I was on a sight seeing holiday, based in Luxor, Egypt, last year. Have you been?..?

Question

The reason I ask is, I realy enjoyed Egypt, but I realy didn,t like the Egyptians AT ALL! Everyone that we met had thier hand out and treated us like we owed them something. By the end of the holiday thier never-ending cadging had forced us to stay within the hotel complex. Have these people got no self respect?

Answer 1

Thanks very much dude. I am really flattered. For your information , the majority of the people here on this category are Egyptians. Expect the heat coming to you right now.
You will mostly get reported. Guess what! I don't feel sad for you at all.

Answer 2

I have been to Luxor Many times, My first experience there was 'o'h my god i'm never going there again! for exactly the reasons that you experienced. But on my return I started to write about the good things, and from there on I was hooked. It truely can be an amazing experience ..trust me.
When you get to know egyptian people personally as friends you will see a completely different side to their nature.I have alot of respect for some of them.
The reason that you are subjected to constant hassle is because there is no welfare state. I have been in some egyptian homes, and they have nothing, no furniture, mud floors, NOTHING, all they can afford is the food they eat, they might have one bed in the house and yet a whole family group grandparents sons and their children all live together, their are no old folks homes to put your granny in when you cant cope anymore. Egyptian families look after there own...........and yet they were so happy, they never bedrudge us and our material wealth.........their children were delightful.Nothing like the mouthy horrid tennagers that our society breeds hanging around town centers abusing their elders with violence and foul mouths.

The average wage for a WHOLE MONTH is L.E.250 - 300 which is equivalent to english pounds 20-30 quid. When you think that we pay 25-30 L.E for half a larger at the hotel the comparison becomes a joke. I know good egyptian families where men have two jobs to support there families, a government job that pays them about 17 pounds a month to be a teacher in a school on the westbank and also hotel worker during the season. Some men work for up to one and a half years with no wages, their wages go into a 'pool' and one man draws the lot, he does this so that he can get married, their own families support them during this period.they have no money for themselves, only the desire to have a home and a wife keeps them going.
Please dont be put off this first experience in Luxor, if you want to know anything about Luxor and I cant help, I will do. I undertand some basic egyptain, I can recognize a geko when i see one, its a little green lizard often seen crawling across walls, sometimes in sits and waits in fellucas and taxis though

I can tell you of a beautifull selfcatering apartment for 10 english pounds a night, or a hotel called the New Radwan with beautiful clean bedrooms for less than 10 a night B&B for a double room if you ever want to give luxor another try, book a cheap flight off the internet and off you go! round 2 is always better equiped ! !
Best wishes

Answer 3

I am an Australian tour guide who works in Egypt. It really saddens me to hear such an attitude coming someone who admits they loved Egypt the country.
A country is made up and reflects the culture and history of its people.
If you were on a tour.Then your guide should have explained to you,tipping is built in to the wages of Egyptians working in any field related to tourism.
But I am sure that in the time you spent,"forced to stay in your hotel complex". You were drooling over the incredibley cheap bargains you got at the bazaar,or how cheap the drinks and food are,etc., etc.!
The Egyptian people have very high self respect,and strong family commitment. But the wages are abysmal and there is no welfare handouts like in Western Countries.
So the elderly men at the Temples and tombs who are employed as Guardians take home per week, what you would be paid per hour.
It is a wage that no one could live on.
Tipping, as I said, is built into the wages.
So they are reliant on your generosity of giving them the exorbitant amount of 1 or 2 L.E., if that. It would equate to about 50 cents AUST if you gave them 2L.E.
If you are from the U.S. or U.K. then it is even less!
If you had read anything about Egypt you would have been familar with the custom of baksheesh. As it is rare plus downright stupid, that anyone would go on holiday to a country they know nothing about.
I can find no reason for your complaint.
But some people will always find something to have a good whinge about!
If your whinge had been about the constant call for "Tax,Tax," to the point where you feel the tax man, may have followed you to Egypt.Then realised it was just the call of the taxi drivers. Then I could relate,but not to the point of complaining.
Most think its tedious, but quite funny.
But that is how it is,competion for a fare is high,and the price, as you found is low.
So maybe in future, it would be better for you to get your taste of the exotic by going to good old Disneyland.
I am sure you will find it free of people asking directly for tips.
But you will find the amount of the service tax about 500% what you would pay if you gave every person who asked you $5 each.
Or perhaps a sojorn at a Buddist monastery to improve your approach toward humanity would be a better idea.
They will not ask for a tip,just a donation.

Answer 4

the problem is with you and a lot of other folks,
I am a welshman just started a tour business just for the reason you did not like Egypt, I first opened the myegypt restaurant as an income for my retirement, because i am authritic I decided to live here because it never rains.( you think you had problems)
after opening the restaurant every body had the same "one" complaint, so I started a tour business and made a website
with do's and dont's on Egypt, these E people you are on about actually boycoted my restaurant, so now i can only send it via email to prospective clients, this may be of help to you and others travelling here.
the reason why you as a tourist get so much hassle is "first" the economy of egypt is about 45% from the tourist industry, when you come with big companies (no names)you are in there care and live with there rules. so the big operaters take most of the money (more info on the e-mail) (second) most people do not read up first, and Egypt is a complete shock, go and read the complaints page on lonely planet/Luxor "then read our customers page."
I think we are the only ones to do fully inclusive tours
www.mygypt.co.uk
then your last ? do they have any self respect questionable but what would you do no money no dole, the average police here get 70 pcm le so can you blame them when they think the tourist has money to burn, and do not think these people have saved up maybe for years to have a break here, the policy of the average E that deals with the tourist is "get thier money before somoene else does,need to know more look me up.

