Egyptian Money

     Baksheesh is such a big thing in Egypt and you hear so much about it that it made us rather nervous.  All our tour company said was to bring lots of $1 bills-and to make sure they were new with no marks. Bryan made arrangements with the bank so we could get some crisp, clean bills. Apparently the Egyptian banks won't let the people trade in money if it is marked and they won't take American coins.
      1 LE (Egyptian Pound) is worth about 17 cents and then they have piastres which are like are cents. The problem is that no one ever wants to give up their 1 LE or 50p coins.  I think because everyone uses them to give some tips for using the WC and every other sundry thing you do.  Bryan and I spent a bit of effort going to the bank and trying to get small money and we could only ever get a few.  I've heard of people making the bathroom attendant give them back change so they could have some small change for the next time.
   Thoughts on the WC's:  Don't tip when they hand you your few squares of toilet paper - wait to see if the bathroom is clean. I got yelled at once but I'm not paying for disgusting. Also, $1 is too much to pay to go to the bathroom. Many people are using the bathrooms each day and if everyone paid a dollar the attendants would be wealthy people by Egyptian standards. A little bit makes a difference so it's nice to pay some but...  The average wage is about 600-800 LE ($100-$140) per month. Their public transport minivan only cost us about 25 cents each. It is a country with one of the lower costs of living.  You don't see the difference much when you are on a tour and in the regular tourist places but when you go out on your own you can.
     At all the tourist sites there are a lot of men hanging about dressed in their talabeayahs (traditional long dress).  They are the  "guardians".  The government pays them, but only about 400LE a month, so they like to supplement their income by baksheesh.  Every time you enter a place a guardian will try to point out the different heiroglyphs. Every once in a while it is helpful but most of the time I was trying to ignore them so much that I didn't dare look at what they were pointing out.  They can get a little aggressive. Again, if they are helpful it is okay to tip them but you wish you had small coins, or a larger group so that one could pay for all. It's good to have some guardians but you wish there was only about a quarter of the ones they have. There often seems to be a little feud between the tour guides and the guardians and the tourist police.  One policeman chased off a guardian who had been following us and bothering us and just when we were thinking how nice that was, the policeman offered to show us something (for a tip) and we had to get rid of him.