As our ship neared the Esna lock, it slowed down.
Dusk was just falling, and we were all of us on the deck, when suddenly there was much shouting and waving from below and we all ran towards the rails to ee what was happening.
A couple of boatmen had thrown ropes and attached themselve sto our ship and were peddling their wares.
All ships on the Nile cruise have ajeallabiya night where tourists dress up in local gear.
These boamen had various dresses , which they were touting as Cleopatra dreses and the way they were displaying it was wonderful.
They wrapped the dresses in Plastic bags and with absolute accuracy threw the bags upto the deck for us to view.Then began haggling with prices coming down from 200 egyptian pounds to 25 LE.
There was much tosising to n fro of the packets while the haggling took place.
Once the price was fixed the dress was taken ou of the packet and money put instead and thrown back to the waiting boats.
Of course we missed many times and the boatmen had to retrieve their packets from the Nile amdst much grumbling , laughing and apologies.
Ingenuous Marketing on the Nile
