We were given an interim room where we slept till around 12 and then decided to go out and explore our environment a little. Mahommed had given us a map so we had a basic idea about where we were. We were going to Tahir square where only days before there had been riots but we understood that things were now calm.
Out of the front of the building in to the street, to the left of us there was a large crowd of people praying, so instead of turning left, we went round the block to avoid walking past them and possibly interfering. We had been told a lot about ladies having to cover themselves in the smaller towns and being careful to eat in a certain way, so we weren't going to take any chances.
We went along the main road in the general direction of the square and a man accosted us and took us to his shop to show us a range of stunning papyrus paintings. He did not try to force us to by anything and we told him that we may return when we came back to Cairo at the end of our trip. (Never actually happened - but I would recommend going to this place if you ever visit Cairo! - will try to find the card and add the address here).
Back into the street another older man also approached. Being unaware of the perfume ruses around, and after the previous not unpleasant experiences, we followed him to hsi shop as well. He offered us coffee and 7 ups - which we accepted - then gave us the sales speel on his oils. Apparently they were from flowers grown on his father's farm and (loud claps) made into oil. No alcahol - he lit a lighter over the bottle to prove this. In Paris you would pay $100 for a 2g sample. Here only 4LE (LE stands for Egyptian Pounds incidentally. Convert this to around 80 SA cents, or get 6 of them for a US$). I told him I didn't want to buy anything and that we should be going. (7 ups had not yet arrived). No (angrily) - you must accept our hospitality! He repeated the whole story again (7 ups arrived - still no coffee). He brought down 3 large bottles. 'Who is it for?' I said I may consider a small sample for Lauren. Angry look from Lauren. She smelled all 3 bottles and decided on the lotus. He had a 500g bottle for her. No thank you. Negotiations began - he eventually said that the smallest bottle he had was 20g. No Thank You! He half filled the bottle and I finally agreed to 20LE worth. I gave him a 50LE note (smallest I had). He gave me 20LE change. I got angry and insisted on the last 10. He (eventually) gave me the last 10 and I stormed out. Lauren by now was VERY angry with me as she had been a major part of the process. Guy hung on to his 7 up and took it with him. Lauren came out with a small bottle of lotus oil and we put it all down to experience.
Back on the main road and getting closer to Tahir square. We got to a road about 100m from the square where there were a number of tents erected and a crowd milling around. I noticed that suddenly there were a lot of people around us with cell phones and one guy with a gas mask around his neck.
Then we heard changing in the distance - coming from further down the road that we were on and getting louder quickly. We headed past the square towards the Egyptian museum and the Nile. That evening we watched on the Hotel TV that we had just missed a big demonstration during the course of the afternoon with numerous casualties.
We found our way to the Nile where touts were attempting to get people on to boats. We were the only tourists around so it was probably worse than it may have been otherwise. It was a lot more relaxed though and one of the touts (probably with tongue in cheek) said ' Don't go that way - 300 people were killed there last week - you'll be much safer on a boat (read My boat!)' We went 'that way'. A policy that we tended to adapt throughout the trip - not to go where others volunteered that we should - of course it didn't always work out and sometimes we regretted our pig-headedness. In this case all was well. To our right was a large butted building from the previous unrest. The Nile was quieter and all along the way there were ferries and feluccas for rent. Very few had been taken and the effect of the the bad news in the area was very clear. In fact we saw no other tourists. After about half an hour, we got to the clothing market. This is not the sort of market that we were used to - quietly wandering through with not too many people around.
The market was packed with people, cars clothes of every description. There was a square at the beginning, but the rest of the market was along a very operational road with cars driving by in both directions warning pedestrians and other cars of their presence by hooting. Once done, they felt they had the right of way. In the market there were all kinds of people as well as dogs and cats and rubbish strewn across the street. Constant bargaining but clearly far from the standard tourist route as were were not seen as likely customers and few people took any notice of us other than the occasional ' welcome to Egypt'. The main market went on for street after street. We took a side street to escape the main crowd for while.
Much quieter with small shops and tea places with old men smoking shishas (water pipes). We would find in our trips that in certain areas there were often concentrations of certain types of shop. Here there were small shops selling tyres and motor parts as well as repairs on motor cycles right down to shops with lathes doing pison head re-bores - and still the men watching us go by probably seldom seeing tourists waling along their street.
After a while we returned to the market and continued along that street. The market eventually petered out into some fruit stalls where we bought some naartjies from a man wiht a barrow. He weighed them out - 1kg - on an old fashioned scale and charged us 3LE.
After a few wrong turns and requests for assistance from a police man, we finally made it back to the Cairo Moon for some relaxation and tea (included free at any time of the day) before heading out for sme food in the evening.
As we headed out, into the cool evening I was a little worried that I had under-packed. It is a misnoma that it will be warm in Egypt - it gets pretty cold in winter!. We found a street shop selling schwarmas. When we enquired, we were taken up to a second floor restaurant set out American style. This was our first introduction to Filly's Pan (which we would visit a few more times before the end of our trip).
The owner spoke some english and we settled for 3 schwarmas and a mixed grill for Guy. The food was good and there was lots of it - including salads, rice, flat bread and soft drinks - total charge for 4 was 119LE. We returned happy and well fed. As we came into the entrance of the hotel there was a loud explosion. We panicked a litte and took the stairs up instead of the old lift. When we got to the 8th floor, Mahommed told us that after the revolution, it was again allowed to sell fireworks and from time to time they set them off to attract customers. Sure enough, the bangs went on from time to time well into the night.
