After my last border crossing at Taba (from Egypt into Israel) I am a touch apprehensive about the next one.

At the luggage scan the security guard asked me to open my bags - looking for anything with batteries, apparently. I showed him my AAA battery torch and he promptly asked for it as a present - twice.

This time round I refused and simply walked away - but perhaps with the situation still unstable in Egypt the more remote (overland ?) border crossings may be getting tricky. I shudder to think what would have happened had he decided I warranted a cavity search... I am contemplating taking cigarettes with me next time (I don't smoke) in case I have to give baksheesh to cross the border...

Has anyone had similar experiences ?

D.

It isn't clear from your post whether this occurred on the Israeli side or the Egyptian side.

When have you ever heard of Israeli security guards demanding baksheesh?

This is why clarity is needed. If it happened on the Egyptian side my reaction would be to roll my eyes and say this is just the way things are done and the cigarettes are a good idea. If it happened on the Israel side I'd be appalled and call for reporting it to other Israeli government authorities.

On the Egyptian side, of course. Cannot possibly imagine this on the Israeli side...

I am not so familiar with Egypt - baksheesh is a way of life, sure, but from a customs/security official out there in the open ? At the border crossing ? Really ? I've been through Taba a few times in years gone by - first time I've seen this....

I don't know enough about the current situation in Egypt, but I would imagine, following the takeover by the army, that the rule of law is a bit murky at the moment.

Yeah, this was 100% obvious.

This is par for the course in Egypt. Do you really think government / security officials are going to be any more or less professional/corrupt because of some political event? Come to think of it, I was at Taba last fall and asked the customs guy it I could borrow a pen to fill out my form, and he wanted baksheesh after I handed the pen back to him. Also in Egypt, I was eating a cookie in the parking lot of the Dashur pyramid complex, and a "tourist police" guy asked me to give him the rest of my cookie!

Yes, it is typical.

I don't remember if I gave the guy a $5 or $10 bill, but I'm pretty sure it was a $5.

I do remember using my American passport and stashing my Israeli Passport.
In the end after about 20 minutes in Egypt, my wife and I returned to Israel.

Any place I wanted to see (I was stationed way down south) was too far away to travel to, and it just was a bad feeling there. Too few visitors, so everyone really swarms you to get whatever $$$ is available.