Khan al-Kahlili

Winding narrow lanes, further crowded by stands and stalls on both sides so that it feels as though there are not even any buildings behind the stands.  Early morning, because of Ramadan, all is quiet. There is an old man sitting in a chair by his vegetables, reading the Koran, and the garbage collectors are out with their little hand pushed carts and old brooms, sweeping up last nights Ramadan remains.

As I walked, the streets gradually came to life, and eventually I did a little shopping, with the requisite bargaining.  At the first shop where I seriously considered making a purchase, the shopkeeper and I had different views on what the right price was.  When I said 100 pounds (Egyptian pounds!-it takes 9 pounds to buy a soda, just for perspective), he said no and I walked away.  When he did not then call me back, I knew that the bottom price was somewhere north of that, so when next I found something similar, I knew whether I was getting totally ripped off-well, at least I think I did. 

I wandered and wandered, eventually coming out on a square where the tour buses unload and was able to get some food and something to drink there.  Then north as far as the old city walls, along a road that has been traveled since medieval times.  The market is huge, blocks and blocks, and of course not laid out in blocks, but with wandering lanes and sudden, almost secret little alcoves and side-ways.  People, people everywhere now, men with heavy loads going 'sssss' behind you-means 'coming through, move over', carts, women with babies, children, masses of humanity, and now I am tired, hungry, THIRSTY and there is not a single restaurant open because of Ramadan, other than the ones I where I ate earlier.  And those would mean a lot of backtracking, and probably getting lost for the tenth time today.  Grumpy but what to do but keep moving, so I do. The dearth of food and drink is absolutely stunning.  I can't describe how many people there were.  Perhaps many of them were grumpy too.  There are little water stations all through the city, including the market area, which is a wonderful thing, but I'm not going to take a chance on drinking the water here.