Speaking of which, let me tell you something I wish someone had told me. You need small Egyptian bills. Acquire them and horde them.
Everything is baksheesh. Everything from beggars to guys who provide legitimate service for which you would ordinarily tip (e.g., the bellman at the hotel) are going to look for baksheesh. You'll learn this word quickly.
Tell the beggars "La'a"--no. But very often, it's proper to give a small amount for some small service. But you don't want to over-baksheesh.
Case in point: Mrs.LL and I went to a bar on our first night in Cairo. They had a cool hookah set-up, so we ordered up a hookah. All good. So there are these dudes walking around with fresh coals for your hookah. Our fire gets a little low, so we call over one of these guys. He gives us some fresh coals, and puts out his hand for baksheesh. Sure--that's fair. So I give him the smallest bill I had, which was a 20-pound note (about $1).
Apparently, that was waaaay, too much.
So the next thing I know, I've got every coal guy in the joint buzzing around me waiting to refresh my coals. I mean, they were all over us.
Egyptian currency comes in notes of 25 and 50 piasteres and 1, 5, 10, 20, 100, and 200-pound notes. Those small denominations are tough to come by. But you're definitely going to want a bunch of them for your baksheeshing. I mean--I would seriously overpay for some of those small notes if that's what it took, just to avoid over-baksheeshing.