I don't know what you're looking for but I know I have it!

Shopping as a tourist in Egypt is exhausting. This evening we went for a stroll down the main road of the soukh - a market. The soukh in Aswan is supposed to be the largest outside Cairo.
It smelled fantastic - loads of spice stalls and outdoor cooking - delicious! The problem is that men keep coming up to you and asking you to come and buy something:

I give you money to look in my shop!
Where you from?
I don't know what you're looking for but I know I have it!
Hello! Hello!
Are you Dutch? (or any other language!)

You are constantly bombarded. It makes Shenzhen look so quiet and unobtrusive! Hugo doesn't like it one bit. You keep saying no thank you, but they just keep following you. Most are polite, but some are rude. When I said no thank you and kept walking, one guy said, "Americans. Bad people". Wrong both times! After that we found a shop with no one at the front and went in. The guy was great and gave us good deals on a fez for Hugo and a couple of t-shirts. I told him about the other guy and he was very apologetic and gave me a little speech about how there are good people and bad people in every country. I gave him a little speech about how people shouting at me is a deterrent to purchasing and that it was refreshing not to be shouted at. He was very polite and when we asked if he knew where we could get henna at a good price, took us to another shop where the guy was also very polite.

When we left and we were walking down the road another dozen guys came after us to buy something in their shop. I spoke to one of them and said that it was really offputting to be called out to and followed and said he was very sorry but the problem is that at this time of the year there are hardly any tourists. He was very nice. I said I was sorry there were no tourists. We didn't see any other non-Egyptians while we were in the soukh.

In effect we were the only tourists in a very large soukh, I guess we were obvious targets!

Fun shopping, but tiring! By the way, the blue powder below is indigo - you put it in the washing with your whites to make them bright! I wish I had more room - the spices and dried things are calling out to me, but I must resist. We are drinking massive amounts of water! Temperature forecast for tomorrow in Aswan - 43 degrees.

No blog for a few days now - we're going sailing!