Day
13 - Luxor : Tombs of Nobles - Konsu, Benia, Userhet--Rekhmire,
Ramose, Sennefer, Nankt and Menna, and Userhat.
Well we didn't make it to the Gurna discovery
Museum, I think they tore it down along with most of Gurna!.
From ancient times the people of Gurna have had a colorful
and shady reputation. They may be the descendants of the tomb
workers, who knows. Anyway, they settled into the village and
conveniently built their house over tombs--presumably unrobbed
tombs. they have jealously guarded their position every since.
Even today you can buy true antiquities if you have enough
money and wish to risk the severe penalties that the Egyptian
government imposes. It is very illegal to buy a true antiquity.
Anyway the Gurnaies have a reputation for being wily, charming,
and cut-throat if pushed to the wall - the tomb wall, that
is.. Today we saw some of that in action. Sort of a privilege
and a pain, I guess.
Two weeks ago President Mubarak came to Luxor to initiate
the clearing of local homes from ancient sites. Two sites were
especially prominent, Karnak and the Gurna village. Payments
for homes and guest houses and workshops were arranged, but
of course no one thought they were adequate, and in the case
of the Karnak village, they weren't very sensitive to the local
customs (see Karnak), however, the Government is losing patience
as the tourist industry and the sites must grow to keep servicing
the tourists whcih keep the funds flowing to keep up with the
growing Egyptian population. Emminent Domain is a power all
governments have, and it is exercised all over the world, but
it always results in a squabble over the amounts the government
wants to pay vs what the locals think is reasonable.
So we arrived this morning at Gurna, the site of the tombs
of the nobles and a local boy had to guide the guide, as all
the familiar landscape of houses has disappeared except a few,
and the bull doziers were busy knocking down mud brick houses.
We got to visit all the tombs we wanted to, and distributed
baksheesh liberally to take a few pictures, no flash, of course!
Some of the tombs are hardly ever visited and since they are
assigned to one keeper, the baksheesh was especially welcome.
We stopped by one of the workshops that make great reproductions
and also new interpretations of antiquities. Of course these
were sometimes sold as true antiquities, and maybe you could
still get a true antiquity, but that was not our mission, I
just wanted a picture of the limestone souvenier stele that
they make here to sell, a new tourist item. So we offered to
pay for the pictures and I wandered into the shop. Found a
beautiful simulated antiquity of Merit Amun, a small, lightweight
clay face. Very good and faithful to the Amarna artistic tradition.
Also scrounged around in a box of "amulets" and picked
out some very small crocodiles. The owner asked for 200 for
all, pricing the crocodiles at 20 each and the face at 120.
I thought the price of the crocodiles was high, but the price
for the face was very good, it is hand made, made to mould,
maybe not, but beautiful. It has been distressed and is a bit
flakey, but I bargained gently for 150, after all the guy was
going to have his house torn down very soon , if not tomorrow.
 Later, about three tombs into the itineray, we stopped for
a drink at the Sennofer Rest House. Very nicely done up with
two cases of local reproductions for sale, not the normal manufactured
stuff you see everywhere. I looked around and picked out three
that interested me. The person who served us would not bargain,
said his father would be back from the tombs shortly to bargain.
Ken immediately knew that they had sized us up for the kill,
and I blythly sipped my mint tea which was delicious. The items
were a small baboon in stone for Ken, a clay replica of the
New Kingdom face about palm size and a little stone composite
that consisted of a squate ibis figure with eggs resting on
a stone slab. The Ibis figure, they had three variations, was
hand made, perhaps carved, the eggs and ibis attached to the
stone. It reminded me of the ibis with eggs found in Tutankhamun's
Tomb. Well we perused the guest book while we waited. When
the head to the family came, he was a true salesman and he
began to bargain, starting at US $250 or so, I switched him
back to Egyptian pounds and he stated 1000. Well the haggling
continued with us saying that it realy was too much, we had
chosen his best pieces and couldn't afford him, all the time
Ken was whispering "he's too good for you, Joan."
Well
we started to walk out the door when my last offer of 500 and
his counter over of 750 was on the table when we had the ultimate
market experience! He declared 550 and began to wrap the articles
and I said, I didn't have the money. Which I didn't, and Ken
was refusing to come up with the rest of it, being highly suspicious
of this man. I took out two hundred to show him that that was
all I had and was about to appologise when the guide opened
his wallet and took out what I thought was the extra 350, so
that was that, the transactions was complete. I was happy,
we promised to pay the guide back, Ken thought we paid about
350 too much and the owner, as it turned out was very happy!
