Egypt Again 2023 - All About Money, ATM cards, and Cairo Traffic.... And Tipping

 As every Egyptian will be happy to tell you without being asked, Egypt is currently going through a bit of a crisis and the Egyptian Pound, LE, has been allowed to float, the follow on as a result of the Egyptian Govt using the import 'escrow' to pay for other things rather than the imports it was supposed to be used for.....

While prices have risen in the last few months because of the fall in the value of the LE it also means that visitors are now getting more LE for their USD/GBP/Euro.

The end result of this is that many prices for tourists have fallen because for instance the rate of exchange for LE to GBP has risen by almost 50%.

This makes Egypt an even cheaper place to go than it was before!

Many tourists are still taking wads of cash with them and it really is not necessary because there are  ATMs available almost everywhere, so by all means take some cash with you, indeed you will have to because your hotel if you have not already paid for it in advance will need to be paid using foreign currency, it's the law.

Many hotels will now take a card of course, but for small amounts cash is still preferred! They will take USD, GBP, or Euros (as a last resort), but do keep an eye on the exchange rate bearing in mind that the Euro is now worth more than a USD.

And note that some places do not actually have access to an exchange facility so they will want LE! 

If you have to round the bill up by a couple of dollars/pounds/euros because you only have larger foreign bills then don't be frightened to do so as the hotel owner probably will not have small bills or even coins to give you change, and in true Egyptian style you probably will not get any change anyway!

To be honest, as a Westerner, I feel their pain with the way prices are going at the moment, especially for energy and gasoline which in Egypt is now around 12 LE a litre, up from 6LE four years ago. (I will do the sums for you 12 LE is almost exactly 33 pence in UK money).

It is becoming increasingly difficult to change cash these days as none of the banks will now do it and there are fewer official licensed money shops that will give you the top rate, beware of people that will change money for you including your hotel as they are going to make a profit out of it. There are also illegal money dealers who will meet you in dark alleys and them give you only 20 or 25LE to the USD when it should be about 30!

So the first thing to do is get some local currency at the airport from one of the many ATMs available, there is a huge 'bank' of them in the baggage reclaim area.

Get yourself a card that allows you to make cash withdrawals without charge. For people in the UK this means something like the Halifax Clarity card, which makes no charge for using it to buy goods abroad or take cash from an ATM, and also gives you top whack exchange rates through the Mastercard system. Some people, of course, have a similar card that works through the Visa system. either way the exchange rates are good.

Avoid the use of ordinary ATM cards because they will charge you a commission and give you a crap exchange rate, unless you have one that does otherwise.

Use the ATMs that give you the choice of it exchanging the money for you or allowing you to let your home bank do it because they give you a rotten exchange rate and sometimes charge you commission for changing it as well.

Avoid Euronet ATMs at all costs because they either change the money up for you at a really bad exchange rate or if you choose to let your bank do it then they charge you 100LE for the pleasure of using their machine. 100LE/EGP at 36 LE to a GBP doesn't sound like much but it is 3 quid or two beers!

There are also 'cyberbanks', like Revolut, that give excellent exchange rate but you do have to pay for a physical card.

Don't forget that carrying a card is also more secure than carrying cash wherever you go, innocent and inexperienced tourists are a target for thieves. I personally have not carried a lot of cash on me for years because there is now no need! But for added security I do have two cards I can use leaving one in a safe place in my room just in case.

If you are looking for an ATM head to the nearest mobile phone shop as they normally have one if not two ATMs outside.

Back to the traffic... I am staying in Giza instead of central Cairo because I am 'hoping' to go to the GEM, I don't think I will stay in Giza again unless it is somewhere central becuase I am out on the Alex Desert Road and it just a tad too far to walk into Giza, but very convenient to walk to the GEM which isn't open. I did try walking but because of the road works I had to take a big detour, and taxis have to do the same, indeed throughout Cairo detours of 3/4 kilometres just to take a U turn and come back again, are not unusual.

In Giza near the Pyramids they are building a new Metro line which has closed Al Haram down to Giza Square....  No wonder that taxis try to avoid some areas!

And lastly on this post the sensitive subject of tipping....

Did you know that you are not obliged to tip anybody??

Personally, having lived in Australia, I don't tip anybody. Other nationalities seem to tip everybody for no particular reason! (You know who you are!)

My idea of a tip is to give a taxi driver a £5 note for a £4.90 fare and tell him to keep the change, because I have enough loose change already.

And I positively loathe the system, widely used in the USA and Canada, where you are paying by card and they have already added on a tip that you have to cancel off the card reader before you tap or insert your card to pay.

Why are you giving them a tip for doing their job?

