El Andalous - First Internet Shopping

Egyptian Pillars by the Pier

In Europe and the USA, it’s e-bay. In Switzerland, it’s ricardo.ch. In Egypt, it’s souq.com.

One thing I really need is a reading lamp, or some other kind of lighting in my lounge. Once it gets dark, my current lighting isn’t really enough for me to be able to read. There are doubtless places where I can buy lamps in Hurghada, but I’d heard of souq.com and thought it would be a good place to see what prices should be like.

To my surprise, the site was in English (I guess there must be an Arabic option, but for me it came up automatically in English). They sold everything apart from lamps. They offered light bulbs, books, linen, toasters, torches, coffee machines, jewellery, but not standard lamps/reading lights. However, I noticed a printer/scanner/copier on special offer for the price I sold my old one for and thought I may as well buy it online as it would save me carrying it home or negotiating in a shop.

After much deliberation, and plucking up of my courage to press that “purchase” button (you never quite know what might happen - would the site suddenly change into Arabic?), I finally found myself at the page where you give your credit card details. I filled it out, only to discover that you couldn’t have your credit card address as anywhere other than in Egypt.

I guess it had to be done at some stage, so I phoned my credit card company and got my address changed (I had been a bit worried that they may refuse me as a customer now that I was in Egypt, but it was all pretty smooth).

Of course, now I had to start all over again with my purchase. To my surprise, I had to pay extra for delivery, and it would take 9 days. However, I was in no hurry, so I went ahead.

Then I received an email saying that, since it was my first purchase, I should email them a scanned copy of my passport page and a scanned copy of the front of my credit card. Catch 22! This was precisely why I wanted to buy a scanner in the first place.

I already had a copy of my passport – it’s amazing how many times it has been requested – but I didn’t have one of my credit card. Also, I can't remember ever being asked for a photocopy of my credit card before and I felt a bit reluctant, to be honest (although maybe I'm being a bit daft, because I'd given them the details anyway). I emailed the passport page and didn’t hear back from them.

Maybe a week later they phoned me (yes, I had my new phone switched on!) to double-check my address, and I guess the call was in part also to check my phone number, and they said the printer would arrive in around five days. The conversation was embarrassing because I couldn’t comprehend what the woman was saying most of the time – I couldn’t work out what the problem was, although part of it was probably me panicking due to being on the phone. I must have said at least ten variations of "Sorry, I can't understand", even though she was speaking English and she was only asking for my address. Amazingly, she didn't get annoyed or flustered at all, which I felt would have been quite justified given how much I was somehow not able to understand.

Anyway, we got there in the end and the printer duly arrived a few days afterwards.

The other thing I wanted was alcohol! As far as I know, I can pretty much only buy this online (and if I recall correctly, the GoCheers website is owned by the same guy that built El Gouna and who is now proceeding with the controversial luxury development in Switzerland; he is also involved in building the Marina here in Sahl Hasheesh) and delivery is free.

There was a reasonable choice online. I opted for a box of white wine and a bottle in case I ever had a special occasion to celebrate, together bringing me to the desired amount for free delivery. Again, I was nervous about committing to that "purchase" button, but realised that sooner or later I would have to take the plunge. This time, to my surprise, the only method of payment available was cash on delivery. They didn’t specify a delivery date, so I wondered if they would let me know once the order was processed.

A few hours later, I checked my email and they'd written to inform me that the minimum order had increased. For a moment, I wondered whether they were chancing it. The email didn’t tell me how to proceed - whether I should delete my order or whether I could create a second order for the remaining amount and they would put the two orders together. I emailed back to ask, but just received an email back informing me that my delivery was “pending”. I'm sure my life would be so much easier if I could speak Arabic.

Looking at the website the next day, I discovered that they'd cancelled my order, so I tried again. I added another box of wine this time to get to the revised minimum order requirements. The site accepted my order, but again there was no indication about date of delivery. I decided to check the website again in the morning for any update.

An hour later, at around 10.30pm, someone knocked at my door. Two guys were standing there holding a black, opaque bag. It was the alcohol delivery! It felt vaguely illicit as I handed over the cash in return for the bag; I couldn’t help wondering what they thought of a lone woman ordering so much alcohol late at night – it probably didn’t look good. I asked for change, which afterwards I wondered whether should really have been the tip. I will get the hang of this one day!

Strangely, I’ve had the alcohol in the apartment for around six or seven days now, and I still haven’t touched it. Previously, I’d had a bit of a craving every night. As it is, I’m not sure now whether I can have alcohol whilst on all these anti-inflammatory tablets, but at least I know it's there if I need it!