Khan el-Kalili

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Well today was also very interesting.

We decided to go to the Khan el-Kalili. That would be Cairos largest bazaar. They have pretty much everything you can think of and probably 2 times more of things you cant. Lots of heat and TONS of people!! We got there and looked around found some touristy stuff that we might have bought but decided to not buy it till we came back to Cairo when we were leaving. We wondered further into the market, this market takes up blocks and blocks and blocks! Its HUGE! We got touts from everyside, they would all have "pickup" lines for tourists. Anything ranging from "Come look in my shop" or "Come look inside, at least give me a chance!" or "Everything is free today!!" or "Hello how may I take your money!" all sorts of different things. It was very interesting. Also they had clothes sections and they had maybe 12 different T-shirts that you could buy, but every vendor had the same 12 t-shirts!! Let me remind you though, this isnt a tourist bazaar, this is where the locals go to buy their daily needs.

We saw many sheeshas, and well pretty much everything, ran across a few butchers buthering some animals out front of their shops. Jocelyne almost got sick off of the nasty smell in the "produce section" or more accuratly described as the "rot section".

I tried to find a new USB jump drive, I actually managed to find a couple shops that had them. By shop I mean..well shop is being very generous. Anyhow they were 1 gb and waaaay too expensive. They were cheap korean peices of crap. I was like noooooo way!! But as of today thx to Jearime and Nathan, I have a FTP to upload them to! Thank you soo much!

I think that times are beginning to get harder for them as tourist season is over. There were times when shop keepers would grab my arm and try to drag me into their shop. Or I would be walking by and they would be sitting on the ground and they would tap my knee as I walked by to get my attention. There was even a little boy who we walked by that was eating sugarcane on the road, who came running up to me and for no apparent reason puts his hand on my chest and tries to stop me. Jocelyne thought she was running a marathon today so she was a looong ways away. I think this little boy was just trying to intimidate me or something...I dunno but after a few seconds of pushing him down the road, finally a man yells at the little boy and he leaves me alone. I think travelling around Egypt will be MUCH harder than it was in Europe. Especially because we cannot find a single map of CAIRO!!!!! That is REALLY beginning to irritate me! In every other city we would find a good (and usually free) foldable map of the city. The only kind of map we have now is the crappy ones in our guide books! We must rely on Taxi drivers...whom I despise!!

Well when I imagined Egypt (before I got here) I imagined a somewhat developed place perhaps like not unlike Athens. I was very wrong. This place reminds me alot of any "African" city if you will. We saw people carrying 50 pounds of rice on their heads, among other things. Going through this bazaar watching how they cooked and prepared food, how they lived day to day. Seeing alot of their delapidated shanti type houses. They really dont have much here. The taxis...well they are crappy as well. They are usually falling apart in some manner or another. They have lots of wild cats here. The donkey's that pull the carts around are usually starved looking. I think this city has 2 traffic lights total (sarcasm!), its really sort of more how I imagined india or something. I mean Im not complaining, I am just very surprised to see what I thought, and how it is. Over half the people here dont have running water. A third dont have sewege. Its just very interesting.

On the other hand we managed to find something that Jocelyne and I like VERY much. Its called a Juice Bar. We went there and I picked out a fruit, I chose Mango, I then asked them to fill up my 1.5 litre bottle. They filled it up, and it cost me just over 2 USD. It was SOOOOO good. Basically they use the seasonal fruit and turn it into juice. Its very cold good and refreshing. Jocelyne and I were sooo hot that we almost immediatly drank the first litre and a half and then bought another to take back to our room. We ended up drinking 3 litres of mango juice!! It was very very good. MMM

We will go back tomorrow and buy more. Oh and we have figured out that we can use our Air Conditioning in our room as a make shift refridgerator! We put our water bottles and any fruit we buy on it to keep it niceand cold!! We bought some watermelon the other day, a very good hydrating snack on a hot cairo day!!

Well thats all for now kids, I am tired of fighting with this keyboard!! Till next time!!

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