Day 2: Crash Course in Haggeling

Unable to fully fall asleep after the prayers were silenced we started preparing for our first day out at 6:30am. With only the afternoon before our 9 day tour, we decided to take advantage of the markets. We hopped in a cab to Al Khalili Bazaar, unfortunately it was 3 hours before it opened. The cab dropped us off at the side of the road. It only took a few minutes before crowds of men stared, making us feel very much uncomfortable! Rebecca chose that moment to lose her cool, she paniced and wanted to hail a cab back to the comfort of our hostel. We convinced her to stay, this was afterall only day #1. In our attempt to walk toward the few other obvious tourists, we were invited in a Mosque. An old man signaled for us to remove our shoes and follow him into a side room. It was there that he handed us hooded robes. We covered ourselves and followed him as he explained the history of the school, age of the towers, and the closed off rooms. It was beautiful, the marble felt cool under our bare feet. We struggled to understand his explainations but certain things were clear like the seperation of men and women, even in the mosque, women are kept in a covered section to worship. We spent 30 minutes wondering through rooms, photographing the beautiful arabic script and carvings before giving a donation (expected) and leaving. We crossed the street to find a coffee shop to waste the remaining time before the bazaar opened. Even partially closed, keepers urged the Obama supports to buy trinkets. And buy we did, haggeling is fun. Hand made shoes start at 180 LE, we bid 30 LE. Keeper asks us to give him good price, afterall these are handmade by his grandfather he claims. We repeat our offer. He says, ok I make you a good offer, 160LE. No, sorry how about 45 LE. Keeper says its a good price for us but not a good price for his family, 120 LE, final offer. We walk away, it takes a mere seconds before the keeper yells after us, constantly lowering the price until we settle on 80LE about 8 GBP. We walk away with piles of trinkets for a few quid, its all in a days haggeling. It would be great to go back to London, enter TopShop and tell the sales woman you will give her 5 pounds for a 50 pound shirt. It prabably only cost, 5 to make but unfortunately TopShop or any other for that matter aren't interesting in "making a good price" for you. We spent the next couple of hours weaving through the crowded stalls of trashy trinkets, spices, silver and gold boutiques, and cloth stands before heading back to our hotel for some grub.


We had to leave our hostel to check into our tour hotel so we took a registered cab right there. A couple of block before the hotel, we noticed the meter was off. Parked in front of our hotel, our driver demanded 100 LE....we laughed and said no. He didn't laugh and started yelling in Arabic. After 3 more demands of 100, we stopped being polite and decided it was time to yell right back. Knowing we could get to the airport twice for 100 and that our hotel ride should only cost 11, we refused. It didn't take long before he called over a police officer. We tried to explain that the man was screwing us to no avail, the cop demanded the same fair. I less than politely explained that despite being American, I was not an idiot. With that the cop, offered a new fair, 50 LE. Once again we refused. The hotel manager was called out, he offered a price of 30, again we refused. With that all patience was out the window. We told all 3 partners in corruption it was 15 or nothing. After much debate in Arabic, the driver took the money and we got out, disturbed at the incident.

I have learned very quickly that customer service is an American invention between the British and now the Egyptian cabbies, it is more than surprising if we get good service than if we don't. We ordered simple dishes at the hotel restaurant, annoyed with the idea of wondering off to find a restaurant. 30 minutes later we got drink, 1 1/2 hrs later we got 2 dishes, 1 3/4 later I walked out frustrated that mine had been forgotten even after ordering with 2 different people.

Along the way, I did exactly what I was taught not to do...sorry mom but I talked to stranger. It might have been Tommy's admittance of some Egytian cons but it was mostly the promise of escorting me to a supermarket that made me follow him. During our trek he told me all about his business, he was in tourism, worked with STA and other tour groups and had a team of drivers that would take you around cheap. We had plans to hire a driver later in the week to see some sights outside of Cairo so I ended up in his shop. Yes, I know not smart but I read a ton of testimonials and who isn't a sucker for testimonials? Most people I know. I ran back to the hotel, gathered the girls to take advantage of the rest of the day. Our driver aka Mr. Tickles took us to a Papyrus shop, Essence boutique, Silver store, and the Valley of the Living Dead.

