Back again

After my visit to Coptic Cairo I went to the market that is so famous, Khan-Elkalilly.
Very similar to market places in asia, this market was so fun for me. I was happy to have my tour person with me (he kept telling me that he wasn't qualified as a guide so I told him he was my body guard which he thought was hilarious) because he was able to help guide me through the winding lanes and alleys into the part of the market for Egyptians. I could tell the difference immediately because no one came up to me and, in English would say...."Let me show my my shop, miss" or "I have most beautiful things for you". Instead they just looked at me and then looked at Boulos (that is my body guards name -pronounced Boo-lus) and left us alone. It must have been alittle strange for them because here and Egyptian cannot be with a foreigner except for certain reasons and they must have credentials if they are stopped by anyone from the military or the police. There are hundreds of tourist companies and so they are used to having their licenses checked but it was funny to have Abdul-Aal, the engineer Ed is working with, checked when we were in Cairo. He had to show his Shell ID and explain who we were.

At the market there are so many things. I especially loved the alley where the spices are sold. I can still remember the wonderful aroma of the huge colorful cloth bags of spices. The gold is beautiful and anyone who loves jewlery would be in heaven here. Many beautiful pieces.

After the market I asked to see a place I had read about called "The city of the Dead". When I asked about it Boulos was surprised. It is a large cemetery and the poor people who have no where else to live go there and construct homes and raise there families there. The population increase in Cairo is very high and it is mostly among the poor people. They have many children and then their small children have to leave school to work to help support the family so they never have a chance to get an education and then are never able to get out of poverty. It is the same in many countries of the world and a concern for the governments of those countries. In Egypt there is only a very small middle class. . . you are either rich or poor. As we drove through the narrow lanes inside the cemetery the people would look inside the car and see me and call out"Hello" or nod their heads and smile. They got a big kick out of me snaping pictures.
When I could, I would ask permission and everyone would say yes and then ask to see the photo in the camera.

I am going to stop using capital letters because of the difficulty on these Arabic keyboards.....it slows me down......
after leaving the city of the dead, we went to meet ed and abdul-aal at the shell building. abdul-aal wanted to take us to the pyramids for the night show called sound and light. the english version started at 6 30 at night and believe me it was very cold on the desert. the show was very good and i hope that i got a couple of good pictures of the pyramids lit at night......but i'm telling you all right now there is no picture that will be the same as being there. after the show he took us to a real egyptian resteraunt. it was a place that he had been going to for 40 years that used to be in the middle of agricultural fields, but is now surrounded by tall buildings. it was wonderful. they specialize in spit roasted chicken and they have an old style brick oven outside with about 5 women sitting on the ground making an egyptian bread that is much like pita bread but with a dusting of ground wheat on the outside. everything was so yummy.

in egypt, things don't get started until about 10 o'clock in the morning and then they go until after midnight. they eat a late breakfast, have lunch about 2pm and then eat dinner about 9-10 pm. So we have been having breakfast at the hotel at 8 or 9 am and then not eating until 8 or 9 at night......
my time is about up. maybe i will come later .
i am staying in today to do a little laundry and get ready for a dinner cruise tonight