In Trip Advisor recently I was reading a travel report from somebody visiting Egypt where the writer said keep a good stock of one dollar bills/coins to use as tips. (They also said they felt like a walking ATM machine but that is not surprising either)

Why? There is no earthly reason to tip somebody in Egypt, and indeed a one dollar coin or bill is no earthly use to them because they cannot change it! Similarly with a Pound or Euro coin. And even if the tip is bigger then they might not have any way of getting it changed so it will end up in the hands of an illegal currency dealer who will give them a crap rate for it.

If I feel that somebody has gone over and above the call of duty then maybe I will tip, like lugging a heavy suitcase for me, but they will get nothing for watching me lift it myself.

And the same goes for waiters and bartenders.

Even if you do tip there is a limit. Why give a toilet attendant 5 USD when all they normally get is 1LE, it used to be a lot less but all the small coins seem to have disappeared these days?

If you feel that somebody has done a particularly good job for some reason, then yes, like I did by buying my barman a drink at the end of my recent stay. He got a beer which cost 50 LE.

And wherever did the idea come from that you had to give the chambermaid something everyday just to do her job, but fine if she has gone over the top and give her something at the end of your stay if you wish, much like in days of old when you were staying at an English country house when you tipped the butler, but those days have gone, and so has the tip!

If you do have a stock of foreign coinage give it to the children who ask for baksheesh, they will be delighted they have got something even though it is worthless to them, although it would be cheaper to give them 1 LE coins!

And beware of people asking you for baksheesh too, don't give them anything because some of them actually have businesses. I came across one on the East Bank in Luxor who was asking for baksheesh and the Egyptian sitting next to me shooed him away and then informed me that he owned a tuk tuk but was too idle to go out and drive it!

English people will feel quite at home with the new Egyptian 10LE note..Although this one is not looking good since it went through the wash on a hot wash.

Vaguely familiar perhaps? To start with I thought I had been given a dud note.

  

Egypt Again 2023.... A Frustrated Visit On My Fourth Trip - eVisas Explained and The Arrival Late At Night and Giza

 Of course there was always going to be a fourth trip because the Grand Egyptian Museum was not open last year, and so one year on almost I am on the trip I planned last August because there were rumours that the GEM would be open by ealry 2023.

Of course it isn't, but am I going to let that spoil my trip? No, of course not!

Unusually for me I arrive at 1.00am in the morning at Cairo airport on a full flight from Athens. Indeed so full they were offering people money NOT to get on it, and at the same time checking the weight of cabin bags. Fortunately I avoided this because mine weighed in at 14kgs and you are only allowed 6kgs. One of the advantages of having ''Special Assistance'' through airports is that you manage to avoid the queues...

Arriving at Cairo was no different from usual, with about 200 people queuing to get a visa, but I of course have already got mine because I did it on line so I was through immigration and waiting for my bags, very fast as usual, while others were still waiting to get their visa label! This is one of the advantages of the eVisa, and also it means you have paid in advance so don't have to budget for it out of your valuable cash balance, if you have one.

Outside are the usual number of people offering you taxis, but I already have a pre-arranged transfer via my hotel. This is 20USD for the ride through the deserted streets of Cairo to my hotel in Giza. Taxis now have to pay for parking at Cairo airport so when I get out I give the man a tip equivalent to the parking fee.

And now before your very eyes I will explain a bit about eVisas and how to get one as some people seem to have real problems getting the web site to work, this is more than likely because they have not followed the instructions, others have noted that the site uses 'old' software but nonetheless it does work! And it does save time at the airport. Others have claimed that they have been charged the money but not got a visa and cannot get a refund but like any country visas are sometimes refused but if you applied you still have to pay for it! And imagine how you would feel if you were queuing at the airport and then were refused entry, and it does happen!

Firstly, there IS ONLY ONE OFFICIAL eVISA WEB SITE ...

And it is this one here.... EGYPT eVISA ...It will open in a new window. You will find other sites that appear to be the right site and indeed most/many of them will get you a visa, but they are third party sites who just fill in the forms for you and the charge exorbitant sums for doing it!!

The first thing you have to do is read the terms and conditions for getting a visa which you will find under the FAQ link. Note that you need a passport with at least 6 months validity, the other things they note there, is a ''travel itinerary'' I have never produced one of these at immigration and indeed, have never been asked for one, I have however been asked where I am staying so I carry my initial hotel booking with me just in case. If you try to get a visa with less than 6 months validity your application will fall over at the first stage.

You will also need to create an account before you start.

The first part of the form are self explanatory, I have deliberately left the 'info' box open on the departure date field, because if you are over 65 and you are not going to get a job, you can stay longer than 30 days if you want to!! But you cannot put more than 30 days in this field

Remember to 'SAVE' each page as you complete it so that if you have to leave the form it will still be there as a draft when you go back to the site

  

The next sections are easy enough too.... Just remember to put in your correct name as it is in your passport, and get the dates right, it's surprising the number of people who forget this simple fact, and also cannot read the dates either!

