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I suppose she just thought she was just doing her job, but I wish she would just shut up some times. She would talk about the history of the places we were going, this was fine, this was expected. When she ran out of history, she'd talk about how great the Jews were, how horrible the Arabs were, and why it was a good thing the Palestinians were driven from their homes 50 years ago. She'd next talk about how great her kids were, and her grand kids. When she finally ran out of these kinds of things to say, she'd point and say, "Look! There's a pond… there's a group of trees over there" (actual quotes, I'm not making this up). When anyone asked her a question, she'd inevitably say, "I'm not going to tell you that now", and who knows if she ever would answer it. Dan studied history in Israel many years ago, and whenever he would make a comment, she would argue with him, even if she was agreeing. She always had to have the last word. After a few hours of this, I realized I'd really like it if she'd just shut up. After a day I pulled out my walkman, and cranked up the tunes to drown her babbling out. The tour was much more enjoyable after this. When we got to the sites, I'd just wander off on my own, instead of following along with her, listening to her read the signs aloud and say that she knew what happened at these places better than the archaeologists did. The second thing I especially hated about her (though I suppose all guides do it), is that we were cheated ever time we could be. For the package tour, we were provided with breakfast and dinner, but we had to take care of lunch ourselves. At lunch time, she'd direct the driver to the "cafeteria style restaurant" for the day where they charged exorbitant prices in US dollars. Somehow I thought that since we were in Israel, we could eat the food that everyone else did, but here we were eating crappy salads or spaghetti while being ripped off in the presence of other tourists (no locals were ever in these places). I soon started taking food from breakfast at the hotel to eat for lunch. When we wanted to go shopping, she's take us to a store where they also had incredibly high prices, and no wonder, they paid her a cut of whatever we bought (35% I understand) - needless to say, I never bought anything at these places. During one of our trips to a store as I was waiting for the others to finish, and bitching about the prices, she came up and remarked that she didn't know why people complained. If you looked at the rates they gave for US dollars, they were much better than the bank (3.7 NIS / US$ at the shops as opposed to 3.5NIS / US$ at the bank). I thought about this for a few seconds before realizing that she was telling me to be grateful because the shop was ripping me off more than anywhere else. Since the prices were in US dollars, if I didn't buy with them, it would cost even more than the outrageous prices they already charged. The Canadian dollar was also listed on their exchange rates - almost half what the bank paid. I realized if I were to buy something marked at $9 US, it'd cost me almost $25 Canadian. At the end of the tour, she even told Dan how much of a tip she was supposed to receive. If it were up to me, she would have gotten nothing, but money for tips was already covered in the price of the tour. |