Khan al-Khalili and My Birthday

I only had one class today, and since we went out late last night for a friends birthday, I decided to take the day off and go to the famous Khan al-Khalili bazaar instead. Really, it would have been a waste to get up at 7 to make the 8 o'clock bus to get to campus in time for one class from 9:30 to 10:20, and then have to wait around to take the first bus back to campus at 12:45. I would have spent more time on the bus than in class.


Mark, Sonja, and I took a cab out there and it dropped us off near the Hosayn Mosque. Khan al-Khalili is in Islamic Cairo, which has many famous Mosques. Our cab was surprisingly nice; it had leather seats, air conditioning, and an actual meter (although we payed more than the metered price anyway. The cabbie was nice enough to help us with our Arabic during the ride). We began near the Hosayn and Al-Azhar mosques. The bazaar fills the surrounding streets and narrow alleys. It is open air, but people have built makeshift rooves over the alleys throughout the years. The area used to be a major thouroughfare in Cairo, which led to the setting up of shops. Its growth over time led to the bazaar that it is today. Now it mostly sells tacky touristy items, like sphynx busts, bellydancing outfits, papyrus, and t-shirts, but in the heart of the bazaar you can still find spices and well crafted hand made goods. The bazaar is usually pretty clausraphobic, but crowds were light this afternoon. Perhaps the minor bombing outside of Hosayn mosque last week had something to do with it. Just for convnience's sake, we now respond to mineen (where are you from) with Ana Irlaandee (I am Irish), which isn't technically a lie for those of us who go to ND.



I was primarily there to price backgammon sets. Many of them are inlaid with mother of pear. We found quite a few places that sold them among other souveneirs, but we eventually found the origin of many of the sets. This little workshop specialized in woodwork inlaid with mother of pearl. We spent close to a half hour there looking at all they had to offer, and I finally left satisfied with my purchase.

We walked through more of the bazaar and found ourselves three floors up some building where a guy produces some of the silverwork sold at street level stalls. Mark went into the stalls first, but wanted something slightly different than what they were offering. The guy made a phone call, and we wove our way through the bazaar, following him to a small production house three floors up one of the buildings. Mark got his card so he could come back later.

We made the twenty-five minute walk back to dowtown and got koushary for dinner and followed it was shisha, tea, and coffee at a cafe. We have a caffe here in Zamalek right next to the dorm, and we thought the prices there were pretty reasonaby when converted to USD. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and shisha are all 10LE each, and right now the USD is worth 5.6 LE and rising. But at this cafe downtown we got two teas, a coffee, and two shisha for a TOTAL of 23LE, or about $4. Total. Today I bought a delicious and filling lunch of two kofta sandwiches for 8LE ($1.50), and koushary costed 6LE ($1). Living here is heartbreakingly cheap. I'm upset with myself when I eat luxuriously for the day and set myself back a whole $10.

Then again, my thriftiness today was offset by last nights cash hemmhorage (I don't fell like cheching the spelling). We had three birthdays this week, so we went to Club Purple, which was located on a big boat on the Nile (it was much like a casino boat in size and layout). Cover was an outrageous 150LE, and alcohol was very expensive. I don't think anyone drank very much. We've adjusted pretty well to viewing things here in their Egyptian prices, relative to the cost of things here in general, and have mostly stopped converting everything to American prices. I think this will make transition back to American life pretty tough, where the cost of getting dinner at Applebee's is euqivalent to an upscale resaurant here.

On my actualy birthday I just met some people at Versaille. I splurged for a Heinekin and got a shisha, but kept it short and simple since I had an exam the next day.