Leaving Luxor

Just a lazy day today. I sleep in really late because I am due to fly out tonight and don't want to miss my flight. I have a little bit of food for lunch which is a good sign. I then went and sat by the Nile for a while to write and watch the river. Of course I was asked by four men if I had a boyfriend or was married. They just plop themselves down and start yapping away when all I want to do is be by myself. I tell them I have an amazing boyfriend that is living with me in Italy. He is back in our hotel room sleeping. Three of them still don't get the hint so I just end up ignoring them. By the third one I just get up and go. I go down to a cafe near the Nile which looks really nice.

I sit down and wait to order. No one has taken my order after 45 minutes. I don't really care because I have a bottle of water on hand to quence my thirst. When a waiter does arrive I ask to see the menu. I simply don't trust anyone anymore. The price quoted is stating 3 EP for a small bottle of sprite. At the bottom is an added extra. Service charge and tax are not included. I ask the waiter what the percentage is for service and tax. I don't mind paying it but I want to know what it is. He says he doesn't know and that it depends on what I order and how much it is. I ask why he doesn't know what the charge is when he works there. We get into an argument and I ask so if I buy a coke how much is it going to cost me? He tells me that it will cost me 4 EP. I tell him then that there is over a 30% charge for service and tax. I am disgusted and walk away from the table without ordering anything. At least I had an hour there relaxing for no charge.

I continue to walk around Luxor filling in time before going to collect my clothes that I put in for washing and ironing the day before. They have arrived back looking good. It is not until the next day that I put on a shirt and realise that the toothpaste stain is still there from before I sent them to be cleaned. Because I had had so many clothes to get done I simply had not had the chance to check them when I picked them up. So much for trusting the Happy Land Hostel in Luxor for doing decent laundry. They now receive a big black mark against them for continuing their dishonesty with quoting prices as well doing crap laundry that they say they wash (rooms are crap too).

After all this, I try and find my friend Mr. Hisham who did such a great job scrubbing my hair and making me look human again with a great blow dry the last time I was in Luxor. I can't find him in the labyrinthe of streets but tumble across another salon with a young girl at the helm. She quotes what I think is also 50 EP for a wash and dry and I accept the offer. She too does an amazing job and her assistant does a good wash in what is just a normal sink. My hair is clean again and looking straight and not all over the shop. I hand over the 50 EP and she hands back 35 EP change. She had quoted me 15 EP. I was too shocked for such a great job she did that I gave her the whole 35 EP back as a tip. She was flabbergasted and I really had made her day. I thought she was going to cry she put her face in her hands. That restored my faith in the Egyptian people, and I walked back to the hotel to get my stuff and head out to the airport.