Egyptian shake down

We arrived in Cairo for the two week Egypt-Jordan leg of our round the world trip to a mass of people who had all gathered to help us find an overpriced cab into the heart of the city. How kind, with little experience and only US dollars we reluctantly obliged.

After the airport experience and a couple days touring Cairo one thing became crystal clear: there sure are a lot of people coming up with schemes to part our money from us.

Perhaps most surprising to a first-time visitor, was the active role played by the tourist police in this trade. In Cairo, everywhere you go from street corners to the star attractions there are uniformed and armed tourist police whose official role, I've been led to believe, is to protect tourists from scams and scamers, theft, or worse. I'd feel much more secure if my protectors weren't sleeping and reading on duty, or pressuring us at attractions to escape the marked path so they can pose us for tacky pictures (for a price).

Our first close encounter with the tourist police was on our first day in Cairo and during our whirlwind 7 hour tour of the three main pyramid sites at Dahshur, Sakura and Giza.

We took a taxi and got to the Dahshur site early. The heat and sun were already on full assault, but our early rise had meant that we had the Red and Bent pyramids almost entirely to ourselves.

As we approached the gate the tourist police were there: one sitting attentatively, two sleeping soundly, and another focused mindfully on his pocket-sized Koran. We got out of the car, stepped over a sleeping dog to wake the sleeping clerk to buy our entry into the site. We then got back in the taxi drove past the unplugged metal detector and unmanned security equipment for the short drive up to the Red pyramid.

The site was amazing and the ticket included a climb up and into the pyramid. We were basically alone, except for a couple other backpackers and a pair of tourist police.

As we descended from the pyramid to return to the car we heard a whistle and a series of calls that would become very familiar, "My friend... Where from?" "Canada Dry never die!" It seemed to be our lucky day, a tourist police offered to take a break from his guarding job to take us around to the side, out of view from the parking lot and the arriving tour groups for excellent photo opportunities.

We followed him over, took a couple pictures and turned to head back. He blocked our exit, we froze, he grinned and kindly offered to take pictures of us climbing a small monument in front of the pyramids. We said sure, he dropped his big machine gun, grabbed our camera and started snapping cheesy tourist shots of us. The one he seemed to enjoy the most, and that I imagine he shot 100 times more that day, simulated that the distant Bent Pyramid was in fact a minature prop suspended in the air from our hands.

The first time the guy with the badge and AK47 says pose ridiculously, you pose. If he says climb, you climb. And, if he grins softly and says "a little something for me" as you walk away, you hand him a tip. Then when he awkwardly implies you tipped too little, you dig deeper.

This was our first day, we had no more change. I nervously handed him 20 Egyptian pounds. He smiled and I was releaved. Thinking he got too much I got a little bold and asked if I could hold his big gun for a picture. His grin disappeared from his face, and he sternly said, "No, no!"

Holding the gun, it appeared, was not an option. I guess I had figured that since he had left his gun leaning up against the base of the pyramid that maybe his gun safety ethics were fairly relaxed. Just then, when I thought I found something in Egypt that couldn't be bought, the guard smiled again and said "Ok, maybe for $50 US." There was no way that I was seriously considering touching the gun, and besides his asking price was more than I was paying to see all the pyramid sites.

We let this happen once. Then we ignored the tourist police as we did the other Egyptians trying to sell us overpriced junk. For anyone who is concerned know that this whole situation was in good humour, the guard was a very nice guy who was basically bored with nothing much to do and we are two tourists with heavy wallets that needed to be lightened.

-- Posted from my iPhone