The Chronicles of Egypt – The Khan Al Khalili

I forgot to mention in the last post that when we left the pyramids, Andrew, Heagy and Tom got another 5 minute head start in their taxi ride back to Maadi. Interestingly enough, Frodo, Geoff and I beat them again. Turns out there’s a McDonald’s in New Maadi as well as the one in Old Maadi. Good to know!

After we all met up again, a few of us decided to head out to the ‘Khan al Khalili’. The Khan is a massive market that winds its way through numerous streets and alleyways lined with shops of every kind. This place is saturated with people. The Khan was at least a half hour walk from the metro… or maybe I should say a thirty minute fight for your life. The entire walk was similar to walking through a crowded stadium just after a hockey game ended (I’m Canadian, I figured it was time I brought hockey into my blogs). We took many streets and turns on our way to the Khan, and the entire way was lined with table after table of people selling their goods on the streets. I later found out that this practice is actually illegal in Cairo and if the police showed up everyone would have scattered into nearby shops and hidden.

I didn’t actually know how to get to the Khan from the metro, so I had to keep stopping and asking people which way it was. It seemed like every person we asked pointed in a different direction, and after following these directions for half an hour, we began to wonder if the Khan was just a made up place that exists only in people’s comatose dreams. Eventually we started seeing white people, though, and it was then that we realized… we had finally made it to the Khan! It was a neat place. Lots of useless stuff to buy. We got taken up to a silver factory to see how silver jewelry is made. I think I offended the guy when I offered him five pounds for a piece of jewelry that I didn’t want. He told me that if I didn’t want the jewelry I should’ve just said I didn’t want it, rather than insulting him like that. Whatever. I said I didn’t want it at least three times before I offered him five pounds for it. A similar incident happened with a fake Rolex dealer. Guess his cheap watches haven’t been selling too well so he’s a little touchy. Poor little feller. After exploring a few more shops, we had to take a cab back home so we could meet the other guys and head over to the train. That night we were to take a ten hour train ride down to Luxor. Our day was far from over.