57: Egyptians are manipulative.

So I was in Egypt for a week, and because this is my third country in the last two months I told myself that I won’t be buying anything on this trip because… head burn(money no dey again). Or at least that was the initial plan, silly me.

So we had full day tour where we visited some of the iconic places, like the pyramid, which honestly has interesting story about a father, son and grandson (maybe I’ll write on it later), also they actually said the people who built the pyramid are not slaves, with reasons that was a tad bit convincing, anyways back to the story about thinking I won’t be spending jack

So that’s how we entered a store that looks like those fabric store in Balogun market, in Lagos island, they said it was made from Egyptian Cotton, and instead of them just telling us to comman buy like those Igbo boys in the market, they used the tour guides to bring us in. That already cut our defenses into bits because na we pay for tour guide.

Next thing was how they shares history of the cotton as they showed us around. Long story short we were convince enough to buy scarf, and then fridge magnet, it felt logical cos yeah it’s just a piece of Egypt, but stay with me..

Next thing, they took us to the oil factory abi something, those ones too didn’t jump straight to selling o, they gave us history how they were the first and originators of perfume, how luxury perfumes are a remake of some of the oil like the Dior sauvage, and I actually layered that oil on me and it had similar fragrance. Long story short ehn, that’s how we ended up buying two oil each after they have given us like 8 samples to try on. Bro, thank God say I no even get money, I for buy like four oil.

The trick they used for us were really simple. First they didn’t allow the tourist to just come by luck o. They actually found a way to partner with your guides to make this stores a tourist attraction, then they now curated a good story! Kai if they give you the same gist dem give me, you go swipe too, no worry yourself.

You know that they even always now tell you that “for you” I’ll take off some amount 😂. What do you mean because of me? You know me before? lol bro they sabi this marketing thing. Na so we take spend plenty money for these two stores o.

Long story short. All these places we went to no different from wetin Nigeria get o, but we no sabi anything pass thief  😂. We can’t find a way to sell stories and make it become very appealing…

See even when we went to one of the most talked about location in sharm el shiek, Egypt. Farsha is like a cafe, the place is not the only cafe beside the water o, but if you see the narrative they painted for it? It was a must visit for us.

We got there and we couldn’t even enter because everyone in the world also wanted to see the cafe and it was full!!! lol. Na so dem say make we go collect ticket to wait, they had a beautiful cafe beside it that’s the waiting area. lol. Sense wan finish them.

The waiting area is an actual cafe on its own, it was designed with the same effort and thought. Honestly na there I take spend money on drinks, we literally didn’t feel the need to experience the actual Farsha because the waiting area was a beautiful spot on its own.

And just like us, a lot of us came to the cafe to experience  the light at the comes up at first darkness. As soon as they were about to turn it on, they started playing their unique music and the bartender informed us that the light was about to come on, and the waiting area filled with people all turned on the camera to record from the top, because the actual cafe was down through the rocks. It was a beautiful experience but it was just for less than a minute really.

One minute experience na him people pay money, join waitlist to come experience? Just because of content marketing o. And honestly it was worth it because we later got the chance to go into the actual cafe and we didn’t really care much about it and left just 10 mins afterwards.

They understand how to get people’s appeal, but I will not end this story without spoiling them small… see, those people dey beg! They call it tip!

They can force you to tip them o, after you pay for service, they go still ask for tip, they shine teeth. Dirty behavior. And their tip has a minimum expectation. No be like our own beggars wey you fit give any amount. So if you’re going to Egypt, expect to have a nice time if you have a good tour guide, and anticipate begging in form of tip.

If you no use sense, you go to press money. Because they make it so uncomfortable, so better go train your mind to strong so you don’t fold.