“Grace Cheng say she felt unsafe during her week-long holiday”
What can I say other than “Boo Hoo!”
This is one the most damaging and biased reports from the Daily Mail that I have read in a long time and I hope they follow it up with something more accurate soon.
This could have been written by so many people visiting so many countries simply because they don’t like being hassled. Thieving and scamming is altogether different and to make statements like that because you personally feel unsafe being hassled is simply not on!
How Safe is Egypt?
First of all, if a holiday is your ‘trip of a lifetime’ and you don’t do the simplest of research first then you only have yourself to blame.
Egypt is a very poor country where begging and hassling is common place outside the resorts. It will take you about 5 minutes online to find that out. In addition, there are numerous reviews with authors you can chat with that are more than happy to discuss the culture with you.
My sister and I have traveled many many times unaccompanied and never once felt unsafe. We like Sharm el Sheikh for beach holidays but our preference is for Luxor where we feel quite comfortable walking the streets alone.
How Safe is Egypt?
Yes the children beg in the streets and if you are daft enough to hand money out or show you are intimidated then you are going to get mobbed, but rarely have I known these children steal. We feel more comfortable in Luxor that many many other large cities where stealing is rife.
We take school materials and sweets to hand out and a few loud words in my ‘teacher’ voice, soon has them lining up quietly.
You may think the staff and locals are all about money and tips but most are simply proud to have ‘English’ friends. Stealing or fleecing tourists is very much frowned on culturally. Working hard in the hope of tips, yes, but typically, if you have tipped someone at the start of your stay and they are moved to another hotel, they will seek you out to return the tip.
Similarly, begging is frowned on unless ‘necessary’. Locals would often discretely nod when someone was in genuine need so we could go back quietly and give a small amount, which to a widowed mother and child, is a huge amount but very little to us
