10am met Mohammed (our rep we didn't know we had) in the lobby to look into some trips.
He'd put a leaflet in our door that listed the excursions available, most of which we wanted to do. Being the modernistic people we are, we always spend some time researching the location and potential trips, by looking at other peoples holiday reports on sites like TripAdvisor.com, and the sites of the local companies. So we were fairly clued up as to what we wanted to do and how much it would all cost.
Just before our turn came up with him, another guy jumped in front to ask some questions, he was ready to book his trips and pay the full asking price in the brochure... however Mohammed told him to wait his turn behind us. The guy sloped off and sat a few tables away to wait.
So we sat and talked for quite a while about the trips, and then started the haggling process when he gave us the price. There's no way I was paying full asking price for anything lol!!!
We were interested in quite a few trips that would net him a good days earnings, so I knew I had room to manoeuvre. After a lot of (friendly) haggling we got about 10% off everything, though he had to make some calls and convince some other people to let him do it.
So we booked the following trips:
- Friday 2nd July - Ras Mohammed Boat Trip Inc 3 guided snorkelling dives
- Sun 4th July - The Pyramids & Nile Cruise (fly to Cairo at 4.30am!!!)
- Tue 6th July - quad bikes in the desert (a favourite trip after doing the same in Turkey)
- Wed 7th July - Bedouin Nights & Stargazing (lots of good reviews & hopefully a more authentic side to the Egyptian way of life.
In-between that lot we also need to fit in some diving trips with Oonas Dive Club. They've been recommended to us thru our diving instructor Jon Drinkwater. Our plan is to go there later this evening, meet up with Nick and Corin and discuss what we can do in terms of diving trips - with the twins not qualified we need to make sure they don't get out of their depth...lol
So back to our rep... I went off to get some cash while Sam and Mohammed worked out how much we'd pay in each currency ( we used up some Euros and the rest on a bank card but worked out in US dollars cos the exchange rate is better - complicated it was).
When I returned, Mohammed told me I had driven a hard bargain ( I didn't feel bad because if they couldn't afford it they wouldn't sell it to you - they just walk away). Apparently, the guy that tried to push in ahead of us had come back to Mohammed, changing his mind about paying the brochure price after seeing me haggle him down! I was quite proud of myself lol.
We paid up but only after I pointed out Mohammed had counted the cash incorrectly, going over by 100 Euros. For a second I thought I'd say nothing and then worried that he might lose a hand for such a big mistake, and we might get chased thru the airport... again... Another story for another time from a trip to Fuerteventura... Anyway now Mohammed owes me :-)
We spent the rest of the day around the pool until about 4pm, then got ready to go to find the Oonas Dive Club. We'd been told it was best to catch the instructors when they were returning from their dives, later in the day.
We got a taxi, which we haggled on for a better price and got dropped off outside the dive centre by Aslef our driver. We spoke to Nick and Corin and booked a dive for us all out the next day, Thu 1st July.
We decided to walk along the beach for a while and then cut back to dry land and found a road snaking it's way between the beach and back of the hotels and restaurants. It lead us to what we think was the centre of Naama Bay.
I ended up whipping out the iPhone to get a map up & our GPS position & search for the Hard Rock Cafe. We found our way there in the next 5 minutes and just escaped the locals trying to harass us into their shops.
We had a great time, as always, in the HRC, got some souvenir glasses and badge before calling our taxi ride home to bed.
Bye for now!
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