Criminality on Pyramids Road (with video)

"Now persuade your vassals to fall back."
--Mark Twain in 1876, having paid 4 francs
 for the privilege of being left alone at the Great Pyramids

Tourists and local bloggers here have been complaining about this for awhile. Allow me to add to the documentation.

A few hundred yards before the camera is turned on, camel and horse-carriage touts step into traffic, wagging their fingers as if to say you cannot pass. Our driver veers around them.

At 0:14 and 0:18 seconds, you can hear them banging on the side of our taxi in frustration. I laugh nervously.

on.way.to.pyramids from Sluggh McGee on Vimeo.

At 0:22 or so, a layabout walks into the frame from the right to block our progress. His cohorts rush in from the left. We are now effectively blocked. My taxi driver cannot advance without causing injury. These are not police or officials of any kind. Just thugs preventing us from free passage on a public road.

At 0:38, one of them opens the cab door and tries get in. I wrestle it shut and engage the lock.

Now, you may find this to be only a nuisance or offer by way of explanation that this is to be expected at a "tourist trap," or even concoct a socioeconomic explanation for why it occurs. Fine. But in a country that pretends to depend so heavily on tourism, it is beyond unacceptable, beyond belief.

The second "event" occurs shortly after our entry, when the louse in a ballcap demands our tickets and tells us what "we" are about to do together. I am more attuned to this than Martin for some reason.

I have loved the people here, but frankly, a little shame needs to be rained down on Egypt, and its police need to get off their ass and do more than doze on stools and direct traffic.