Madīnat at Tawfīq

We arrived at our hotel around 7am; the flight was 8 hours overnight from Johannesburg, and uneventful; Grant got 4-5 hours sleep with the help of a little blue pill, and Sharon got maybe 3 hours of sleep max. We immediately fell asleep in our room for two hours, had breakfast at the hotel (marginal), and then went out for a walk. We met a man who seemed quite friendly and helpful, but of course, he had a shop with ‘family art’ to sell and tickets to a river cruise. We got some advice to go to the downtown market area, so we Ubered there ($2.50), and there were literally millions of shops, and we got lost in an internal maze of clothing stalls. They also sold everything else under the sun, and particularly targeted us tourists with their friendly insistence that we look at their wares, but they were not obnoxious like in some parts of the world (Zimbabwe). A man helped us find the food stall we were told about (GAD), and then stayed with us for the next two hours, showing us where to buy certain things, taking us to a ‘handmade crafts’ area, where one young man ‘made’ wooden boxes covered in various mother of pearl shell pieces and wood. We bought one, but understandably, we are fairly doubtful that it was the real deal. Oh well...win some, lose some. Grant got his hair cut, including getting his ear hair pulled out with floss! It smarted, but was effective, and Grant says he has to google what exactly the guy did! Of course, as we parted ways with the man, he wanted money for showing us around, which we figured would be the case, so we gave him the equivalent of $10, which he complained about, but he was hustling us, so we didn’t back down on his pleas for more money. There are 25 million people that live in Cairo. The roads are unbelievably busy, with cars everywhere, budging in, cutting other cars off, weaseling their way into traffic, etc. Its a wonder more accidents don’t occur. The pedestrians take their lives in their hands crossing the streets, with narrow misses all the time. I guess they get used to it. There are few traffic lights and fewer crosswalks. Apparently they view the lines dividing lanes as ‘suggestions’! We took a taxi back to our hotel and it probably took half an hour, with a maze of thick, slow traffic and cost us $8. Downtown, it was very noticeable that the men are mainly running the shops, and also the ones sitting around smoking huge hooka pipes, drinking tea, playing games and generally hanging out together, no women to be seen; apparently they are at home, doing domestic work and looking after the kids. The goods are brought into the market with tuktuks, carts or motorbikes, or carrying loads on their heads. There was garbage everywhere; its a very messy city, with cats everywhere as well, and a few dogs. Live chickens and rabbits are in cages, to be purchased and taken home for dinner. People were very friendly though, and it felt very safe. The men wore the western clothes, but the women wore anything from western clothes with a scarf head covering, to full burka with only eye slit openings. Apparently most women have a big assortment of headscarves to go with various outfits.Read more