While doing research for the world trip I read about the concept of tipping in America which I didn't end up going to anyway. People are paid low wages in places like restaurants on the assumption that they make up the shortfall in tips. If I had of gone across America it was unlikely I would have come across this a lot because I would have done it on a budget and not done things like eating out anyway.
This brings me on to Egypt where the concept of tipping or "Baksheesh" as it's called is taken to the ultimate extreem level. In short "Baksheesh" is expected for almost anything and everything.
Ask for directions......"a hand comes out for Baksheesh". Someone points out the obvious in a museum......"a hand comes out for Baksheesh". Someone opens a door......"a hand comes out for Baksheesh".......I think you get the picture by now.
There are three ways people respond to this. One is to actually pay the Baksheesh, this can be difficult as small bills are in short supply and flashing large ones leads to demands for greater Baksheesh. Two is to avoid situations where you have to pay Baksheesh, this is very difficult and it's hardly the best situation when walking round a museum constantly keeping an eye out and avoiding any local people who drift up to "help". Three is to refuse to pay it and end up in a hostile situation with the local in question. None of the three are good !!!!!!!!!!!!
The worst example of this was at the valley of the kings when one of the women from our group went to use the toilet. As usual there was someone outside with an outstretched hand for payment. The woman told us that the toilet was filthy and horrible. I'm sure most people wouldn't have minded paying a small amount for a clean toilet. Our tour guide later told us that these people don't even clean the toilets but just sit outside them all day. Multiply the pound or two by the thousands of people who use them and they get paid many times more than the average person in that country (like our knowledgeable and far more deserving tour guide).
If the constant demands for Baksheesh or constantly having to avoid situations was not enough then there was the constant hassle factor on top of that. Overcharging was on a level I had only previously seen in Vietnam. It was not just the usual suspects like taxi drivers and touts but everyone. Walking into a normal shop and being shamelessly asked for 5-8 times the normal cost of a bottle of water is nothing unusual.
Some of the people were just awful, outside the Cairo museum I was offered the services of a guide. His "offer" consisted of snatching my entry ticket out my hand and agressively trying to get me to go to another ticket booth.
Like Vietnam I quickly reached a stage where I wanted as little as possible to do with the local people. It came to a point in Aswan where I was even thinking about leaving the country as soon as I could without seeing the Pyramids.
The bottom line is however is that Egypt contains sights that the rest of the world wants to see. It does not matter how badly the tourists are treated (I did read on one website that 90% of visitors would never go back) there will always be people who want to go there........................................
The following is an extract from a blog I found on the internet about the subject. The original post is here I don't usually like using other peoples writings but this was written far better than I could explain it........
Egypt is plagued with discrimination by both the government and locals against foreigners. They charge foreigners 10-20 times the local price for everything. Although we are accustomed to being charged a 2-3 times higher, "tourist price" by private parties and for some museum entrances, we have never been to a country where even government transportation services charge foreigners more. For a ferry boat ride that should have cost about $7-8, they ask foreigners for $70. For a train ride that should have cost about $10, they want $60. This attitude of sticking it to the tourists starts at the top and extends all the way down through the ranks of society. The result is that almost everyone will steal from tourists or ask for money for any little thing they do. The bribe, tip, or extortion (depending on the situation) is called "Baksheesh," a rather ugly sounding word for a rather ugly societal practice.
Baksheesh is requested for anything and everything. If you ask someone for directions, it's a 50/50 that they will ask you for baksheesh. In one case, Rusty asked a police officer at the train station to point him toward the bathroom, thinking that an officer on duty was a safe way to avoid the baksheesh shakedown. After walking Rusty 30 feet to the bathroom, the officer asked for baksheesh. Similarly, if a bus driver grabs your bag and lifts it 18 inches into the cargo hull of a bus before you can stop him from doing it, he will ask not only for the usual luggage charge, but also for baksheesh of up to $1 for "his trouble."
Even in bathrooms, "paper towel boys" wait around for foreigners so that they can hassle them for baksheesh if the foreigner is naive enough to take a paper towel handed to him from the boy instead of grabbing it from the dispenser himself. Rusty got keen to this and and opted to use the electric air dryer, but the moment he looked away as he was drying his hands, the paper towel boy dashed in and threw a paper towel over Rusty's hands! He gave Rusty a triumphant look and extended his hand, saying "Baksheesh!?" with a swagger.
The baksheesh scams follow the tourists right into the pyramids. If a local gets his hands on your camera to take a picture of you, you won't get it back without some hefty baksheesh. If a foreigner points to a site before you notice it on your own, he'll ask for baksheesh. In some places where photography is forbidden, you are even required to turn your camera into the local guards. Even though they paid a salary, they extort baksheesh from foreigners as ransom for the return of your camera.
By now, you might be tired of the word "baksheesh," and so were we after hearing requests for it dozens of times per day for every little thing. Like us, many people are unwilling to pay baksheesh, so some Egyptians have no problems with simply taking money by dishonesty, petty theft, or extortion. In one situation, we were lied to by an animal driver/guide that the pyramids are not entirely accessible without a guide and animal transportation. The guide lied to us that he represented a government office and told us we needed to ride a short distance to see his manager to get the price for the animal service. He got us 4 feet off the ground (camels are really tall) and took us about 10 feet before stopping and demanding an exorbitant price. He probably figured we'd rather pay than try to climb down, but he didn't know that we'd already been smartened up a bit in India.
While we weren't robbed or pick-pocketed in Egypt (many tourists are), we lost a decent amount of money by petty dishonesty. On several occassions we didn't know the correct price of transportation, and the government employee at the ticketing counter charged us several times the price and pocketed the difference, which we realized later. This happened as well with private business. In our travels we have encountered numerous scams, but nowhere have they been so ubiquitous as in Egypt. There were some very nice people who helped us without thought for money, but by and large, Egypt has a lousy way of treating her guests. And we found most people we encountered who had traveled to Egypt have had similar sentiments.
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