I always knew I would write a blog on this one, before the end of my Egypt series. It has taken longer than planned but the various scams of this amazing country are still fresh in my mind. On some days it felt that everyone around was out to get you – some with a smile, some others with anger and most just making good use of the fact that their language and script are fully unknown to most. It starts right when you land and then at some point, you let go…The good news is that the amounts involved are small, given the currency but then its never still fun to be taken for a ride. Anything that wasn’t pre-booked on viator was at least partly a scam. It would be best to pre-book everything, but then that makes it too mechanical. This might be the only country where a meal is cheaper in a 5-star hotel than a road side joint – because in the hotel you have a printed menu, in English.

The fun started right away right after check-in. The hotel offered to book a pyramids tour with an English-speaking guide and a horse cart. The hotel receptionist was our English-speaking ‘guide’ and the horse cart driver who was supposed to give us the history of the pyramids spoke for about 30 seconds. While they did show us the pyramids nicely, it was definitely not a legit tour.

For dinner, we were directed to this restaurant next to the hotel and told that they could severely overcharge if we picked al-a-cart and hence we should pick a “mixed grill” worth $18 per person. There was no way to validate the prices, but I could have eaten better food in mid-town Manhattan for that much money. In itself the food wasn’t bad at all, just ‘tourist’ priced. We had a similar experience at a local lunch place – excellent food with true local fare but at 5-star prices.

We landed at Aswan Airport and the hotel was 20 minutes away. The cab should have cost 50-100 Egyptian pounds but all the cab drivers had cartelized the price to be 500 EYP – there is no Uber in Aswan. In places where Uber was present, the cabs would easily charge 3-5x the Uber price, knowing that it is very hard to coordinate with Uber drivers without knowing the language.

Luxor horse cart drivers were probably the biggest scam in the country. There was no way to take one and not get scammed. And they will chase you everywhere if you don’t take one. It is a little more irritating to get scammed after the level at which they hard sell and sweet talk. However cautious you maybe, they will find a way. The price you agree on will suddenly be ‘per person’. They will want to take you to a ‘big market’ that is just open today irrespective of where you want to go and they will get really angry if you refuse. The market is obviously some tourist trap.

I did have one interesting story – We took a horse cart to the Luxor museum. I didn’t have change so the man said he would also take me back and I could pay him then. At the agreed time a different horse cart shower up and the man said he had just changed the cart and he was the same guy – I had kind of forgotten the face anyway. Since he knew the arrangement I had made, I believed him. He drove me back almost to the hotel but said he couldn’t go the last 100 meters but asked for 3x the money. I hadtold him a price of 100EYP and he had said ‘money no problem’. Now he said that he hadn’t actually said yes, just that it wasnt a problem. First I argued with him and gave him just the 100. Then as I walked to the hotel I ran into the ‘original’ cart driver who claimed he had been waiting for me and wanted more money. Another fight! It was all beautifully choreographed.

Another scam was a light and sound show at Karnak Temple. The guide first got tickets that were meant for locals only (lower price) and then bribed someone to let me use that ticket. He obviously expected me to pay the tourist price. Then he wanted me to pay in USD – I had Egyptian Pounds. The travel agency I had booked from was okay to get the money in local currency but the guide kept arguing to get USD or Egyptian pounds at a ridiculous conversion rate – the rate is actually fixed.

The country has created a whole branch of study called Egyptology – to train guides to be able to give the tourists a true history of the country. Tours with an Egyptologist guide are significantly more expensive. The guides, however, are all the same. Most will take you to the destination, give you a 3-minute generic talk, and then let you have some ‘free time’ to walk around.

Before I flew to Egypt I heard a conspiracy theory that the pyramids and all of Egyptian ‘history’ were built some 200 years ago to help the economy with no other source of income. I laughed and dismissed the stupid idea. After experiencing the true art of thuggery they have mastered, anything is possible.