Final Day in Cairo

I meant to post earlier but the internet was broken in our Cairo hotel until today so lets see...

the last few days have been a challenge to say the least. Our return trip through the border was fine and fairly eventful free until we got to the Egypt side where all professionalism of Israel was left behind with : "You are a lovely girl, welcome to Egypt". The tourism police then proceeded to sing to me while my bag was being searched and I had security men paw through my laundry bag infront of them - degrading! So when we walked outside and it was now 40 degrees (and we have been awake since 5am) we were not thrilled to find our private driver was not waiting and we were therefore fair game for the Bedouin taxi men. After a 20 minute wait for our driver (and we were already late for him) we managed to agree a cheaper price with a taxi man to take us to the airport at Sharm for a flight. Apparently though our taxi man had skipped some taxi man heirarchy and decided to put us in the middle of his fight. Fight calms down ok I'll get in the car now. He drives back to the taxi rank to fight some more. Tourism police find it all a bit hilarious. Other taxi men open the door to where I am sitting start screaming in Arabic at me and trying to drag our bags out of the car and I finally lost it. Two weeks of 'la shukran' and I couldn't smile anymore. I got our heavy backpacks and with a healthy amount of rage managed to get them out of the car in seconds flat. I told the police man I did not feel safe getting in any of their cars and I was to be left alone. There was a deafening silence (for all of 10 seconds) while they tried to decide how to respond to the mildly hysterical Western woman in which I went across to the Hilton hotel situated on the border where the staff had seen the fuss and gave me a chair and water. I found the number of our driver and they phoned him on their mobiles for me - crisis diverted ... although our private driver refused to put on the air conditioning we paid for as its too expensive and made us change into his brother's car in the middle of the desert.

What a morning! I was so annoyed with myself for losing my patience but it was too hot for me to keep my cool! We were disappointed to have our hotel let us down about Petra for night the night before and instead listened to machine gun fire (a traditional ritual that couldn't be explained?!) while eating dinner so I wasn't feeling at my most charitable.

I was glad to be back in Cairo. I don't think I realised till we returned here that this is probably the most interesting place, in my opinion, that we have visited. Purely because there is always so much more to do and see when you return and the mix of people you meet is incredible. We did not manage to do much during the day yesterday we were so tired and, more mix ups led to us missing the closing time of 2 things. I was about ready to give up on Egypt and write these last days off but we dusted ourselves off and tried again today and, as always, Egypt proves me wrong again and we had an amazing final day.

We went to the Citadel (at last!) this morning where the views all over Cairo and unparalleled. We could even see the pyramids through the smog of the city. The Mohammed Ali Mosque within the Citadel was also a wonderful photo opportunity as the interior is filled with decorated domed ceilings and lots of hanging globed lights making it a little different to other mosques we have seen - beautiful. Then, after lunch on Zamalek beside our hotel we ventured back out in search of Khan al Khalili, the famed bazzar in Islamic Cairo. We were keen to reach it by walking through the Tentmaker's Bazaar up to one of the big old doorways of Islamic Cairo as we had seen in Eileen's photos (!) We couldn't make ourselves understood to our taxi man however but when he pulled in a very friendly Cairen unviersity student pointed us in the right direction. He said he wasn't a guide so not to worry he would just show us the way and then let us walk down on our own. The streets he took us down were amazing. The sights you hear about that make Cairo so colourful and unique but that we had yet to expeirence so close up. Every corner we turned into another twisting alley brought something new with it. Goats, chickens, cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, donkeys. Carts filled with juicy watermelons and metal urns holding mint teas. Local fruit markets where flies swarm over the cut melons and cats pounce on the scraps. Mostly we were ignored as we were with an Egyptian. Nobody harassed us to buy. Mostly what we heard was welcome to Egypt, 'salaam alaikum'. He brought us to the top floor of a building where we were amazed to find some people living in makeshift houses. The place was filled with rubbish with goats eating paper among it but the view over a mosque and the warren of streets was just what we wanted to see. Buildings destroyed and never rebuilt from the 1992 earthquake, motorbikes negotiating fruitsellers. Down the stairs through an unlit corridor I was beginning to feel a bit uneasy. We approached a wooden door and he rang a bell assuring us we would find a famous papyrus artist housed here. We were not disappointed. Leo had really wanted to buy a piece of papyrus but we had only seen very low grade papers, or some were banana leaf, and all were printed and not hand painted. They showed us all the different quality of paper and paint to assure us of their legitimacy. The women made us Egyptian tea and let us browse for as long as we wanted and we both bought small paintings of ancient Egyptian scenes for very reasonable prices. Next we got to walk through the tentmakers bazaar where you could see all the men stitching their quilts and patchwork in their shop fronts.
We also visited a mother of pearl inlay workshop. They offered us the fake, the half fake and half real and their very authentic ones. It was hard to want the cheap stuff when we saw the genuine mother of pearl. I would never have been able to know what was fake or low grade until shown and believe me, the real one shines much better and I have very magpie-like tendencies.
The spice bazaar showed us green pepper corn grown only at St. Catherine's which we were offered to taste and which we regreted when we realised how hot it was and finally, to the perfume bazaar. I wanted to go to a shop called Karama Perfumes because guidebooks tell me it is where the other perfume sellers in the Khan get their oils to dilute and sell for the same price. The smells in the bazaar were beautiful - heady and exotic. They make you imitiations of anything you ask for. I was very impressed by their Chanel and I really thought I wouldn't be. The Coco Chanel especially is very similar and pleasant!

So here we are at the end of that overwhelming afternoon. Led through warrens of streets and alleys, arrested with scents and odours, colours and dark corridors and then put into a taxi by our student guide - whose name we never did learn. He even got us a cheaper price with the taxi and he never did ask us for money or pester us. Maybe he got commision of the workshops? But as we asked to see most of them it seemed very unlikely. I prefer to remain cynic free on my last day and say that we were just very blessed and happy to meet such a helpful Egyptian. He was also a student of antiquities, not unlike Leo!

We still have to pack and eat dinner. We have just returned from an evening drink on the Marriot terrace, an old converted palace which is beautiful and very shiny! Thank you to Eileen Peters for the recomendation - it was nice to sit down after our 3 or so hours in Islamic Cairo!
Last night we went to a beautiful restaurant last night right on the Nile called Sequoia. Oh so trendy with its all white decor and white tented roof but the food and guava shisha were very nice and we met a lovely woman at the table next to us who was happy to chat as she worked in tourism. A bit more upmarket than our dinner in Cairo after the border experience where I managed to meet my only Northern Irish connection of the holiday - a loud, drunken Derry man who kept inviting us back to his house for a sing song.

Sorry this is so long but it is my second last post so I am indulging myself. Can't wait to see you all soon and thank you so much for your comments, it's been so nice to share this all with you as I remember it all!

Love Susan and Leo xoxox