Egypt has prepared a New Year’s gift for the Russians: it will allow to pay in rubles

Egypt is preparing a gift for the Russians – the opportunity to purchase tickets for the famous pyramids in Giza for native rubles. The step is timely, since with the beginning of the high season, Russian tourists from Egyptian resorts have less and less joy and more and more complaints about them. Will the “ruble pyramids” save Egypt from competition in the form of other winter destinations popular with Russians like Goa, Sri and Thailand?

The Egyptian authorities are periodically reminded of the benefits of the legal circulation of the ruble in Egyptian tourist oases by the parliamentary committee on tourism, which also owns the initiative to sell tickets for the Russian currency to the country’s most iconic attraction – the pyramids of Giza. According to the head of the committee, “the issue has been worked out for a long time, and measures for its implementation will be taken in the near future.” Today, a general ticket for passage to the pyramids costs 240 Egyptian pounds (about 590 rubles) for foreigners, and 60 pounds for the Egyptians themselves (about 150 rubles). Also, each individual pyramid charges an entrance fee, the most expensive is Khufa (the pyramid of Cheops), tourists have to pay another 600 pounds (1,500 rubles) for visiting it. Giza cash desks accept cash Egyptian currency and bank cards. And if the Egyptian authorities meet their parliamentary committee on tourism, then Russian tourists will be able to pay with their domestic bank cards.

– I think our payment systems will be united before the end of the year, – so far, an employee of the Cairo bank suggests in an unofficial field. – Also because it is not only for the sake of attracting tourists, but also to expand trade with Russia. It is more convenient for Egypt to pay for your grains this way.

Meanwhile, “mere mortals” tourists from the Russian Federation, who paid a lot of money for the opportunity to stay a week in the warmth of the Red Sea, instead of joy, are increasingly experiencing disappointment and indignation. In response to a Russian tourist’s RuNet story about “old furniture, dirty plumbing and bird droppings on the chairs of a street bar” in an expensive 4-star hotel in Hurghada, similar revelations poured into thematic chats.

– In our five-star all-inclusive hotel, some kind of decline generally reigned, – says a Muscovite who returned from the same Hurghada the day before. – The towels are dilapidated, there are stains on the plumbing and a general feeling of neglect. My husband and I regretted that we had chosen Egypt, although we also considered Goa for the same money. In Goa, of course, hotels are mostly so-so, but there is no lie: no one promises “luxury”. Here is a bunk, here is the ocean, choose your own food among a bunch of cheap cafes around. And in the Egyptian “all inclusive” you use what they give, since you have already paid, but this does not correspond to the price at all. Neither the food, nor the condition of the hotel, nor the organization of recreation.

Solidarity with her and the family from St. Petersburg with a five-year-old daughter.

“We sat in our five-star pen, on elegant sofas, sometimes burnt with cigarettes, choked on inedible multi-colored treats and drinks and admired drunken compatriots,” the mother of the family shares. – Along the way, fighting off the locals, who are trying in any way to steal their “baksheesh” from us – to take us to the factory, on an excursion, to a “special” hammam, if only for an additional fee to our “all inclusive”.

A stormy response was also caused by the story of a Russian blogger who said that in Egypt the worst thing is not even dirt in hotels, but the road home. Here is how she describes the “search at the entrance to the Hurghada airport”:

“Queue in turns at ten. First, they checked passports and paper tickets. Namely, paper, printed. According to the tourist, those who did not have a printout were marinated on the sidelines for a long time, and only in the last turn they took pity, skipping the screenshot of the ticket on the phone. Everyone passing on the flight to the Russian Federation had to take off their shoes twice: “Even slippers are forced to take off, you have to walk barefoot on the dirty floor, because they don’t offer any“ socks-footprints ”.

The tourist counted several “searches”: “We almost lost part of our hand luggage. Because several times they are forced to pass through a metal detector. People either forget to take off the belt, or the watch, or the phone in the pocket is found. But things have already left … The next stage is a personal search. You will be felt from head to toe. Separate women, separate men. Then another search, large tables with Arabs and magazines. All with hand luggage here, open, please, show, the employee himself rummages through your things, sign that you have passed the inspection. This is followed by a standard check-in for the flight: if you bought extra baggage a couple of days before departure, your payment may not be found, prepare a receipt confirming payment. Before passport control, they filled out the declaration form and attached it to the passport.” But the main “search”, according to the Russian woman, is before entering the sterile zone: “Employees inspect hand luggage on a tape, then they personally turn everything over with their hands. Unpack souvenir boxes. They do it fun, talking in their own language. And you stand by as they put both hands into your backpack.”

Other compatriots who have recently returned from an Egyptian vacation also note that Russians on departure have a “special” attitude: citizens of the Russian Federation and their luggage are inspected most closely, and a separate “sterile zone” has been allocated for Russians.

– Such a special Russian paddock – describes a traveler from Moscow. – We have already allocated a separate terminal so that the Russians do not merge with the crowd of tourists from other countries. And they are all together in another terminal. On departure, the Egyptian officer opened my suitcase, put his hand into the bag with my linen, and then was distracted by a conversation with a comrade. He squeals something on his own, neighs, and at the very hand in my shorts. At that moment, I felt like a slave in some kind of reservation.