First stop: Papyrus Shop, they sell it all over Cairo but 95% of it isn't legit and won't be allowed through customs in most countries. This was our first experience with what they call Egyptian hospitality, which is the offering of tea, coffee, Hibiscus tea, or soda, it is considered rude to refuse, even if politely. So we watched as our guide showed us the ways of Papyrus. It's hard not to be impressed, especially with the patience of the process. I would have made a terrible Egyptian, I could never have waited 4-6 days for a sheet of paper to be ready under heavy weight. THe process is long but amazing. the plant's natural glue holds it together almost instantly without weaving it. It's durable and re-useable. You can write on it (as we saw) with ink or pencial and it washes away easily. After each demonstration comes the ask, the bid for you to pull out your cards and start purchasing every, with special discounts of course. I opted out even though I didn't want to.

2nd Stop: Essence. Again Egyptian Hospitality, Hibiscus Tea this time around. We sat as two men spoke of the beauty of natural scents found in their country, Jasmine, Lotus Flower, Orange Blossom, Mint, Lavander, and Gardinia to name a few. Its a slight nightmare for allergy sufferers...too many scents too few wrists! Nontheless, they carried on with the blended scents that they proudly boast are the originals of every big name perfume including Cool Water, Chanel 5, Jean Paul Gautier, Gucci...yada yada...more smells! Don't get me wrong they smelled wonderful but after a combination of Secret of the Desert, Nefertity, Five Secrets, Queen Hatshipsut, I was over it. We then moved on to aromatherapy, muscle treatments, and cold/allergy remedies. Then the ask: after the first refusal, deals were made, special offers, and free gifts, unfortunately for our demonstrators we still didn't bite.

3rd Stop: Silver Shop...more Egyptain Hospitality...even in the heat, it was too much liquids! But you can't refuse so more drinks it was. To our relief there was no demonstration, just shopping. Which I did, this was the stop I wanted. As my family knows, I have a slight obsession with finding this with my name on it. It's pretty rare and exciting to find anything with Gwendolyn on it...so I jumped at the chance to have my name on a silver pendant. The names of Kings and Queens of ancient Egypt are written in Hieroglyhpics and placed inside a cartouche, a shape said to protect royalty. Commoners were not permitted to write their names in this shape, that is unless you enter a silver shop in modern day Cairo. So I was a sucker for my common name to be protected like the likes of King Tut and Queen Nefertity.

4th Stop: Land of the Living Dead. Cairo is a city of 22 million people, most of which are living in poverty that is hard to imagine. The gap between poor and rich in undeniable when driving through the city. Mr. Tickles drove us to the other end, as we reached old aquaducts he told us of the living dead. At sunset, 4 million people take rest and sleep on top of mass graves. To poor for even simple shelter, millions of families, children, and elderly are forced to sleep in the dirt. We drove further in, the despair was impossible to ignore. To our surprise we stopping in front of a door. We were invited into a families home, it was not a home by any of our standards, it had a door, one room with 2 beds, and a stove half outside boiling water. A mother, father, 15 Daughters, 2 sons, and a 2 year old boy live there. We walked past the stove to a walled dirt plot with a concrete building. Chickens rushed into piles of wood and rubbish as we walked through. The children sleep in the dirt on top of an old burial crowd next to the building holding hundreds of bodies burried hundreds of years ago. it was hard to hold back tears and impossible not to reach in our wallets. Unlike other countries, the government gives no aid, they rely soley on the kindness of people to survive. THe mother hugged and kissed us as we gave 250 LE a mere 25 pounds. The little boy reached out for us and our cameras, holding on to Rebecca. Despite being unable to communicate, the gratitude was understood clearly. We drove away, tears in my eye and headed back to our air conditioned hotel.

We ended the night with a quick group meeting. It's a good group made up of Americans, British, Australians, and New Zealanders.