I am waiting for my chicken to be done right now so what better time to talk about the food i had in Egypt.
Our hotel was called Le Pasha, i don't know what it means but Egyptians cannot pronounce 'p' so its Le Basha to them. People would be Beoble in Egypt. Justin Bierber would be Justin Bierber. I am so lame....
I have never been to another hotel with a better restaurant. The food was heavenly. I love when its time to take your pick. you can't taste everything at one meal. Plus, there's so so much fresh vegetables n sweet juicy fruits which i can never get in russia. I served myself an average of 4 plates each time we dine. Thats breakfast, lunch and dinner. First i would take soup or milk and cereals if its is morning, and place it on the table we decided to sit for that day. Then i would excitedly but keep cool to get back in line for the main course, which was always rice, very fragrant rice and a fish, chicken or beef dish, or all three! At the end of the main course row, a chef would be behind the "today's special" serving it out individually. In the mornings, there will a a chef cooking omelets on the spot. So, plates to the table and back into line for some cakes or jellies or fruit salad. Next would be my favourite fruit cocktail - green honeydews with pieces of oranges and a sprinkle of promegranate. Refreshing! Love it, miss it, i will make it. At the end of the meal, we'll sit and chat a bit while we drink some tea, coffee, lemon juice or coke. Of all the alcoholic drinks, only beer is good, while the rest actually sucks. Even their carbonated drinks taste unoriginal. Local products...hmph.
And to my surprise, we had 'kembung' fish for lunch one day by the beach. Reminded me of home, Malaysia even though mom never really buys kembung fish and I've never like the taste of it but it was so damn good in Egypt, in total I had 5. Taste can be psychological sometimes.
Shek would eat differently, he would skip the appetizer, not worth he says, take some rice/bread then take meat, meat n more meat. After finishing his 1st serving, he would go for the meat he liked best that day. Then, get up and get some cakes and tea. He started eating some fruits after about 3 days. you know why.
Okay, i've gotta write about my experience in a souvenir shop. Bola n Michael took us to their friend's souvenir shop. They said " Get all your souvenirs from there, it will be cheap!". So we went. I was very excited because there's no way we would be cheated.
I saw and held many beautiful things and i wanted to know the price before saying i am interested but i was hushed to put them all on the counter. So, because i was so busy going through my list deciding what for who, the rest of the gang was ready to pay. The owner was actually counting everything without discount and i think i was the only one with the " oi oi oi, where is the discount? " face. My friends already had their wallets open wide. So the Mr.Clever -Shop -owner counted in dollars and converted it into Egyptian Pounds and it seemed much more. All the counting was very confusing with minus this, plus that, exchange this and they paid quite some money for the things they bought. When it came to our pile of souvenirs, the shop owner already looked a little exhausted with all the numbers and maths. He counted ours in dollars even though we keep telling him we want to pay in E.P. He said " OK, OK OK," and continues to count in dollars. It came to about 400 E.P.( RM200)! without counting shek's papyrus ( that's another 130) Thats way too much i thought and shek's eyes went " whaaaaaaaaat?"
so, quite convinced that this man thinks we're dumb tourists, i was honestly pissed and it showed very much and i decided to send him a message. I started asking him for the price of each item and afterwards, i removed 9 out of 10 and said, i will put this back and he was shocked and i looked shit serious coz i really was. everybody was scared looking at me. Can u imagine me red, tired, puffy and pissed. So, he said "wait wait wait wait, i minus, i minus " and he recounted everything slowly and he started to deduct 10 E.P. for each item. Once he stopped and said " oh, this i cannot, expensive" and i would say " No, i'll put it back" and he'll give in shaking his head and minus 10 E.P. Now, i was really still pissed until i realize i was actually doing the bargaining act and i am very very proud of myself afterwards. Now, the second time he counted, he counted in E.P. and it came up to 211 E.P. without the papyrus and its too cheap now. So, shek n i told him "see? u counted wrong ( if honestly : oi, u wanted to cheat us?)". He looked flabbergasted and was frowning and said " hey, i count wrong?" so we told him to count again and he simply just said " ok, Ok, no need to count again, plus papyrus 340 E.P"
Ka-ching! we paid. With that, all the messy counting was done and he invited us to the sofa and we chatted, sang, danced, got into the Egytian costumes, took some posing advertisement like pictures and smoked shisha and eat pears before leaving the shop with free tickets to a disco club.
