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About Me
- Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
- I'm an entertainment editor at MSNBC.com, and have maintained Pop Culture Junk Mail since August, 1999. The New York Times called the site "one of the best places to explore pop culture online," and Entertainment Weekly included it on their Top 100 Web Sites list. If you like weird food, strange products, and 1970s and 1980s nostalgia, PCJM is your home away from home.
I have a brand new BOOK, written with Brian Bellmont. "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s." Buy it online, and follow our retro reminiscing on our GenXtinct blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
3 comments:
So this guy goes to Egypt -- the heart of one of the most advanced civilizations in history -- and decides to go to an amusement park? I mean, I feel bad that he got ripped off, but it's Egypt! Why go to the other side of the world to do the same things you can do at home? I don't get it.
Maybe he wanted to check out something off the beaten track, not the typical tourist trap? Sounds like a great, quirky place for a photo-essay of some sort. I don't know what the amusement parks in your area look like, but the ones around my home are nothing like that.
I was in Egypt during Ramadan last year, and it's an amazing place, full of friendly people...many of whom will rip you off in a second. It's a good idea always to buy tickets for attractions through your hotel (better yet, hire a local guide and driver for the day, and they will get tickets and prevent things getting weird; in Giza/Cairo, this costs about $40 for the whole day, plus a massive and richly deserved tip). There's also the Arabic custom of baksheesh, which is pretty gross: Someone does something for you, then demands money. We had a cop start following us down the street, then 'accompany' us across the road (we didn't ask him to) and start demanding baksheesh. You pay just to shake them off. So the ticket price rip-off doesn't surprise me at all.
(Also, if you're a woman, think twice about travelling in Egypt alone. It isn't the done thing, and you will attract heaps of unpleasant, unwanted attention and aggression. Even with my boyfriend, I was treated like a disobedient dog by some men outside of our hotel - including one who was trying to get us to pay him to take us around the pyramids. It was pretty shocking stuff, telling me loud and clear that I was worse than a second class citizen in their eyes. I will go back, but with a much better idea of what to expect.)
Mr. Gun?! :O
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