Perhaps the most wearying thing about Egypt is the unpredictability. You may have a problem with the lack of number, you may not. You may get a bloodyminded customs official, you may not. You may be able to bribe them, you may not. There really is no hard and fast guideline. Take a wodge of spare hard currency (they like USD or pounds sterling, Euros less so but developing) and be prepared to surreptitiously grease palms. Allegedly.
It can really be maddening. Depends how much you want to see Egypt really.
Interestingly, Mubarak made a statement the other day to the effect that Egyptian bureaucrats should really go easier on foreigners as they are p*ssing so many travellers off with needless powertrips, hard currency (tourist spending and business investment) is being kept well out of Egypt, which, he says, is getting a name for idiocy and corruption (so I guess my advice above perpetuates this...). The Egyptian economy is disintegrating at a rate of knots and foreign hard currency is in great demand.
If you go, be careful where you change money (and change it in-country, not so much in Europe, youll get substantially better rates, esp if you use the black market). As a guide, in Cairo today the rate is about 12EGP to one sterling, and continuing to slip.
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'91 LR 110 Def/Disco hybrid "Elsa"
Bring me the horizon....
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