baksheesh: egypt not all pyramids and roses

As I raise my camera to take a picture of Queen Hatshepsut's son suckling from a sacred cow at her temple in Luxor, a temple employee sidles up to me...
Man: "That is a cow."
Caroline: "Yes, thanks. I know."
Man: "Baksheesh now."


"Baksheesh" is part of getting around Egypt. It is a tip (or sometimes a bribe!) for services rendered. These can be anything, from having a door opened to being given directions. At first, we were getting pretty irritated at the constant demands for baksheesh, particularly since we were never carrying around the right change. However, after 2 weeks in Egypt, learning to hoard small bills like there's no tomorrow, and realizing that every other Egyptian is also a baksheesh target, we're settling into the swing of things. Now, when we anticipate someone is going to impose their help, we run away, or say "no guide", or if we actually want to have our elbows held by an 11-year-old while walking down a ramp, we'll slip him some cash.

Only a fraction of our Egyptian baksheesh experiences:

• Yesterday, we actually saw a man rush to close a door in a museum so that he could open it for us!
• In the tomb of Ramses III in the Valley of the Kings, the tomb attendant fanned tourists with a square of cardboard. "Hot. Fan. Baksheesh."
• We took a felucca ride with Mohammad and his two teenage friends in Aswan. Pleasant conversation ensues... Jerome asks: Are you the owner of the boat? Mohammad: No, the captain. Good captain. Baksheesh later. Jerome: Uh, ok. Mohammad: Do you want some hash?
• Security is quite high in Egypt for tourists due to several terrorist attacks in the last two decades. The tourist police are on duty at many hotels and attractions. I can only assume they aren't paid very well.... After booking ourselves on a Nile Cruise, one tourist police guy outside declared "Give me five money. Baksheesh." In this case we refused. What, for letting us walk by you? Give me a break! The next day we noticed he was cruising down the Nile with us, an AK-47 assault rifle slung over his shoulder. Another tourist police officer at the Red Pyramid near Cairo kept trying to force his camel into the field-of-view of our friend Andy's camera in order to demand his baksheesh. I don't feel very safe in this country.

Finally, two days ago our bad baksheesh karma came back to haunt us. We got a tour of the beautiful Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo from the caretaker and muezzin, Said.


Oh, crap. Our smallest bill is enough for a night in a (cheap) hotel room! We had to baksheesh the guy for every baksheesh we had avoided for the whole trip. He still asked for more. "For Ramadan." Sure. On the upside, Jerome was snatched aside and had the entire call to prayer sung just for him!