Fiona and I had a tot (or 2) of the whisky we had brought from SA in our room (worried that it may offend people if we drank on the verandah) and then went down for a couple of games of rummy with the children (our standard holiday game - for Fiona and Guy, patience is also a standard).
The new room we had been given was a little disappointing. It had 4 single beds and a single small window that opened out onto a second room. Even so we could still hear the street noise quite clearly. At around 11pm there were a lot of voices outside. Fiona and Guy were both asleep, so Lauren and I rushed out to see what was going on. Mahommed was on the veranda with a guest. We went to the balcony and all was quiet outside in the street. We felt a little stupid and went back to bed.
We went along the main road in the general direction of the square and a man accosted us and took us to his shop to show us a range of stunning papyrus paintings. He did not try to force us to by anything and we told him that we may return when we came back to Cairo at the end of our trip. (Never actually happened - but I would recommend going to this place if you ever visit Cairo! - will try to find the card and add the address here).
Back into the street another older man also approached. Being unaware of the perfume ruses around, and after the previous not unpleasant experiences, we followed him to hsi shop as well. He offered us coffee and 7 ups - which we accepted - then gave us the sales speel on his oils. Apparently they were from flowers grown on his father's farm and (loud claps) made into oil. No alcahol - he lit a lighter over the bottle to prove this. In Paris you would pay $100 for a 2g sample. Here only 4LE (LE stands for Egyptian Pounds incidentally. Convert this to around 80 SA cents, or get 6 of them for a US$). I told him I didn't want to buy anything and that we should be going. (7 ups had not yet arrived). No (angrily) - you must accept our hospitality! He repeated the whole story again (7 ups arrived - still no coffee). He brought down 3 large bottles. 'Who is it for?' I said I may consider a small sample for Lauren. Angry look from Lauren. She smelled all 3 bottles and decided on the lotus. He had a 500g bottle for her. No thank you. Negotiations began - he eventually said that the smallest bottle he had was 20g. No Thank You! He half filled the bottle and I finally agreed to 20LE worth. I gave him a 50LE note (smallest I had). He gave me 20LE change. I got angry and insisted on the last 10. He (eventually) gave me the last 10 and I stormed out. Lauren by now was VERY angry with me as she had been a major part of the process. Guy hung on to his 7 up and took it with him. Lauren came out with a small bottle of lotus oil and we put it all down to experience. |
| Tents on Tahir Square - before they were burned by the military a few days later |
 |
| Burnt out building from recent demonstrations |
Then we heard changing in the distance - coming from further down the road that we were on and getting louder quickly. We headed past the square towards the Egyptian museum and the Nile. That evening we watched on the Hotel TV that we had just missed a big demonstration during the course of the afternoon with numerous casualties.
  |
| Take the boat rather than walking - 300 people were killed down that way |
We found our way to the Nile where touts were attempting to get people on to boats. We were the only tourists around so it was probably worse than it may have been otherwise. It was a lot more relaxed though and one of the touts (probably with tongue in cheek) said ' Don't go that way - 300 people were killed there last week - you'll be much safer on a boat (read My boat!)' We went 'that way'. A policy that we tended to adapt throughout the trip - not to go where others volunteered that we should - of course it didn't always work out and sometimes we regretted our pig-headedness. In this case all was well. To our right was a large butted building from the previous unrest. The Nile was quieter and all along the way there were ferries and feluccas for rent. Very few had been taken and the effect of the the bad news in the area was very clear. In fact we saw no other tourists. After about half an hour, we got to the clothing market. This is not the sort of market that we were used to - quietly wandering through with not too many people around.
The market was packed with people, cars clothes of every description. There was a square at the beginning, but the rest of the market was along a very operational road with cars driving by in both directions warning pedestrians and other cars of their presence by hooting. Once done, they felt they had the right of way. In the market there were all kinds of people as well as dogs and cats and rubbish strewn across the street. Constant bargaining but clearly far from the standard tourist route as were were not seen as likely customers and few people took any notice of us other than the occasional ' welcome to Egypt'. The main market went on for street after street. We took a side street to escape the main crowd for while. 
Much quieter with small shops and tea places with old men smoking shishas (water pipes). We would find in our trips that in certain areas there were often concentrations of certain types of shop. Here there were small shops selling tyres and motor parts as well as repairs on motor cycles right down to shops with lathes doing pison head re-bores - and still the men watching us go by probably seldom seeing tourists waling along their street. 
After a while we returned to the market and continued along that street. The market eventually petered out into some fruit stalls where we bought some naartjies from a man wiht a barrow. He weighed them out - 1kg - on an old fashioned scale and charged us 3LE.
As we headed out, into the cool evening I was a little worried that I had under-packed. It is a misnoma that it will be warm in Egypt - it gets pretty cold in winter!. We found a street shop selling schwarmas. When we enquired, we were taken up to a second floor restaurant set out American style. This was our first introduction to Filly's Pan (which we would visit a few more times before the end of our trip).
 |
| Egyptian Bread or Panee is sold on almost every street |
Fiona and I had a tot (or 2) of the whisky we had brought from SA in our room (worried that it may offend people if we drank on the verandah) and then went down for a couple of games of rummy with the children (our standard holiday game - for Fiona and Guy, patience is also a standard).
 |
| Stair well to our Hotel - fortunately there was a lift |
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