Adventures in an Aswan souq

Aswan was probably my favourite of the towns we stayed in during our
two weeks. The
first morning we arrived and walked through the bustling streets from
the station to
the hotel I knew I was going to like it. The bazaar with it's bright
stalls of multi
coloured spices, the people hurrying about their business with smiling
faces, it was
wonderful.

I'd heard so many bad stories about Arab markets,about the hard sell
from the sales
men who just wouldn't let you go, that I was a little apprehensive but
we discovered
the truth was very different. That first morning a group of us, mostly
female,
decided to go out and explore the bazaar. As soon as we walked into the
street we
were hailed from every side by people shouting "Hello, how are you?".
Initially we
did feel a little intimidated but we soon realised that a smile and a
friendly
answer to their enquiries and a polite indication that you weren't
interested in
buying anything and you were sent on your way with a friendly "Enjoy
your stay in
Egypt". We quickly discovered that there was something of a pattern to
the
conversations.

For us girls, the first question was always "Are you English?" which
got a great
response from my travelling companions as most of them were
Australian!. The second
question was inevitably "Are you married?" We were later told that a
lot of Egyptian
men have a fascination with English women and they would love to have
English wives.
After a while, as we became more used to the Aswan bazaar, we began to
give answers
such as "Yes, I have 4 husbands at home" and on one occasion when our
group
consisted 5 girls and one guy we all claimed to be his wives, to which
the reply
came "Very lucky man!".

During my stay in Aswan I did not feel threatened at any time. The
people there rely
heavily on tourism so, let's face it, it is in their interest to make
you feel
relaxed and at ease.

The highlight if our stay in Aswan came on the last night when we
travelled up-river
past the cataracts to visit a Nubian village for the evening. A local
family
welcomed us for dinner and then entertained us with traditional songs.
This is a
real feature of Explore holidays, wherever possible they try to use
local forms of
transport, local accommodation and they also try to let the local
people earn money
without foregoing their traditional way of life. Allowing local
families to earn
money by entertaining small groups is one such way. For us, the
tourists, it's an
experience we won't forget and for most of us this is the reason we are
travelling -
to see different cultures and the way they live.

Later in the evening the daughter of the family decorated us with henna
tattoos, the
Nubian women use henna to decorate their skin for weddings and
festivals. My tattoo,
which went around my wrist like a bracelet, lasted for several weeks
and caused
something of a stir in the next board meeting when I returned to work.
As I handed a
document to one of the directors my sleeve rose up to reveal it and his
eyebrows
also rose - I don't think it was quite what he expected from the
company accountant!

At the end of the night we said goodbye to the family and headed back
down river in
the moonlight for our last night sleeping in Aswan and our last night
sleeping in a
bed for some days - tomorrow we boarded the feluccas!