Cairo – Second day
by JFC AdminThe second day gave an example of Egyptian scams at work. I thought that the taxi being organised by the hotel concierge would have given us a trustworthy driver but how wrong I was.
The trip started off fine with the driver meeting us at reception at the agreed time, the company that supplies drivers to the hotel is Hertz and they had a fleet of modern, air conditioned vehicles. The driver builds up trust by giving you his business card and suggesting options for the day. A camel ride to the pyramids interested the person I was travelling with, no real interest by me but I thought I’d give it a go.
The driver said it’d cost about £30 each for the camel ride to the pyramids, in Egyptian pounds this is a good deal. Upon boarding the camels it was pointed out that the guide was extra but you’d just pay the amount that you thought he was worth.
In addition to this we were told we’d need to pay admission fees to the pyramids (which was expected) but the price the guide charged for admission was three times the actual price (didn’t know this until after the event). As the tour was coming to an end the guide said we’d pay him separately and would be paying for the camels when we get back. As the tour seemed decent enough (and it wasn’t obvious we were getting ripped off yet), we paid him his suggested amount. A few minutes later he recounted the money and claimed that I’d given him less that I said I would, I stood my ground as I knew that I’d given him the correct amount. Later on the person with me said he noticed the guide handing the kid that was with him some money after I paid him.
It got worse when arriving into the shop to pay for the camels, the person in the shop sat us down and offered some tea, after refusing, he said it was ‘Egyptian hospitality’ and then walked off. Then someone else walked in trying to sell us perfume. Eventually they came to charge us for the camels, they claimed the £30 price quoted was British pounds and not Egyptian pounds. Effectively this makes the price almost ten times more than what was originally quoted. Ultimately I wanted to just put an end to the disaster at this time and get out of the place. I didn’t have enough cash to cover their vastly inflated prices but the place was plastered with American Express logos so I offered to pay by card. They tried to put me off paying with American Express and asked what other cards I had. Most were safely locked up in the hotel safe, I only had my Maestro debit card.
They weren’t sure if they accepted Maestro so they give it a go, the machine didn’t accept it so I insisted they used Amex, eventually they said that they ‘were having issues with American Express’ and therefore couldn’t accept it. The driver was then more than happy to take me on a tour of the nearby cash machines until we found one that worked.
Once all settled up, the driver disappeared back in to the shop presumably to pick up his commission. On the way back to the hotel he tried to take us to a ‘Papyrus Museum’ which was just another overpriced junk shop. We refused to go in and asked to go straight back to the hotel.
Now this sort of action is what can put you off Egypt, I knew of scams but I thought the concierge of a major hotel chain could organise an event with a trustworthy driver. Aware of this rip off, I’m going to stay away from organised trips and organise all transport myself. I’m going to be wary of any offers in the future, I now know why many people are put off going to Egypt.
Total cost of the day was 1100 Egyptian pounds (approx 100 British pounds), this included the car to the pyramids, the tour, admission and camel rides. At Egyptian prices this is excessive. The camels also looked poorly maintained so probably were not looked after very well.
So lesson number one from Egypt: trust no one, not even your own hotel. Do appropriate research online or with a good guidebook first.