Back in our hotel room, I took out all our souvenirs and started recounting the total amount with the discount given. The total was freaking 540! HE.COUNTED.WRONG! We were jumping with joy. From almost being cheated to being the cheaters! woohooooo! A little guilty but hey, it was unintentional. I hope he's really is the boss, if not, he will be screwed deep.
But this is not the greatest buy in Egypt. Hats off to Lifen, she really concurred the bargaining world. She bought everything less than half of the opening price. I should have been with her. Would be such a great experience for life.
" Do not value according to price but Price it according to your value"
Shek would eat differently, he would skip the appetizer, not worth he says, take some rice/bread then take meat, meat n more meat. After finishing his 1st serving, he would go for the meat he liked best that day. Then, get up and get some cakes and tea. He started eating some fruits after about 3 days. you know why.
I saw and held many beautiful things and i wanted to know the price before saying i am interested but i was hushed to put them all on the counter. So, because i was so busy going through my list deciding what for who, the rest of the gang was ready to pay. The owner was actually counting everything without discount and i think i was the only one with the " oi oi oi, where is the discount? " face. My friends already had their wallets open wide. So the Mr.Clever -Shop -owner counted in dollars and converted it into Egyptian Pounds and it seemed much more. All the counting was very confusing with minus this, plus that, exchange this and they paid quite some money for the things they bought. When it came to our pile of souvenirs, the shop owner already looked a little exhausted with all the numbers and maths. He counted ours in dollars even though we keep telling him we want to pay in E.P. He said " OK, OK OK," and continues to count in dollars. It came to about 400 E.P.( RM200)! without counting shek's papyrus ( that's another 130) Thats way too much i thought and shek's eyes went " whaaaaaaaaat?"
so, quite convinced that this man thinks we're dumb tourists, i was honestly pissed and it showed very much and i decided to send him a message. I started asking him for the price of each item and afterwards, i removed 9 out of 10 and said, i will put this back and he was shocked and i looked shit serious coz i really was. everybody was scared looking at me. Can u imagine me red, tired, puffy and pissed. So, he said "wait wait wait wait, i minus, i minus " and he recounted everything slowly and he started to deduct 10 E.P. for each item. Once he stopped and said " oh, this i cannot, expensive" and i would say " No, i'll put it back" and he'll give in shaking his head and minus 10 E.P. Now, i was really still pissed until i realize i was actually doing the bargaining act and i am very very proud of myself afterwards. Now, the second time he counted, he counted in E.P. and it came up to 211 E.P. without the papyrus and its too cheap now. So, shek n i told him "see? u counted wrong ( if honestly : oi, u wanted to cheat us?)". He looked flabbergasted and was frowning and said " hey, i count wrong?" so we told him to count again and he simply just said " ok, Ok, no need to count again, plus papyrus 340 E.P"
Ka-ching! we paid. With that, all the messy counting was done and he invited us to the sofa and we chatted, sang, danced, got into the Egytian costumes, took some posing advertisement like pictures and smoked shisha and eat pears before leaving the shop with free tickets to a disco club.
Back in our hotel room, I took out all our souvenirs and started recounting the total amount with the discount given. The total was freaking 540! HE.COUNTED.WRONG! We were jumping with joy. From almost being cheated to being the cheaters! woohooooo! A little guilty but hey, it was unintentional. I hope he's really is the boss, if not, he will be screwed deep.
But this is not the greatest buy in Egypt. Hats off to Lifen, she really concurred the bargaining world. She bought everything less than half of the opening price. I should have been with her. Would be such a great experience for life.
" Do not value according to price but Price it according to your value"
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