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<em>Baksheesh</em> . . . or Bribery?
One of my first encounters with the particularities of Egyptian culture ... A driver met us at the airport. When he brought his car from the parking lot to pick us up at the curb, he was stopped by a policeman. They argued (chatted?) for a while, and then he came back to the car to ask us if we had change for a 20-pound note. (Twenty Egyptian pounds is about $3.60 US.) We did not. So he took the twenty, paid off the cop, and came back to the car. He didn’t speak enough English to tell us what had happened. But I assumed we’d encountered our first illustration of baksheesh.
Baksheesh in Egypt is the term that describes everything from the tip you leave the hotel housekeeper, to the spare change you give the beggar, to the ... ahem … bribe you apparently pay the policeman at the airport.
When we arrived at the hotel, the clerk told us the non-smoking room we had requested was not available. But when I pushed, we got the room. No problem. No baksheesh either. Maybe I missed my cue.
You get used to tipping for services you don’t require, or even want. Like the elderly man at the train station who walks several hundred yards to show you to your train car, despite the fact that the car is clearly marked both on your ticket and on the car itself. Even the tourist police, whose job it is to keep people from pestering the tourists, insisted on taking our picture at the Pyramids and then scoffed when the tip was too small.
-- Amy Scott
I'm enjoying your wonderful series of reports from Cairo and many of them are striking a particular chord with me because I spent some time in Cairo just last month. Your observations about baksheesh are spot-on and, although unfamiliar and sometimes perturbing to an American visitor, once you understand and anticipate the way the system works the process can be fascinating.
Encounters with the airport police seem to be common, as our bus was held up for about 30 minutes at 2am while negotiations between the driver and the police took place. Children would run up to us on the street, asking for baksheesh. Sadly, tourist police would look the other way as visitors explored forbidden areas in exchange for a few dollars. And often the recipient would look offended at the size of the offering ("This is very little money, sir").
But once you get past the baksheesh, we found Egyptian people to be friendly and helpful. In a city as confusing to navigate as Cairo, there were people to send us in the right direction or even help us cross the road. Our taxi drivers would point out sights as we passed, while simultaneously explaining their life stories in broken English (we were particularly intrigued by the man with two wives) and frightening us half to death as they scythed through Cairo's chaotic traffic.
I hope that you found your visit as unforgettable and unique as I found mine.
Hi,
Hope you are enjoying the true uniqueness of Egypt. I visited there once as a recent college graduate in the early 90's. ... I had met a number of Brits, Kiwis and Aussies as I tramped about the Middle East and by chance I ran into a wonderful woman again in Egypt. Through a tangled mess of relations she had come to know an aspiring female British journalist who had rented a house boat on the Nile. It was located on the western side of the Nile in a distinctly anti-western section of town, which of course made it more appealing to me. I believed that I was in some way impenetrable as a male tourist and was not under the same threat as the busloads of German tourists which were being shot at during this period. I would sit in tea houses and play backgammon and dominos with locals having merely a passing understanding of numbers and basic "thank you, hello. more please" fluency.
Until one day I was confronted. It was entirely unclear exactly what the man said yet it was clear that I was in physical peril. Your observation about the eyes was very astute for that was the main direction of the attack. The fierceness conveyed through those eyes was powerful and the crowd that gathered to his words was frightening yet it held no challenge to the old men who came to my aid. They looked and spoke softly and easily walked me out of the situation. I never again regretted the pennies we gave to the old man who sat at the entrance to our house boat " to guard you" he always said.
Take care
Brad