But we had made the classic market place mistake. The guide
had given me 500 (my last offer) and I had not looked closely
at the denominations of the bills and had put my 200 with it,
thinking he was just making up the rest of the 550 that the
owner had agreed. Anyway, we belive the owner ended up with
at least 700 if not 750 EP.
After mulling over the transaction,
we discovered the error as we boarded the ferry to cross the
Nile for lunch, but it was really too late, we had become the
latest people to have been bested in a "deal" with
the Gurnais. Not really a tragedy, we really had the money
at the hotel, but Ken still thinks it was too much, I am very
happy with .the pieces and the money is in reality 100 USD,
and the guide is apologetic, and I am sure a bit angry at the
guy. But in some ways we may have been one of the last in a
centuries long line to come off second best to a wiley citizen
of Gurna. The guesthouse will be torn down, but the owner
is refusing to accept the $2,000,000 EP offered by the government,
asking for $4,000,000. In the mean time, I am sure any antiquities,
existing tomb caches, and good "FAKEs" are being
carted out by the car load in the dead of night.
 The tombs we saw were Konsu, Benia, Userhet--these three not
often seen, but Benia, is especially good. Rekhmire, Ramose,
Sennefer, Nankt and Menna, the most famous ones and Userhat.
We had lunch on the river and went back to the hotel to cash
some travelers checks to repay the guide. Ken has caught my
sore throat/cold and we need to download and sort pictures--so
we once again had to say no to an interesting excursion to
an aromatherapist proposed by the guide. Aromatherapy would
seem to be a natural extension to the centuries old perfume
business, and we are told that they are setting up natural
medicine clinics. Alas, it is not our thing, and we needed
to unwind and process.
Guide says that the most profit for him comes from - in order
- his own tours he sets up via email contacts, the boat tours
(comment on boat tipping) and last of all couple like us. He
enjoys couples like us, and will take them to fill in schedule,
but unless the tips are REALLY BIG, he probably won't make
as much money for his time because if we don't purchase extra
excursions or visit the traditional shops such as alabaster,
papyrus and I suppose Aromatherary, he has no chance to earn
extra. The only extra we are purchasing is one piece of alabaster,
I relented and we bought a tomb scene carved on the alabaster
and hand colored, a carriage ride at twilight on Thursday and
some local business cards that are kind of unique. On offer
were ballon rides, trips down to Abydos and Dendera, and probably
anything else we could think of, maybe a trip out into the
desert to the monestary sites, the list of choices could be
quite long if you listed them out. Egypt tourism is well developed
and easy to access once you are here.
A Note on tipping or Baksheesh. Baksheesh seems to be a universal "VAT
or Goods and Services Tax" that is exchanged between and
among everyone in Egypt, except the tourist, of course. It
is a way of distributing the wealth in a group of people that
live under a very loose wages system and who are totally dependant
upon irregular income sources. I am sure that there must be
rules of sharing among families, but Baksheesh is about sharing
among workers, merchants and larger tourist businesses. In
essence it goes something like this: I bring you a customer
or source of income, and you give me a percentage of what they
spend, or perhaps you give me a per head "finders fee".
Also there are understandings about wholesale prices or "local" prices
to Egyptians, and prices that are to expected to be offered
to tourists. There is nothing personal or disrespectful about
this, the same systems operate in all other countries with "rates
for Mates", "I can get it for your wholesale",
salespersons who work on commission, and the American minimum
wage plus tips waiters wage. It's just that in Egypt, the Egyptians
use the system everywhere and with everybody.
For example, you might have lunch out with your guide. The
guide probably gets the meal free and yours is possibly charged
at a different rate depending upon whether you are identified
as "part of their tour" or as an individual customer.
The guide pays the restaurant the "wholesale" rate
in the first instance and has charged you for the meal as part
of the tour package or you pay the retail tourist rate to the
restaurant in the second instance.
In another example, if the guide makes a commission on an
item you have purcharsed at the papyrus factory, the Egyptian
tour agency that arranged for him to be your guide might expect
a percentage of that commission. In many ways it is a loose
arrangement and because it has so many variations it somehow
seems shady to Westerners. But I assure you that it is everywhere
and considered normal.
