Matt Embarrasses the Family Again

Discussing with Ross that I was going to come
"uncorked" on Ebrahim if things didn't change

Our guide Ebrahim got in a bit of a funk about our group. Apparently he usually accompanies older groups on higher-end trips where they fly back and forth instead of train or bus travel. He’s also more into the culture so found our group a bit enigmatic. We have been getting up at 6:30 or earlier most days and then wasting some time at places like a perfume factory … then getting to the next hotel at 3 in the afternoon. Also we weren’t stopping for lunch regularly and (as we have said many times before) our army travels on its stomach.


Marina was gently trying to let him know that we wanted to wake up later, that we needed to stop for food more regularly, and she kind of got stuffed. A couple of dust ups when Marina raised her voice let me know that she wasn’t too happy – either with the way things were going and perhaps more importantly the way she was being treated.


Anyway he dropped a bit of a threat to our group that he would leave someone behind if we took more than exactly 1 hour for lunch, and I reacted … and told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn't going to leave anybody behind, that I didn’t like the BS and also didn’t like being treated like a child … so things got heated a bit … I reminded him that for what we were paying for the trip we could be staying at a Ritz Carlton somewhere and that wasting our time going to places like a perfumery -- and then not stopping for lunch when we are hungry shouldn't be on the agenda. After 3 back-and-forths he sat down .... I believe I made my point.


Ross was sitting beside me and asked me why I am such a jerk sometimes. I told him that while I can be a demanding customer … (he sarcastically repeated the word "demanding?") I am just as demanding on my own teams to provide great service. I really hate it when guys ‘mail it in’. What's the point of not doing your best work ..... its an insult to your customers and yourself.

Twenty minutes later we stopped and Ebrahim asked us to be back on time -- no threats, just a request -- but all 12 of us ditched on his recommended hotel lunch and went to a place chosen by Jeremy and Sarah out of their Lonely Planet book. We had a nice lunch of fried chicken and veggies. We knew we were in time trouble when at 12:25 (after our washroom break and a 15 minute walk to the restaurant) we ordered the chicken and the guy took out some chickens and started to chop them up with a cleaver. The lunch was tasty and cheap, and unplanned though it was, we arrived back at the bus a little later than instructed as a group. I think that's called asserting our initiative.



Would you like Chicken, Chicken or Chicken?
The little restaurant from the Lonely Planet book series.
It was the most expensive of the three restaurants in
town because it had table-cloths. Still a 4 course dinner
for 25 Egyptian Pounds is about $4.50 CAD.



Anyway, I don’t know whether it was because of my outburst, our group's solidarity at lunch, or whether the cultural part of the tour was pretty much done .... but from that point on we felt the tour changed a bit, a little less cultural, a bit more adventure –- a little more sleeping in (until 7am at least) and lunch at a regular time -- and that suited us just fine.

Perhaps a little squeakiness isn’t a bad thing.