We got to spend some time wandering the famed Cairo bazaar, known as the Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Interestingly, we were told to barter for the goods, but both the jewelry shop and the tile shop we went into said they don't barter.
Even still, it was a great experience. Carol bought Lapus Lazuli ear rings and a matching necklace, and then we bought a hand-painted ceramic and wooden small serving platter as a gift for a friend.
(By the way, the bazaar is huge, and it was packed on Saturday when we were there. After driving around the outskirts of the bazaar for a while, Sam pointed out more of the bazaar. We were so far away from where we left the bazaar that we got a pretty good idea of just how huge a footprint the bazaar has. I tell you, it's kind of bizarre!)
While shop owners beseeched us to buy their products, they were not at all as incessant and shrill as the souvenir stand owners who besiege us walking to and from the temples and other historical sites. It's probably there are so many potential customers wandering around the bazaar they can be more patient.
The bazaar is huge. We only covered several blocks of it, turning this way and that in the maze (I left a trail of breadcrumbs. . .just kidding, when I'm responsible for the journey, I've got a pretty good recall.
As we were on our way back, a teenager pointed to some glass Christmas ornaments. That's exactly what we were looking for -- like many travelers from the States, we collect Christmas ornaments from the places we visit. Sometimes we have to buy something small and turn it into an ornament (Carol's crafty that way). This fit the bill -- glass ornaments with "Egypt" and some symbols of Egypt on it.
The teen turned us over to the man in charge (who looks to be in his late 20s). He offered to take us in back to see more. Well, we assumed it was just a little further back in the store. Nope, instead it was way more intriguing than that. We cut through the shop, which wasn't his, turned left down an empty nondescript alley, right down another nondescript alley with NO tourists and just some BOGSAs* in small open room.
*In this case, BOGSAs are a "Bunch of Guys Sitting Around."
Then we turned right down an even more nondescript alley, an alley so nondescript the word "nondescript" was coined in its honor. At the dead end we turned left, where he pulled out his keys and let us in the door. He then shot us, dragged us into his shop, took our wallets, and left us there, bleeding to death. Okay, that didn't happen, but my mind briefly went there as we went through the most non-descript maze of alleys since the first mouse chased cheese down a maze in a university laboratory.
Editor: That seems dark. Writer: Oh, we all go there from time to time.
But, dark thoughts aside, mostly my brain was thinking, hey, this is pretty cool. The good news is, the cool part was true and the dark part didn't occur or even last long in my mind.
Editor: More like your troubled mind, amirite? Writer: Back to the story.
Anyhow, the small shop was full of various glass products. The shopkeeper brought out two boxes of quality glass ornaments handcrafted by his brother. Carol picked out two, knowing Neil and Mary would want one. It was a very cool process. He stayed at the shop, but I was able to pick the correct nondescript alleys to wind our way back through.
When we emerged onto one of the main alleys of the bazaar, the activity level was turned up to eleven after the peace and calm in the back alleys. (I fell asleep watching Spinal Tap in the late 80s, but I do appreciate that "turn it up to eleven" line.)
Given that the bazaar is a bunch of back alleys, we had walked through the back alleys of the back alleys, which means we were traveling though back alleys squared.
The last thing we bought was an inexpensive stone pyramid (much smaller than the actual pyramids) to add to our tchotchke shelf. Another tradition is that we buy something small but representative of the country we are visiting.
But, I wasn't done yet. On the way out of the bazaar, a guy thrust t-shirts for sale at me. I waved him off. Then he thrust hats at me and said "five dollars." I stopped on a dime. He stopped. I picked out a hat that said "Egypt." It was black and had some Egypt-like decorations. Then I saw the same hat in green, so I swapped it out, paid my money, and walked off happy. I did check to make sure "Egypt" was spelled correctly, as Linda on the trip had bought the same hat (different color), but with Egypt spelled "Egpyt" which isn't the way Egypt is spelled.
To be fair to Linda, when I was a kid in the 1970s, baseball cards with errors on them were worth more, because once the mistake was recognized, the print run was stopped, so only a few of the cards with errors were sold. Those baseball cards with the errors were then worth more money (not that I ever sold cards). So while my Egypt hat is worth five dollars (or less with depreciation the minute you wear it off the bazaar), Linda's hat could be a collector's edition worth an untold fortune. But probably not.
Carol and I don't see ourselves going back to Egypt (or Egpyt for that matter), but if we do, I would definitely spend more time at the bazaar, just wandering around and taking it all in.
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