Prices are enticing in Egypt, especially since their pound devalued, doubling the power of the U.S. dollar to nearly 18 pounds per dollar.  I looked forward to scoring bunches of bargain Christmas gifts when we visited the souq.  My chance came at last in Luxor, and I ventured out from under our guide’s protective wing for an hour.

It was seriously intimidating.  Vendors swarm the path and shout “shirts, scarves, camels, no hassle, just browsing, have a look, everything free, where you from?”  I can not shop with all that going on.  I walked several blocks to the end of the street without daring to stop to look at anything.  On the way back I saw a dress that was worth asking a price for.  A polite man with icky teeth carried on about the quality of the cotton:  “Touch this, now touch this, I have another I want to show you inside, I am Nubian, we aren’t pushy…”

The electricity was out in all the shops and I wasn’t up for going into a dark shop with him to touch dresses.  “I want to talk about this dress.  How much?”

He finally came out with the price.  I took our guide’s advice and low-balled.  The Nubian smiled and said he liked me, but he had to make a little profit.  It went on and on.  I turned to leave two or three times and finally paid half his original price because it was his “first sale of the day.”

Negotiating was stressful.  I didn’t know the rules of the game, and it’s an edgy game in our culture.  Also converting pounds to dollars in the heat of battle muddled my brain.  I worried that I’d played the fool because, from what our guide had told us, I didn’t really get a good price.  And yet, when I got back to the group, told my story, and had my dress admired, I felt like I’d had a good time.

Given another couple weeks of heavy haggling, I might have wrapped up Christmas for a song…