Now the practice that annoys tourists is the direct tipping
of guides, bathroom attendants and hotel staff. All of these
practices exist in some form or the other in the West, but
you are unlikely to be faced with all of them in one morning
unless you are in New York City, and frankly you will find
a disappointed tomb attendant much nicer than a New York Taxi
driver who you forgot to tip. Anyhow, many tourists believe
that they have paid for the tour and that should be it. But
alas, that is like saying they have paid for the meal and the
waiter can just go begging. Unfortunately there is no such
thing as a guaranteed living wage in Egypt. They are all contractors
and temporary staff who may sometimes have had to pay someone
just to have the privilege of working as your guide. I know--
I know-- you didn't make up the system, but it is only fair
that participate in an intelligent way.
If you are given good service, or even if you are just provided
a service, then you should pay for it, because it is uncertain
whether anyone else has done so. There may be a good reason
why you can have such comprehensive personal service at such
a low price included in your tour package (hint--no one is
getting much as a base salary).
Anyway we were faced with a real issue of how much to tip
a driver and an English speaking guide who were at our full
disposal for 8 hours a day. We were assured that Egypt Holiday
Tours paid it's personnel a base salary, but we also knew that
they could have earned quite a bit more if they dragged us
into every shop and if we were, frankly, a group of 6 to ten
people. So here is how we calculated it.
First premise: We have worked as consultants and therefore
know that a contractor or consultant can only count on working
1/2 of the days in a month. Remembering that in Egypt tourism
there are months when there are no days off and months when
few people come.
Second premise: The Egyptians provided exceptional personal
service. They can arrange most anything at astonishingly short
notice. They are good at what they do and within the usual
caveats of buyer beware, they can be counted on when a deal
is struck to stick to it.
Third premise: They don't live on air. They have only a certain
amount of time every day to earn their living, and if they
are working honestly at that and have invested in their skills
and networks to provide the service, they should be paid at
least a living wage.
So I asked what normal living expenses are and found out that
Egyptians can live at a reasonable standard of living with
modern amenities like phones, a bit of cable TV for the soccer
and electricity and what not for $1500 Egyptian Pounds a month.
That's a fair living wage for a small family starting out and
living a modern life.
OK, based on that, and a sliding scale for driver vs. guide
we came up with the follwoing imperfect system of tipping.
Drivers got EP20-EP50 everyday, depending upon what city we
were in. Remember it costs more to live in Cairo that Aswan
and we were their major source of income for the whole day.
Guides got approximately twice the amount of money required
for them to live daily or EP100-EP120. It varied. We tipped
the guides at the end of their time with us, and hoped that
this amount made up for the fact that we didn't do much shopping,
they had to scramble to keep up with our admittedly "big" itinerary,
and we were only two people. I have to say they did such outstanding
jobs for us, we didn't feel that these amounts were generous.
We hoped fervently that the guides were happy with them, because
they deserved to get amounts that made them happy, they made
us very happy.
Now I know you will say, "Why didn't the driver get the
same as the guide?" Well, the answer is because it was
expected that the guide would get more because they had invested
in their education in order to provide the service. The guides
had all spent four years or more in college to become certified,
and they were all well prepared to present our particular sites
of interest. They had to do their homework.
Anyway, I wrote this to help you get your head around this
tipping thing and to show how we tackled it. Sure--we probably
disappointed some people and astonished others at our generousity,
and I'll admit going to Egypt feels like an endless small flow
of money out of holes in the bottom of your pockets. Some tours
offer to collect the Baksheesh in advance from you and then
disperse it as your move along your tour. Other tour leaders
pay appropriate Baksheesh and write it down in a book and at
the end of the day, the group then divides it up and pays.
The Nile cruises give you a guideline of USD per person per
night because there are 90 people manning one of those boats
and you don't see most of them, but receive the benefit of
their service, nevertheless. But we had no choice, there was
no one between us and the people who served us, we had to decide,
and I just told you how we did it.
We had a fabulous time...and the demands of tipping (baksheesh)
was not annoying to us, but we decided in the very beginning
that it wouldn't be. It was just a force of Egyptian Social
Nature and we went with the flow.
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