Thank God it's not just me
In Sri Lanka, she who must be obeyed and I were walking along Colombo's seafront trying to shake off the crippling jet lag. A guy approached us and, to cut a long story short, took us for the temple tuk-tuk ride and then to a bar where we somehow ended up paying his tab too.
I was annoyed at myself for falling for it, but the upside was we got a few hours' excursion around Colombo for less than 30 quid. The travel company wanted more than that.
At least in Sri Lanka, they were polite about trying to deprive you of your cash. In Egypt they're conscience-free money-grabbing scumbags trying to get you to tip them for every little thing. Best examples: the airport worker loading cases onto the security X-ray machine wanting a tip for doing it, and the policeman asking for "baksheesh" for pointing out where our horse & cart was parked for the return trip to the hotel from a temple.
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Fri 1 Oct 2010, 16:58, Reply)