thank you”, but it took me fixing him in the eyes and saying “No” in the way you would a dog, and that was nearly enough to break my heart right then and there.

I spoke to a man who claimed to be 50, but looked more like 65. His English was unusually good, and we talked about politics, and the new president. He was reserving judgment until Morsi has had more time, in office, I think. That's reasonable. “What about the petrol shortages,” I asked. “Someone is causing them, and there is an investigation,” he said. “But this has been happening since the spring,” I said. “How long do they have to investigate?” He nodded, “What I mean is, they have not found out who is doing it yet. But they will.” He went on to tell me about a time a few years ago when he said something against the government, and the police arrested him on the spot, taking him back to the station to cool his heels for three hours. They eventually told him to get lost, but he says this was not an unusual story. Before the revolution, you could not say anything. “But now you can,” he said. At least they have that.

Change is hard, and political change, even more so. Getting rid of Mubarak is a lesson that no one who rules Egypt should ever forget. Things are improving, but there's no time to waste. Yallah!