Answer 5

I went with a new company called myegypt in November on a two week tour , absolutely fantastic the only money we spent after paying for the holiday was for presants that we wanted for Christmas and of course ourselves, we only had some hassle in Luxor. but they did warn us what to expect and how to deal with any situation, it was good advice after seeing and hearing what other tourists where going through especially on the Nile promanade. the reason I am answering your Question we did not take a cheap 200£ holliday we could of, flight and hotel 210£
Manchester to Luxor, clever us we looked up a few things first like Egypt complaints,with the best selling tour guide book?? luxor has the highest hassle rate in the world,
what do we get for our money? then we found out the cost of eating in the hotel the price of tours Etc,Etc and decided to take the all inclusive tour with my Egypt, no regrets whatsoever.not even with the price the price of the tour was the best thing, so not all people in egypt are bad and we are going again as soon as we can this time to do the Felluca trip on the Nile and with the same company, and next time we will tip them Or backshish as they call it

Answer 6

Although some people are close minded to consider that shoppers or very poor people are the Egyptians, I would like to ask also why you didn't go in a Luxury tour ? there are all kinds of tours and more than 77 millions of Egyptians. Most probably you haven't got enough money to afford visit through an organised tour with a good company and good Tourism guide. Usaully in these cases the game is like that (poor tourists meet cheaper services and meet also poor people) if you ask someone else who enjoyed Egypt staying in 5 stars hotel or Nile cruise they would have told you they made shopping in 5 stars shops inside or near to their hotel. Simply you got what you deserved as a closed minded tourist. Next time you can save some more money to visit new places and try to go through a respectable company or at least have some friends of Egyptians who may tell you everything. By the way Egyptians are open minded people and used to interact with other cultures and they know already about others much.
If you feel you would like to know why these simple people are poor and need money, you may find the answer in our long history of invasions by the other rich countries where they were bigging and borrowing money from Egypt. Add to that some other elements like occupation and steeling the monuments. Don't forget also that Europe get rid of few rubish people and through them among Arabian land to make them busy and to spoil their land (it started since 1890's and was official in 1948)
I hope I gave you a brief and clear study for your question.
For any details or more questions you can send me if you like.

Answer 7

Odd. I was in Egypt in 1995 and not only fell in love with the country, but I thought the people were great. I visited as part of a round the world trip and of all the countries I'd like to go back to, Egypt is #1 on the list.
I'm a Canadian, perhaps that had something to do with it, but I doubt it. I found the people to be very friendly. I was invited into homes, I was invited to stay in small shops, after hours to sit , talk and enjoy the hospitality of turkish coffee, celopatra cigs and pepsi with shop owners. I was never afraid to venture out after dark, which I often did.
Sure I came across people asking for bakeesh. You'll have that anywhere on the planet you visit. It certainly wouldn't stop me from enjoying a country and it's people.
Sorry you felt the need to stay inside, you missed a beautiful country, culture and history.

Answer 8

ohhh i so agree with Nefertiti, like her i go back to luxor regularly, about 2 or 3 times a year. i have many friends there and really enjoy visiting. my first love was the history but now i love everything about being there and would love to spend more time there. BUT however much i love the country and the people there are times when yes the constant demands do try my patience. And yes i know how much some of them are paid. But sistablu i do tip everywhere and i try to be generous as i know the problems, but always what ever i give big or small there is always the demand for more, they look at what I give and always ask for more. And for those who live there try watching what its like for a woman to walk down the street and see how often she is stopped. but i still love your country, and my friends there and the history and i will still be back and i will continue to try and be generous.

Answer 9

"Ismaily's" right .. cuz i know a lot of people in this are egyptian including me.. and i don't appreciate what you're saying at all! .. n u said you liked egypt, so that includes egyptians. and just because you had a bad experience with some of them doesn't mean we're ALL like that. And hey you were in our country weren't you? i bet you'd do the same if we were in your country, and don't say no, cuz you KNOW that's not true. And trust me, we've got more self respect than anyone.. EVER .. n it's a good tourism place, are you going there to look at the sights or rate the people... sorry if i got a bit carried away, but no country has all good people or all bad people..

Answer 10

I have never been to egypt but am planning to go to luxor next year.Surely you would have looked up about egyptian culture before you went.I cant see how you were forced to stay within your hotel surely just a simple firm no and walk away would have been enough.
I have read many sites about this but am not put off.Cant wait to go.

Answer 11

Those you met are beggars and such job-related people, they have a fairy thought that anyone who look like a foreigner must be a millionaire, and you are right, they have no self respect or anything related when it comes to their "job", they happened to live in parts where tourists like you come a lot.
I would be careful if i were you when cursing all Egyptians because of some scum that are existent in every country and works with more or less different ways.