Where it asks for your address, it tells you what characters are permitted, and carriage return is not one of them!! Put the address all on one line... If you get the message about inallowed characters look closely at what you have done becuase it mean you have made a mistake somewhere!Make sure your phone number is valid with the country code and no spaces in it!

And then the picture of your passport... TWO IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE, AND IT DOES TELL YOU, FIRST THE PICTURE MUST BE LESS THAN A CERTAIN SIZE, AND SECOND IT CAN ONLY CONTAIN ALPHANUMERIC CHARACTERS IN THE FILE NAME.

If you have used your phone to take the picture then the chances are the file will be far too large!! Read the instruction under the photo!! Most phones have a built in editor so you can resize the photo, on my phone I have to take it down to 20% of the original.. And while you are editing rename the file to something logical like ''passport''. When you click on ATTACH a window opens with helpful suggestions as to how your photo should look,

Here's a nice clean image, above that works just fine, I know because it is the one I have used more than once..

The one above is never going to wrok because the software has to read the passport.

There is often a delay before anything happens because internet upload speeds are not that good in many places, and indeed a slow connection means the system 'times out' on occasions too.

When your photo has uploaded you will see this....

When the photo has uploaded you will see the name/DOB/Passport number fields have been populated automatically.... Which is why you cannot fill them in yourself, and people have actually tried to do so!

Saving the information will keep it as a draft and you can come back to it later and amend anything.... Or you can move directly on to the next step which is payment. Make sure your card is valid and can be used for foreign transactions and actually has credit available on it...

See it's easy, and most people already have a copy of their passport on their phone already don't they??

Quite soon after you have filed the application you will get an email confirming so, and a couple of days later, sometimes more quickly, you get the actual visa which you have to print off to present to immigration.

You will also need a landing card which some airlines will give you on the flight but many no longer do so, you can find these in the airports just before the immigration desk.

Egypt Part The Third 2022 - Out And About, And Some More Transport....

 In the course of my wanderings in Egypt and around the world I have taken thousands and thousands of photographs so it is hardly surprising that my little Olympus 'pocket' camera has finally given up the ghost and no longer works.... This leaves me with just the Canon SLR and hopefully the battery will hold up for the rest of my stay because I don't have the charger with me... 

But note that some of these photos have been taken on my mobile!!

Bob Marley again...

And a  pit bull called Diesel which is quite a good name I think...

Keeping the streets clean... The woman in the distance is sweeping the dirt road.

Around my walking route there are several date palm trees that have been felled and will be used for building materials, in particular the really long ones are used as roof trusses, the ones on the left have been used to make a bridge across the irrigation canal.

The irrigation canal is low at the moment because they are draining it to clear out the culvert further up the road and also while the local council make this flash new canal with concrete walls!  

Every butcher's shop comes complete with a built in dog....

And one lucky dog has found a whole skip full of meat!!

Not sure how that dog got up into the skip but it did..

You might have noticed that there are a number of motorbikes in some of the photos??

These are Chinese motorbikes and very popular here, they run out at about 20,000 EGP a pop, or about 1,000 English Pounds which is quite a reasonable price until you consider that an average wage is perhaps only 600 EGP a month, and a school teacher earns 2,000 EGP per month.

The ''farmer's'' version has a fixed trailor on the back, much like the things you see in Greece except new. The ones in Greece are all about 100 years old...

I have been given a lift in the back of one of these.....

And talking about transport... On the right is an official licensed cab with the orange stripe along the top of the plate..

You will also see plates with a red stripe, they are commercial vehicles.

This is a a private plate with the blue stripe, a lot of the people offering you a taxi are driving one of these so they are not supposed to be hiring themselves out. You can have good fun when you don't want a taxi by telling the driver that you are not a taxi, ''Shall I call the police?''

The car on the right is an official ''tourist'' car with a yellow stripe along the top of the plate, you can use these for airport/hotel transfers, and also getting from hotel to the various sites around the area. They don't have meters but you can negotiate a price with the driver. Be generous with him though because he might not get paid anything for official tourist business his only reward is the use of the car. (See previous blog about transfers to Hurghada!)

Other forms of public transport.... The dreaded took took which I will only get into if it is not moving.... 

I don't think they should let people of advancing years even get into one of these...

And one of the local minibuses, (note the orange stripe!). This is quite a smart new(ish) one most of them are banged up Volkswagen Camper vans, and in country towns they are a ute with bench seats along the side. I have yet to work out how these work although I have been in one in Cairo and used one a couple of weeks ago. You sort of stand on the side of the road looking hopeful (years of practice on that one), and eventually one will stop..... You give the driver money and if you give him paper money you seem to get most of it back in change...

