Egypt Travel Nightmare!! Why I’ll Never Go Back!!
- Thread starter Kool-Aid
- Start date
A millenium of inbreeding done a number on these people
Egyptians are weird no racist
He is an idiot. Most of the checks are done for security reasons - the ISIS terrorists have been attacking tourists and the Coptic community. So the government of Egypt has put in these extreme measures in order to stop terrorists from bringing explosive devices.
Besides, he should understand what is permitted to video record in Egypt and what is not. Western intelligence agents hiding behind as being tourists or journalist cause havoc in other countries. Therefore, the Egyptian government is justified to extremely monitor people like him.
He's not an idiot. As he mentioned in the video, he got a permit from the Egyptian government 10 weeks prior to arriving in the country to be able to shoot. They know who is he and what he's doing in the country. There just seems like a lack of communication between the government and whatever airport/security department he is dealing with.
Africa and it's fuckery and bureaucracy. He should have requested a official from the Ministry of Tourism as a guide. The official would have gotten him pass all the hoops and loops.
First of all, going to a country as a travel guy who wants to shoot how the Egyptian live and how their security organs function is quite different than a tourist. Instead of taking the tourist route, he brought huge equipment and he intermingled with the people while shooting his clips on anything he sees and anyone he speaks with.
Egypt is just coming out of an internal civil war, where they beat an ISIS rebellion plus Muslim Brotherhood revolution. There were huge attacks against government personnel and the Coptic community. So the security agencies were not dealing with what the tourist department authorized. They had to make sure those equipment are not explosive devices disguised as video-recording equipment.
Second, when the Arab Spring was triggered, the Western NGOs and intels who were behind it were coming in as tourists and journalists. This is what most likely triggered the Egyptian minders to watch this guy. It was his activities that arose suspicions.
At the end, the safety and stability of Egypt are far more important than the feelings of some Western traveler who was trying to shoot some photo-up in order to promote himself.
Kool-Aid
VIP
BestEverFoodReviewShow comment about the Egyptian producer:
About our producer, Ahmed: There’s no way to explain in one video how awful this man is at his job. To understand more, read below. This is the review I left on his trip adviser page. He’s since deleted the page. Ahmed was hired as a local fixer for our food focused production in Egypt. I'm the creator and host of the most viewed travel food show on the internet or otherwise. I've traveled to 50+ countries. I've worked with dozens of fixers and I can tell you Ahmed is the most incompetent person I've ever had the displeasure of working with. Ahmed contains none of the qualities of a good local producer. Ideally a local producer or fixer will do what it takes (within reason) to facilitate a shoot. Ahmed constantly worked against us. Here are some examples of who Ahmed is and what he's like to work with.
- Ahmed didn't finish the pre production that was supposed to be done before we arrived. We had to actually hire a local tour guide to find exact restaurant locations in Cairo. Ahmed would not guarantee access to any restaurants and so we were unable to make a schedule. His idea was to just drive around and go wherever we could. Yes, this is the expertise I was paying thousands of dollars for.
- Ahmed can't communicate. Any simple question will be answered with a long winded story demonstrating his brilliance and sophistication, yet the question will remain unanswered. He thinks he's a genius. It's true he has a lot of knowledge, but he has no practical way to focus that knowledge in a useful way.
- Ahmed is paranoid. More than once he'd asked who on the team was secretly recording audio of him. He would yell at us to stop filming at random times. He'd always tell us the police were watching us. When we shot without Ahmed for a few days we had no issues. He just attracts negativity.
- Ahmed has no ability to control a set. Sadly he was the only person who spoke Arabic and English in many situations, but he had no ability to lead the production and efficiently explain what needed to be done. He's easily overwhelmed and if given two tasks at once, he'll always forget the first one. Every production day took about 30% longer than it needed to.
- Ahmed threatened me. When we were at a camel market Ahmed failed to make a proper negotiation with the local vendors. When they got angry, he tried running away from them. He then ran into my shot where I was already filming. Then he threatened me for filming him. He said I could be in deep trouble with the authorities. What kind of fixer behaves like this? My team is a small team of four and we were all at his mercy.
- Ahmed would scoff at my requests. I've directed over 400 food videos that have been viewed over a billion times. I know how to make a food video. When I'd ask for simple things Ahmed would made audible protests or cross his arms. Once I asked him to have an eating rug moved into the sunlight so we had better lighting when I ate with some villagers. He scoffed. Everything was like this. He'd constantly tell me my requests were unusual rather than trying to assist in some way.
- Ahmed is not a people person. This man cannot figure out how a conversation works. He'll spit out facts for 30 minutes straight about a subject no one has asked about, then when you try to join the conversation, he'll steam roll you with more pointless prose.
- Ahmed is unlikeable. This is a simple one. He's painful to be around.
- Ahmed lies constantly. But he'll lie in subtle ways to gaslight you and make you think you're crazy. When we were in a desert oasis he put us up in a "resort" with no heating and no space heaters while the outside temp was near freezing. His response? "What do you expect? Of course. We're in an oasis." Right... So we were the crazy ones. The resort provided heaters the next night, by the way. So it was ALWAYS in the realm of possibility. The same thing happened the next day. I paid $800!!! to see two farmers cook a sheep. The farmers made breakfast, then they left and a group of tour guides came in to cook the sheep. This was so confusing. The video is about farmers, not tour guides. Ahmed insisted this was normal and that this is how things are done around here and that the tour guides are related to the farmers anyways, so they're basically family. What a load of crap.
- Ahmed conned us out of money. Near the end of the trip my team was ill. We knew we'd have to take some days off. He kept the full payment for the days we should have shot. This is reasonable. But then we planned POTENTIAL future dates contingent on us recovering. In true Ahmed fashion, he said he would not discuss any shoot details until we paid in full. So I paid for four days in advance. We ended up having to cancel all the dates BEFORE the dates took place and he still kept 100% of the money. Ever fixer in the world gets 50% of money before and after. Not Ahmed. He requests 100% up front or he'll threaten to halt production. I could go on and on. The point is this. I am a public figure with a public reputation. I have nothing to gain by making these statements, but I am making them because I don't want others to go through the same awful experience my team and I went through.
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OffTheDome
Proud American
He cooked this nigga named Ahmed, this is only 1/3 of the entire comment 
Woke1.4rm.Shibis
VIP
Egyot looks overrated
Trinidad >>>> masar
Trinidad >>>> masar
Woke1.4rm.Shibis
VIP
zackattack
Cowabunga
Egypt service departments are a nightmare to deal with , no manners and everything is a bribe .
zackattack
Cowabunga
Morocco is the better north african destination .
