Here, mom demonstrates the proper way to negotiate for the return of your camera while Gail plays along, pretending to restrain her. "No, Kay! The Diplomatic Immunity's stretched thin enough as it as after the last one...!"

Seriously: one of the disappointments of our time at the Pyramids was the sheer amount of souvenir-hawkers we had to deal with. In most other tourist attractions in Egypt, there's a barrier around it that you need to buy a ticket to get into. Not so with the plateau of Giza -- if you got two legs and some cheap crap to sell, there you are, selling it.

With that in mind, three warnings:

1) Whatever they have to sell, say "la" (no) and keep walking. You can buy the same stuff for less in stores.

2) If you ignore rule #1, never buy it for what they're asking. Bargain them down to 1/4 to 1/3 of what they're offering, because that's about where they bought it at.

3) If you do buy it, do not give them anything but Egyptian Pounds. If they say "give me American money," and won't take no for an answer, sale's over -- walk away.

There's also lots of folks with camels offering rides and photos. Some of these guys are honest, and some of them will offer to take your picture and then demand baksheesh to get the camera back. And some will let you get on the camel for free and then ask you for more money that you bargained for in order to get back down...

Grumble-Grumble-Bitch-Complain. Go anyway and do what you want, but keep your eyes open and don't agree to anything unless you've made the transaction very clear.