Wednesday 3 March 2010
A visit to the strange and quirky Agricultural Museum today turned a bit sour when the very low admission price was offset by all the baksheesh we had to pay within the museum.
Okay, I'll try and explain baksheesh without rambling on. It is basically a tip (or sometimes a bribe) you give someone for helping you out. You give it at times we westerners understand, like at a restaurant or to someone who has done a particularly good job. But here in Egypt, you also have to give it when someone does something small, like opens a door for you. For example, in this museum, several "guides" came over, pointed at something, and then asked for baksheesh. And we pretty much have to pay it. This often happens at tourist sites when you are shown something off the beaten path (whether you wanted to see it or not), and sometimes when some guy comes over and says "Canada good!" and then holds out his hand for baksheesh.
We're trying to get used to it (we basically just feel like walking wallets most of the time), to accept it as a cultural phenomenon (even Egyptians have to pay baksheesh all the time), and to figure out exactly when we have to pay and how much. All of these three things are really difficult.
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