“I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.”
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Go-Date: Day 63, Tuesday. March 26
Lesson Learned: Cairo is hard. It has a frantic pace and fevered energy. It keeps on coming at you, even when you wish it wouldn’t. There is so much poverty, and the people are working as hard as they can to earn a living. I don’t fault them, individually, but collectively the pressure of everyone wanting your money (not all of it, just some) is relentless. Even when you have to use the bathroom in public it costs you a tip for the attendant to give you a scrap of tissue, probably 5 or 10 Egyptian Pounds (if you have small bills in your pocket) which is only $0.38 to $0.76 but it all adds up. I often found that people never had the correct change, so you end up paying more.
Or, you had better count your change to make sure you don’t get shorted, so you end up paying more. There are guards in all the tombs, which want “Baksheesh” or tip, which at 20 to 40 pounds in each tomb ($1.15 to $2.30) takes a toll. We’ve probably been in 20 tombs or temples in Cairo alone, so you end up paying more.
You can’t walk this city (you are in no danger from the locals, they are fine and aren’t looking to mug or pick your pocket on every corner), but you take your life in your own hands if you cross a busy street on your own. So, you take a cab, even if it’s a very walkable distance, so you end up paying more. My impression is we are (we being those of European descent, or non-Egyptians) are always outsiders. That’s OK. We’ve met some very nice folks here that we call friends and will visit again, but for the most part we are looked upon as a source of revenue, no more. The most common phrase you will hear from an Egyptian is “Welcome to Egypt, have a nice vacation”, but they like it better when you spend your money at a rate higher than a local would pay. You will have to barter for everything outside your hotel door, with the exception of tickets to the exhibits. I mean everything.
On the surface, Egypt looks economical to visit, but you always end up paying more.
Khan el Khalili Market
You can’t visit Egypt without going to the Bazaar. You can look it up, it’s a law I think, probably stamped on your Visa, but I don’t read Arabic. So, we decided to pick an evening and go.
There are numerous markets to choose from, but the most famous is probably Khan el Khalili. We’ve seen pictures, we heard from locals that we wouldn’t like the products being sold. Actually, we were told “You can go, but they sell shit. No good things. Stuff that break before you get home for too much money.” Honest, that’s what we were told, so we knew what to expect.
This wasn’t a bad thing, because we didn’t plan on buying anything anyway. We just wanted to go for the experience. Khan el-Khalili is a major souk in the historic center of Islamic Cairo (souk is a market). The bazaar district is one of Cairo’s main attractions for tourists and Egyptians alike. That was one thing that confused us, 99% of the things we saw (outside of the spices) were for tourists, I’m not sure why the locals clogged the market actively shopping. The site of Khan el-Khalili was originally the site of a mausoleum known as turbat az-za’faraan (Saffron Tomb), which was the burial site of the Fatimid caliphs. The mausoleum was part of the Fatimid Great Eastern Palace complex, begun in 970 AD by Gawhar al-Siqilli. There is still a mosque here, but I can’t tell you about the mausoleum, but the market is sure still going strong.
Oh, what an experience we had.
First, on the drive over, with the cab driver trying to get you to go to this restaurant, or take a Felucca ride at sunset (a felucca is a traditional Egyptian sailboat), or let him drive you to the Suez Canal, yada, yada, yada….. you begin to see some amazing things. The retail area streets are jammed with products on the streets and tens of thousands of people shopping.
We stopped, in the middle of a block, with hundreds of people around us and the driver says “we are here, I wait for you” After a short argument discussion we paid him off and went down the stairs under the road, and into the heart of the Arabian Nights, all selling pyramids, sphinx, jewelry, and clothes made of 100% Egyptian cotton. In your face, like the North Carolina surf during a hurricane.
The market goes on for dozens of blocks, without rhyme or reason. You twist and turn down streets, and alleys, through buildings, down stairs, and branches, splits, dead ends, and T-bone intersections. The aisles are tall and narrow choked with crowds, moving, stopping, bargaining, with stall hawkers darting in and out like sharks in a coral reef to tantalize you with offers you have to refuse. Add push carts loaded with merchandise, motorcycles, and vendors carrying platters of hot tea and you have a hot mess that begs for catastrophes.
It truly is overwhelming, in a comical, anxiety attack kind of way. Anything you can imagine that is trite, and cliché…..its here. Everything you can imagine that is a fire marshal’s worst nightmare….its here. Hold on to your wallet, forget about your hat, this is a sight to behold.
About the time Ellen tried to tap out and say let’s get the hell out of Dodge, she is picked up by a guy that claims he’ll show her where the real market is and get away from all this “shit”. I say no, she says yes, and the guy claims he’ll show us the good stuff and then the way out of this Minoan Maze. Of course, that’s not going to happen without him getting us into a closing room that will put any American car dealership to shame. He (we’ll call him Frank, because that’s what he said his name was (or Faruk if you are Egyptian)) did lead us to the spice market which was very interesting. It also was so full of spice aromas that your eyes teared, throat became scratchy, and you coughed like you just dumped Cajun seasoning into a pot of boiling water.
But, then we found ourselves in an oil shop being shown all the lilac, rose, gardenia, and almond oils this guy made in his family farm that has been in business for 100 years. I gave him 20 pounds, told him thanks for the tour, pissed him off and we left. And got lost.
This place is a maze and we got lost. Finally, when we hit a dead end in a dimly lit alley with guys in turbans sitting in a coffee shop smoking hukkahs we went Uh-Oh. But, then a kid comes out of a shop, told us the turns to make and finally we found ourselves on the courtyard in front of a mosque, right by the road we needed to get back to the hotel. Thus ends our bizarre adventure at the bazaar. Thank goodness. All we had left to do in Cairo was to revisit the museum and then we are off to Luxor.