Money Exchange Anecdote…
Last night I couldn’t overhear a conversation between a waiter in a restaurant and a french speaking tourist. The tourist wanted to pay his bill, however he had only dollars in his pocket or a credit card.
The waiter explained in a very polite way that this restaurant doesn’t accept credit cards, and wanted to offer an exchange rate of 5.1 LE to the Dollar, allthough officially it is not allowed in Egypt to exchange money otherwise then at the bank.
The tourist was upset and shouted that the exchange rate at the bank was 5.7 LE, so much higher. After some discussion the tourist left his wife in the restaurant and went to the bank to change some dollars.
After some 20 minutes he returned and was able to pay his bill in egyptian pounds. As we could understand his conversation with his wife, he had first lined up at the bank, then decided not to wait so long and changed his money somewhere else. Where he got an exchange rate of only 5.0 to the dollar…. which was yet worse as wat the restaurant initially offered.
Lesson: don’t expect you can pay anywhere in El Gouna with your credit cards, and be prepared to have some money in egyptian pounds, or you have to accept the dollar rate that the restaurant is proposing. (Better yet: ask on beforehand how to pay if you know you have not enough egyptian money with you).