The Quest for Fair Price

At times, I take pictures of empty shops and houses in Egypt, to avoid the hassle of being asked for money for photo shoot.

“Too much cheating here, worse than India!” this is a line often repeated by backpackers we met while traveling in Egypt. In the first two weeks of our stay in the country, my sister and I tend to disagree, but as we move further away from the capital Cairo, and into places heavily dependent on tourism, we too are becoming more distrustful by the day.

Double standard pricing is the main issue for us, though we have expected that everywhere in the world where tourism has taken hold, ripping off foreigners is kind of like a sport for those in the trade, and it’s common that foreigners are overcharged for tourism related services and souvenir; yet we have under estimated the difficulties in finding out the “real price” for basic necessity and daily goods, such as bread, tea, water, or simple food at roadside stall.

Most of the shops here do not display price tag, you either know the price and pay the exact amount, or you have to ask first before buying anything. Usually, in most countries, to avoid being overcharged, you could first ask locals with no business interest to get an idea of the daily living cost, but in some places in Egypt, like Luxor and Aswan, I would say the spirit of “unity” display by some locals are admirable.

Ask a local customer who is buying bread or sipping tea in the market how much is he paying for the goods, and very often, the customer would immediately call out to the shop owner to check what should be the “correct answer” for foreigners, and the answer would usually be double the normal price (which we eventually find out after further investigation, well, there’re still honest folks around).

Walk in to a local restaurant (mind you, not the fancy, touristy type), even if the menu and prices are listed on the wall (in Arabic of course), if I point to the cheapest item (which I can read the number but not the description), the answer would usually be “not available”, and if I press further for the next cheapest item (well, even the more expensive items on the list are usually way below the usual 10-25 Egyptian pounds {1USD to 6 pounds} charged on foreigners for a simple meal/ snack), the shop owner would change tactic and say that the menu is “old”, as the restaurant has recently undergone renovation and has yet to update the new price list.

In the face of such lies, no customer in the restaurant would standup for you (for the benefit of doubt, it could be the language barrier that prevented them from speaking up), but unlike in Syria, where I recalled once a whole bus load of local passengers, who speak no English, protested against the driver who try to overcharge me and protected me from dishonesty.

My sister and I are not trying to bargain for cut-throat prices, we only hope to be treated fair and equal for daily necessity, and not having to haggle every time we need to buy a bottle of water or a few pieces of bread. It’s not about we can’t afford one or two pounds extra, it’s a matter of principal. When we try to trace the root of double standard pricing, we come to the conclusion that it’s tourism that breeds it.

Perhaps, to some holiday makers from relatively richer nations, Egypt is so “cheap” and the people seem so “poor”, why not act generously and show sympathy by giving more, and throw in the extra tips too. Yet, sometimes, this act of goodwill (or unknowingly a feeling of superiority) is nurturing other forms of social ills, like dishonesty and the habit of asking for money for nothing.

Once, I saw a western tourist walked past a cleaner, who was just taking a break from sweeping the floor and was squatting under the shade to enjoy his breakfast (plain flat bread), the tourist might have thought that the cleaner was a beggar scrapping rubbish for food, overwhelm by sympathy, the tourist put money into the cleaner’s hand. I have also often seen tourists dishing out sweets, pens, and balloons for kids who say “hello” to them, so much so that nowadays, if you walk into villages near tourist sites in Luxor and Aswan, local women and children chase after foreigners for bakseesh (tips), pomponi (sweets), pen, Euro, Dollar……

My sister told me that once in India, at a Unesco heritage site, she saw a signboard erected by the government, reminding tourists not to give anything to the locals, especially children, as such act would encourage begging. My first response to the story was: “Why does it remind me of the zoo? where there are signboards telling visitors do not feed the animal.”

I am sorry if the analogy seems disrespectful, but come to think of it, every society is an eco-system too, which has its own balance; just like you do not want to leave behind rubbish in the nature, naive and misplaced sympathy is also a form of pollution to a society, as it could harm the dignity and self-respect of the people, who no longer feel shame to ask for money for doing nothing, like some mothers in villages near Aswan, who are housed and clothed and are no beggars, but they would happily lead their children to demand for money and gifts from foreigners as if that’s the most natural thing to do, and that becomes like part of a family education.

“If next time people ask me what I think of Egypt,” my sister laments one day,”I would answer — women ask for money, and man ask for kiss.” Well, though it’s a statement of generalization, it also sums up some of the by-products of tourism, unfortunately.