Wow! Elizabeth - we have the same list!!! ;)

Hey, that's my list, too!

Oh Sakkara Gold!!!

Reminds me of being in Aswan when we were going to sail that day on our cruise.My kids and I went to get bottles of water and coke for the trip on the boat. There was a convenience store near that McDonalds on the Nile down from where we were docked.
Mr. Mohammed the owner asked as I was leaving the store if I drank alcohol? "Why yes, I do-why?" He grabs my hand and takes me back to the back room where there is a coke machine cooler totally full. He pushes the cokes aside in front and there are 14 COLD Sakkara beers for sale! He winks and says to take as many as I would like to buy-roughly 10LE a can. Heaven on earth!!!The husband got two in his Christmas stocking in Luxor on Christmas Eve.

Dutyfree, that is HYSTERICAL! We had a nearly identical experience in Aswan, except it involved buying wine from the trunk of the shopkeeper's car, and several hidden Stella's from the cooler.

Hey, Elizabeth_S, that's my list too!

dutyfree, I remember sf7307 writing that Lady Egypt gave her the option to prepay all the tips on the first day. Did Lady Egypt offer this to you too, I will be travelling with them later this month.

dutyfree,
Even the top cost of 100 LE a day for a tip for a regular guide is 'only' $20 USD per day.

So three days would be $60. Where did the $400 US come from?

- Andrys
http://www.pbase.com/andrys/egypt_jordan

Just Shootme-LE gave us a guide sheet for tipping as I think that all or most of the tour agencies do as we were told to tip on our own. That $20 USD per day(which is not what we paid) is per person so when you are a family of four or five-it gets you along with the driver's tip and if an agent meets or greets you and then there are the porters,etc. The family that tipped the $400 said that they were so overwhelmed that they said they realized they overtipped but didn't want to come off cheap. Go figure? Tipped WAY more going through Egypt than Jordan.

Topping for another Fodorite/person planning trip to Egypt.