Arriving in a new country can be very difficult from a financial perspective. When we arrived in Jordan, and needed to find a taxi to our hotel, we had no idea what was an appropriate fare We ended up settling on 5 Jordanian Dinar ($7.50) for a 10-15 minute ride. I thought this was high, but what argument could I make? Within two hours of being in Amman we had learned from our long lost relative that upon entering a cab, you need to insist that the driver use his meter. Otherwise they will see your white skin and jack up the price. The next 10 minute ride cost about a ten times less.
Through much of our time in Jordan, I felt like a walking wallet. To the majority of people we interacted with, I was not a person, but a prospective profit. This was especially true in heavily touristic areas. In Madaba, a less touristy town, we found a friendly falafal restaurant that sold us four sandwiches for a dollar, and made us feel very welcome.
Compare that to Wadi Musa, home of Petra, where I felt extremely uncomfortable walking into Al-Arabi, the Lonely Planet recommended joint. When I asked how much a falafal sandwich would cost me, the cashier snarled "One Dinar." Then he began making jokes to the locals waiting for their food, of which I was clearly the punchline. At restaurants throughout the country, their were no prices on the menu. This allows them to charge foreigners 3-4 times the going rate, and their is nothing we can do about it. At least in Cairo, if the sweet-potato-engine guys charge you double, you (a) know they need it and (b) are only paying 20 cents more.
I've already mentioned the flock of touts at Petra tryng to get us to ride camels or donkeys, or buy postcards and jewelry. We were expecting to be absolutely swarmed at Giza a few days ago in a similar manner. We had some friends who were there 2 weeks ago, and they were dropped off by their cab driver at an alternate entrance. He told them that the road to the other entrance was closed, and they needed a horse or a camel to go the rest of the way. Of course, there was a man with to horses who was happy to help. Only 250 pounds each for a ride to the pyramids! They went for it, and were out $100. Of course, upon approaching the Great Pyramid, they also approached the parking lot below it and saw that they had been tricked. I'm sure the driver had a a nice piece of the pie as well.
However, we were surprised to find that there were less tourists and less touts than in Petra. The difference was that the touts were more devious. Here are some more examples:
The minute we stepped out of the cab a man approached asking us if we had tickets. We ignored him. "I am trying to help you," he insisted. We ignored him. "I need to help you with your tickets," he pressed. We ignored him. "Stop, I work for the government. Just ask those policemen over there." He did not look anything like an official, and the guards did not seem interested (though I'm sure they would've loved a cut). We kept walking. "Come back if you want a camel or horse ride!" he shouted at us a final act of desperation. Gotcha.
After we bought our tickets and were walking towards the Great Pyramid, a man standing next to some officers (for effect only) asked to see our tickets. I'm not sure why we pulled them out, but you have to understand that many of these con-artists have a way of catching you of guard and surprising you, even if you know it's coming. "These tickets allow you to walk to all of the pyramids," he explained (duh), "but they don't pay for a horse or camel ride." I quickly snatched the tickets back and we began to walk away. "Wait, did you want a camel ride? I can arrange it for you, but it costs extra!" They've really had a lot of practice in fine tuning their approach.
Overall, however, Egypt has been much better than Turkey and Jordan as far as harrsment is concerned. At first I thought we had just become desensitized by it, but Turkey truly was much worse. Egypt also trumps Jordan in that it's prices are actually printed at the restaurants. No rip offs there.
Taxis in Cairo are also very easy, and cheap. There are basically two options. You can hop in a newer white checkered cab and the meter will run. Anywhere in the city for under $5, usually under $3. Or, you can hop in one of the older black and white cabs that are meterless You end up paying a little less, or a whole lot more. The entire sytem is based on the passenger knowing what the appropriate fare is and paying accordingly. As soon as the words "How much?" come out of your mouth, you become fair game.
We usually take the checkered cabs for simplicities sake, but coming back from Giza (basically a Cairo suburb) we negotiated a fare. Of course the driver told me "60 pounds," when I knew 25 was fair. We negotiated to 35 (with Morgan and I beginning to walk away at least twice). This is what I love about the taxis. I can pay more than the going rate, and not be out a lot of money. In most cabs, I just tip big, or round up to the nearest 5 pounds. The reality is that a lot of these drivers are just scraping by, and a good fare for them is not that much more for us. Everybody wins, everybody is happy.
If we really wanted to go cheap, there are public buses. Neither of us have a death wish though...
In retrospect, I imagine that a lot of the restaurant owners and camel herders are just scraping by as well, but their approach is all wrong. When we have the feeling that somebody is trying to take advantage of us, deceive us, or crack jokes at our expense, they are not going to get any of our money.
This post has been a long time in coming, because it something that is a frequent topic of conversation for Morgan and I. Money changes hands in our daily lives so much, and it gets wearisome when we have to be on our guard at all times. Do we tip here? How much? How long have we been in the cab? Was this cheaper at the other place? Is it worth it? Or the all-time classic budget reference: How'd we do today? Even when things are cheap, the feeling of being ripped off just isn't fun.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody, we have much more to share in the next day or two!
2 comments:
Yeah. Hit the nail on the head with that one. It's nice that I don't feel like Mr. Dollar in Quy Nhon, but in most of the tourist places that's all I am.
Of course, tourists can be jerks in this regard too. A couple of middle-aged French ladies once proudly told us how they delayed an entire busload of Vietnamese people for like 20 minutes while they argued with the driver over the equivalent of like 40 cents. Add that one to your list of "How to Quickly Irritate Large Numbers of Locals."
That's a good example of "this means more to them than it does to me." If you're getting ripped off, that's one thing, but coming into a country loaded with cash and trying to low ball every taxi, bus, or whatever is definitely bad form.
Post a Comment