And to finish up a ''Benny Hill'' moment as a man hoses down the dirt road to 'lay the dust' a bit...

Tourist: 'Why are you watering the road?'

Waiter: 'To keep the dust down'

Tourist: 'Is it water from the Nile?'

Waiter: 'No. it's bottled water'

Tourist: 'Isn't that expensive?'

Waiter: 'Yes. That is why the tea costs so much money'

(Assembled company is falling off their chairs laughing....)

Egypt Part The Third 2022 - What's Changed, Random Observations, and A Haircut!

 I think I already noted that the public ferry route had changed going from West to East, well the ferry now lands a lot further to the north than it did before and now lands near the Luxor Museum and the hospital, I asked around as to why and the answer came back that the Corniche on the East Bank has been redesigned and upgraded to coincide with a 'state' visit by the President of Egypt....

And very nice it looks too.... All shiny new street lights, marble and stuff, but I have my own theory as to why they moved the ferry landing and that is because they didn't want the President seeing all the dusty peasants in their dusty djellabas wearing sandals with dirty feet in them.... I sort of suggested this idea to somebody and they looked at me and said 'You are probably right'.... (They did a similar thing in Aswan during my visit in 2017 when they cleared all the boats and horses away from the southern end of the corniche so the president didn't see them between the station and the Old Cataract Hotel, indeed at the time they were rebuilding the station as well!!).

I am not sure how long the new planting will last as Egyptians do not seem to be very good at ornamental gardening, but time will tell, at the moment everything is getting watered..

They have installed some nice little pergolas to provide a bit of shade as well, but for every plus there is a minus and with all the new superbright LED street lights you can no longer see the Temple floodlight at night.

As a well known symbol of Luxor you would have thought they would have made a point of keeping the street lighting low key around that area...

This work has been done since I was here in 2019, one does wonder where the money comes from sometimes....

Oil revenue is not that good these days and with no tourists because of COVID...

A bit of video with the lights on....

Something else that has changed is that there seem to be far fewer boat people trying to get you on to their motor boat or feluccas, and a lot fewer pesky taxi and horse and carriage drivers. Not only that but they seem to be less pushy than they were. Or maybe I have just got used to them!

An even bigger change is in the money! There are about 20 LE or EGP to the £1 sterling or GBP, so 1LE is not a lot of money, (the public ferry fare is 1LE or 5LE if you are a tourist), but there always used to be amounts after the decimal point so if you look at the receipt below, you will see the total is 56.50. But they have withdrawn all the small coins, shopkeepers never used to give you any change anyway but now everything is being rounded up or down. This is a big plus for lavatory attendants because the small coins, (if you ever managed to get any), were always used as ''toilet money'' or baksheesh. Now the lavatory attendant gets a whole 1 LE so she is coining it in!! (This is a bit like when Greece joined the Euro, you used to give 50 drachma as a tip but then along came the Euro and we are giving a Euro as a tip which is nearly 400 Drachma!).

And of course never give an Egyptian a large note to go to the shop and buy you something because you won't see any change.....

I mentioned djellabas further up, so something else I have noticed this time around is that in Cairo you rarely see a djellaba, everyone wears Western clothing, (or mostly),but as you head south you find more and more people, men and women, wearing more traditional dress. A djellaba is actually quite a useful garment if you are a man because if you want a pee all you do is squat and go and the djellaba covers everything up. And in answer to the question ''Is anything worn under a djellaba?'', (avoiding the Scottish joke), the answer is ''Yes'', usually long johns or currently thermal underwear!

And after seeing the selfie I took at Karnak without my hat on, I decided it was time for a hair cut and beard trim, not only that but the Egyptians kept calling me Ali Baba, one of them said I had a moustache like Ferouk, and he's dead.

So with the aid of a translator I took myself off to the East Bank to find a barber, 

Don't I look a picture and a bit cheeky too!

And another random observation.... I noticed on previous visits that there were quite a few foreigners here, that is non-Egyptians, who apparently lived here, with the much fewer number of tourists here it has now become apparent that there really are a lot of northern Europeans living here, notable English and Dutch, both of which races seem to get everywhere, but there are also French and Scandinavians as well, with quite a few Germans thrown in for good measure.

Some of these have been here for years literally, and more have arrived more recently such as the 75 year old Irish woman I met recently.

And for the girls I notice that a lot of them have much younger Egyptian boyfriends/husbands. See there is hope for us yet! 

Still to come is another look at food and a wander around Luxor, and a bit about Egyptian bureaucracy.

But I will leave you with a bit of Egyptian humour..

Taxi driver ''You want taxi, very good price, you know how much?''

Me ''No Thanks you. I am walking''

Taxi driver ''Like an Egyptian?''