Egypt – Tip extortionists, touts, and just plain wonderful…
Our friends Brownson and Chris met up with us to travel thru Egypt, our first stop in the Middle East. Our ears were filled with the sounds of people, animals, traffic, prayer chanting and our noses with incredible smells from the spice shops and pretty much anything you could possibly imagine. The beautiful people, the mosques and the endless slough of treasures in the desert are more breathtaking and intriguing than I could have imagined – After the first few days, I fell in love with the Egypt….except for the tip seekers and touts, who provided us with memorable adventures and laughs.
Here in Egypt, it is the cultural norm for workers to expect a baksheesh (a tip) for services rendered from both locals and tourists- not so different from back home – or so we thought. After our first few days here we learned as visitors, the system is sometimes extended a little further than just tipping your driver or waitor. There is a fair share of skilled and entrepeneurial donation opportunity engineers whom I like to call the “tip seekers”. In the restroom at the airport a man in the restroom offered Anthony a papertowel in passing, and immediately afterwards asked, “tips-y? tips-y for me?” and that’s where it all started. You could count on be approached by someone if you’re looking at a map, or at a tourist site or mosque, offering to point you in the right direction or to the “best view” and right after doing so, ask for a baksheesh. At the pyramids groups of innocently-looking teens casually walked around, pleasantly asking tourists if they wanted them to take their pictures for them. If the offer was accepted and carried out, they’d ask for baksheesh. While we were at the Valley of the Kings, we sat down on a bench to rest. A policeman casually sat down next to us, looked at the camera in my hand and encouraged us to take a picture with him, and so we did. After the fact, held out his hand and said, “Baksheesh.” I emphasize the lack of a question mark in that statement, since he knew as well as we did that we wouldn’t be saying no to a man carrying a semi-automatic. The award-winner was when we boarded the train to Luxor, carrying our own bags. A luggage boy silently followed us as we boarded and made our way to our compartment, about 5 m from the train door. As we put our bags down on our beds, he stood at the door, held out his hand and asked for a baksheesh. I couldn’t believe it – the guy was asking for a baksheesh for doing absolutely nothing but follow us onto the train…unbelievable! I respect and am a supporter of the practice of showing appreciation for service thru tipping, but what I don’t appreciate is those that take advantage of the system.
Touts are another breed entirely. They are friendly, non-threatening, and the smoothest in the business. In contrast to the use of pressure and persistance which is popular in Asia (and can be extremely annoying and intrusive), they are smooth and ninja and play on people’s desires to be polite, while leading you right into a sale or proposition. They’re so good that you don’t even know that you’ve been lead there until he asks for money. While looking around for a place for dinner we met an Egyptian store owner who used to live in MN and just moved back to Cairo with his wife. He was so excited that we were from the U.S. that he even pulled out his MN drivers licence to show us and started going on and on about the store he used to run at the Mall of America, being a Packers fan, and the unforgiving cold of Midwestern winters. He invited us back to his perfume store to give us his business card and offered us a cup of tea. We had been told from friends and past visitors that local hospitality and extending invitations for tea and conversations is not uncommon, so we didn’t think twice about the invitatation. Back at his store he serves us this incredible mint tea and starts showing us pictures of his gardens and etc and then next thing you know, he’s got favorite scents poured into bottles and is in the process of making a sale….I have to admit, I was SUCKERED and the only reason I didn’t hand over any money is because Anthony gave me one of those “bug-eyed, hell-no-Shan-don’t buy it” looks while secretly shaking his head and doing the “cut-it-out” neck slashing hand signals, which I am proud to inform has never happened in the past (and never will ;)). After that experience, we had my “tout-radar” and mastered the art of a respectful, tactful, but firm rejection. Frankly, it was like revisiting the art of breaking-up with a boyfriend and embracing the “really, it’s not you, it’s me” mentality when letting them down.
So far, this has been the most exotic, eye-opening and intriguing stops for me on our trip. Aside from the incredible tan, orange and pink-toned landscape which is primarily dry and arrid – extremely flat in some places and filled with canyons and jagged mountains that rise up out of the sand in the other (a bit like Death Valley, CA meets the Grand Canyon and Utah); the country’s fascinating history and being home of the ancient Egyptian civilation; and the incredible mummies, pyramids, temples, tombs, and mosques; and the beautiful people with their darker complexion and piercing eyes; I think what makes this place very different than others is the effect of religion and how its influences are felt. The country is predominantly Muslim (multiple sources state about 95%) and you can see, hear and feel the way that religion pervades into all aspects of life – the people breathe, eat, sleep and really live it. You can really feel it everywhere around all you. Not only from the many breath-takingly beautiful mosques or the sound of prayer chanting periodically throughout the day, but more interestingly in the way that the people carry themselves. They carry themselves with an air of confidence and dignity, not to be incorrectly associated with conceit or arrogance, but a result of of inner peace and calm and life purpose which they also bring to everything they do, their interactions with others and etc…it’s really incredible.
Brownson, Chris, Anthony and I took on Cairo and the Pyramids and Luxor and the Valley of the Kings and spent a few relaxing days on the shores of the Red Sea in Hurghada and Sharm-el-Sheik. Our 10 days together were a blur of making sure that we covered all the major sites and or course tried all the ‘must eats’. As a result, the 4 of us have great collection of laughs and adventures. Some of our favorites:
– Getting into the subway for the first time and realizing that Brown and I (and one other woman) were the only women in the car, the rest were all men. Then, we looked into the car next to us, we realized that that there were no men and only women and children in it – it was a crazy experience. Afterwards, we learned that certain cars are reserved for women and children only during certain times of the day.
– Our bargain basement, Vegas-style, $5 1-hour long boatride down the Nile which turned out to be 45 min of drifting on the Nile with a dead motor and 5 min of rushing back to shore when we finally got it to work.
– Our taxi ride in Cairo with a driver who agreed to take us to the Pyramids but who turned out to not actually know how to get to the Pyramids….how could you NOT know where the Pyramids are as a driver there???
– Going inside the tomb of the Great Pyramid (WOW) and the crazy sandstorm that suddenly appeared while were were @ the Sphinx
– My favorite quote from the Sound and Light show @ the Pyramids: “People feared time…and time feared the Pyramids!”……huh? 🙂
– Our (and Brownson’s first and most likely last) 11 hr overnight bus from Hurghada to Sharm-el-Sheik, which we ended up on only because it was our great luck that the 1.5 hour ferry from Hurghada to Sharm happened to be broken when we needed it most.
– Treating ourselves to a few nights at the Ritz in Sharm (thanks to Brownson’s reccomendation) complete with a sweet breakfast buffet which Anthony and I made sure that we woke up extra early to maximize the eating time so that we’d be able to eat enough to last us for the day! ha! (Too bad we didn’t have tupperware with us)
For pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlovesphotos/sets/72057594095662400/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlovesphotos/sets/72057594107627423/
Over and out, Shan
Tags: Cairo, Egypt, Luxor, Middle East, Travel
Shan
April 26th, 2006 at 10:59 am
nice pictures. and your right, Egypt IS really incredible. I have not been there but readign it thru your words feels like im experiencing it already! Cant wait to go there myself 🙂
May 1st, 2006 at 8:31 am
Things do not change. For 17 years Anthony and Toby (our cat ) took naps on the sofa together in Waterloo, Iowa, now he is doing the same in Egypt. Shan your stories are wonderful, send more. love you very much, Martha