Money Matters

    Two aspects of the Egyptian financial culture I had to wrap my head around were 1.) the value of the Egyptian pound, and 2.) tipping.

    Side note: Egyptian money is gorgeous. Shorter but taller than U.S. bills (like the euro), they come in a variety of colors with national icons of sphynxes and mosques and ancient statues on them. I don't know, maybe foreigners think U.S. money is lovely (I doubt it), but I thought this stuff was frameable as artwork.

    Also, I never saw any coins in Egypt. Hany, at one point, mentioned a "piastre," and 100 piastres equals one EGP. But those coins are essentially worthless, because 1 EGP equals about two cents USD. A can of soda typically costs 150 EGP, that I'd pay for with a 100 pound note and a 50. Nothing improper about it, but the concept of paying 150 anythings for a drink takes a while to get used to. My American brain sees a bill with a 50 or 100 on it, and automatically interprets it as a large amount. (A McFlurry costs 200. Or, you know, so I've heard.)

    On my first night, I paid 800 EGP for sunscreen, and I had to stop afterward to do the math to make sure the vendor wasn't totally screwing me over. (About 15 bucks, not terrible.) The hostess at my first hotel bar assisted me: "Think of 250 equals five dollars," which became my mental yardstick for currency exchange. 

    Thus I learned that things in Egypt are surprisingly cheap. A souvenir haggle concerning 300 down to 200 EGP is essentially six bucks down to four bucks. Not the end of the world. My charge for extras on the riverboat---including bar tabs, bottled water, and a small laundry order---came out to be about 1900 (sounds like a lot?), or about 38 bucks for three days at a 5-star accommodation. You might get 4,000 from an ATM for a good day of shopping. Doesn't make you rich, but it does give you a fat roll in your wallet. That was something else I had to get used to. Always carrying a ton of cash.

    Thankfully, I found almost every merchant of substance marked their prices in EGP and USD simultaneously. Easy for me, but my companions from Down Under had the additional task of converting USD to Australian dollars (AUD), which, I learned, is taking a beating in today's financial world.

    The second weird thing was the culture of tipping. I mentioned earlier that Hany took care of gratuity of our drivers and boat pilots, bellhops and servers, which we were all, in turn, grateful for removing us from that ritual. Who to tip, and how much. (I tell you, the man took better care of us than I think we were aware of, at the time.)

    But in Egypt, everyone who looks at you sideways, or maybe more so, who you look at them sideways, expects a tip. A "helpful" young man who offers to take your photo in front of a site; the man who puts your luggage on the conveyor belt (unasked, of course); the boy who let's you pet his mule or hold his exotic bird on your shoulder---everybody's got their hand out.

    The strangest part are the public restrooms. They operate like a concession, which I think at some point, started as a fair deal, but has devolved into a belittling racket. At some locations, a man or woman might take it upon themselves to keep the public bathroom tidy, and you might tip them a little for their troubles. (I had to remind myself that a tip of 20 EGP equaled less than 40 cents.)

    The part that I found obnoxious was at the scene at the Egyptian Museum. A big sign in front of both restrooms said NO TIPPING. Clear enough. I went in, entered a stall, and discovered that somebody had removed all the toilet paper dispensers. What the hell? I opened the stall door to find a teenager holding a roll of TP at the room's entrance, with two little segments folded up as offerings. He was actually selling the toilet paper? After asking him for the remaining roll in his hand, I just grabbed both wads from his outstretched hand. Not to offer TMI, but I'm glad that's all I needed!

    Important travel hack: later that evening, a few of us each pinched a roll from our opulent hotel rooms and carried them in our backpacks the rest of the week, just to be on the safe side. But I think now know why Egyptians always carry a lot of paper money around, pretty though it may be.