Reply #104: In Egypt at the airport [View All]

[Bluestar]

Egyptian women have a "concession" of sorts where they take all the available toilet paper from the airport restroom stalls and stand in front of the stalls demanding money (only American dollars will do) from all the tourists for a small amount of toilet paper. They are very aggressive and formidable big women. I hadn't taken any travel toilet paper (learned my lesson) and had to pay them the first couple of times. After a 6 hour flight delay I was fed up with being ripped off. I offered one of them a quarter instead--her response? What's this? I said, An American quarter. She said, "Don't you have any dollars?" I said no more, not for you, grabbed the TP and walked past her.

There was also an Egyptian woman in that rest room who was washing vegetables for her husband's Ramaddan fast-break meal that evening (really disgusting). This was my first introduction to the proverty stricken Middle East.