Started off the morning well with 2 other couples and a Shared a van at 5:30am for a 1 hour ride to Istanbul (which we think is the largest airport in Europe. And it is indeed enormous! Half airport half shopping mall.
Arrived at Luxor airport and immediately realized that there was no ATM in sight,and I had no Egyptian money. So we made our way to what we thought would be a taxi stand, but unfortunately they don’t exist at the Luxor airport, or any Egyptian airport for that manner.
So I reached into my trusty cell phone to try to get an Uber, which I found immediately, but after I committed, the scam began, and the Uber driver started upping the price and telling me I needed to pay him more. I tried to get back into the airport to find an ATM, but some security guard in a white outfit told me I couldn’t go back in. I think he was looking for a bribe.
Now I’m starting to panic and I have to start negotiating and bartering at night with a bunch of guys in the street for a ride to my hotel. Of course, none of them take credit cards, and I have no idea what type of taxi firm they are with, or if they’re just gypsy cabs.
I finally settled on 300 Egyptian pounds, at first they wanted 500 Egyptian pounds but I knew that was probably too much. So we went walking off with some guy wearing a sheet, and I was extremely relieved to see that it was actually a real taxi and not just some guy. He also agreed that even though I had no cash, she would wait for me at the hotel. I was in hyperaware mode, but also very tired from our long trip which started at 4 o’clock in the morning.
We finally got to the hotel and now I’m just in a bit of a haze. I walked in and convinced the person at the front desk to allow me 300 Egyptian dollars on my room so I could pay off the taxi driver. And then they took me to an ATM, which charged $70 in a fee per transaction, which is another rip off.
You would think by now that I would know that when you’re in a foreign country, you have to arrange for a pick up from the hotel ahead of time, which is what I’m going to do from now on, even though it cost quite a bit of money. It’s just too much hassle trying to negotiate with people who are there explicitly to rip you Off. Picking people up from the airport is like a license to steal.
Looking back on it now, it was an adventure, but not a lot of fun.
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