I’m woken at around 6.00am by the collective sound of a thousand cars beeping.  Again there is a thick layer of smog floating over the river Nile.  Peter is still asleep so I make an attempt to start writing up the blog.  It’s almost impossible to keep up with on a daily basis.  I decide to just write manual notes and then will type it all up when I get a chance – more than likely when I get home to England.  I download some of the photo’s I’ve taken so far just in case anything happens to the camera when we’re out and about.

We had said that we would meet Abdul for breakfast but decided just to have a cup of tea in one of the hotel’s café’s.  It’s midday before we go out to see Abdul.  Our first appointment of the day is over in Nasr City – an hour or so outside of central Cairo.  We had arranged to meet with a supplier of copper lanterns.  The journey there was horrendous – the traffic in the suburbs of Cairo is just as bad as central Cairo.  We had to phone our contact a couple of times once in Nasr City to find the office.  We did eventually find it and was met outside by the owner of the company.  Although they didn’t have a show room they had arranged to bring a selection of lanterns to their office for us to look at along with some mother of pearl inlaid mirrors.  We took photos and we were very pleased with the quality of the lanterns.  We were invited to drink tea and we had the opportunity to ask a range of questions first hand.  We asked about the packing, the shipping, the timescales etc. 

We didn’t stay long – very short time compared to the length of the journey there.  We now had to face that same journey back to central Cairo.  We skirt past City Stars – a fantastic shopping mall I had previously visited with my friend Jane who lives in Luxor.  City Stars is huge - almost a city within a city!                   http://www.citystars.com.eg/citystars/index.asp

Back in central Cairo we ask Abdul to drop us at the Khan el Khalili.  This is one of my favourite places in Cairo and where I could easily spend days wandering around it’s maze of alleyways and ancient bazaars.  It was known as the Turkish Bazaar during the Ottoman period – now generally know as Khan.  http://www.touregypt.net/khan.htm    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_el-Khalili

The ancient Islamic architecture gives you a real sense of another time a time when the merchants from afar used to come and pedal their wares.  My guide book tells me that “The souq dates back to 1382, when Emir Djaharks el-Khalili built a big caravanserai (or khan) right here.  A caravanseri was a sort of hotel for traders, and usually the focal point for economic activity for any surrounding area. This caravanserai is still there, you just ask for the narrow street of Sikka Khan el-Khalili and Badestan.”

My fondest memory of the Khan el Khalili was during my trip with my friend Jane.  I love the novels of Naguib Mahfouz and had recently read Zuqak al Midak which was based in the Khan.  We decided to go and seek out the alley where this story took place.  We had great fun with map in one hand and limited Arabic between us trying to find this elusive place.  Eventually we found it.  I was shocked.  The alley was tiny.  At the end of the short alley stones steps took us up past entrances to a large house divided into flats.  It didn’t match what I had imagined the alley to look like.  So many characters with so many trauma’s, hardships, love affairs, Kirsha’s café where men went to smoke shisha, listen to the story tellers – all taking place in this tiny little alleyway.  At the time of this particular visit there still stood a little coffee shop called Kirsha’s.  The coffee shop had no more than 6 small tables where locals came to drink tea and smoke shisha.  The wall was adorned with photo’s of Naguib Mahfouz himself.  We were told by the proprietor that Naguib Mahfouz used to sit in this very coffee shop to pen his stories.  Also on the wall is a rather imposing picture of a man dressed in traditional garb.  We asked who this was.  The proprietor told us that this was Kirsha himself, his own grandfather.  Experience tells me to take this story with a pinch of salt.  However, I really wanted to believe that I really was in Kirsha’s Café, the very one that Naguib Mahfouz wrote about and that we were experiencing a little bit of Egyptian history and culture.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naguib_Mahfouz     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midaq_Alley_(novel)

Back to today. Peter and sit in a coffee shop on the edge of the Khan – absolutely parched.  As soon as we sit down we have various pedlars approaching us with sun glasses, jewellery and scarves.  I show no interest but Peter purchases some jewellery for a 'very cheap price' (and also very cheap in quality) but all I can think is that Peter sees it as a benevolent act to help his fellow countrymen!

I ask Peter to investigate the toilets whilst he goes to pay.  He comes back and says he wouldn’t recommend the toilets so we leave and make our way to the Naguib Mahfouz Café where I know the toilets are absolutely immaculate. (This is not the cafe mentioned earlier in Zuqak al Midak) We order more tea.  I catch sight of one of the staff that I had my photograph taken with 3 years ago on my trip with Jane.  Great memories!

We venture forth again working our way through the bazaar sellers presenting their wares to us as we pass.  It’s almost like running the gauntlet – too scared to stop and look at any products or we might find ourselves trapped.  As we move to another area – a bit quieter, I stop to take some photographs.  2 men sit on  chairs outside a shop.  One who speaks very good English suggests a good spot for me to capture the picture I was after.  He moves his chair so I can get a good shot.  He then politely asks us to look at his hand blown glass – especially the Christmas decorations.  Now, this is a much better selling technique.  Why oh why doesn’t everyone else realise that the more aggressive you are the less likely people are to buy?

His name is Gabr and he tells us that he used to live in England.  He also had a friend who used to work in Harrods and that this friend used to import glass products to Harrods.  After we enter he brings out a big selection of glass decorations.  We had already been speaking to various other suppliers and manufacturers so knew what the prices were.  He wasn’t willing to give what we call a good price for a single purchase.  We told him we would be interested in purchasing a large number but we would have to negotiate on price.  He told us that he had a friend in America with a website of all his products.  If we looked at this and then told him what items we were interested in we could then discuss prices – either by fax or phone.  This seems a bit too long winded for me.  Without an email address the communication process can be very lengthy.  Add to that the difference in concept of time – we needed a speedier mode of working.  However, we have nice sample to take back to England and to help us decide whether this is something we should add to our range.  It is easy to feel a little deflated when you realise that business transactions can be such a long drawn out process.  Small enterprises like this could reach out to a wider range of customers if they utilised the internet and email.  But I also need to learn to accept other ways of working - regardless of how long they take.

We say our goodbyes.  This is a short trip to the Khan – only one and a half hours.  We phone Abdul who is still waiting for us and ask him to drive us to El Quba Garden – Garden of the Domes.  We are going to visit some of Peter's family.  The area is famous for having two residences previously belonging to King Farouk – one of palaces being the largest in Egypt.  We arrive at the flat and I leave Peter to pay Abdul.  Abdul asks for 300le which again is way over the going price.  We leave it until we get back to the hotel to discuss this further but I think we have already decided not to use Abdul again.

I am introduced to Peter’s mother’s sister, Akhlas and her husband Mourid.  Also Peter’s cousin Shareen who is married to Raymond and their daughter Molly and also cousin Christine.  Such a warm welcome.  We sit and talk and it isn’t long before we are invited to sit and eat dinner.  Again we are presented with very generous plates of food.  Very delicious and most welcome after such a busy day.  After dinner we move to one of the bedrooms to sit where there is air conditioning.  Molly attends a private French school and excitedly gets out her text books to show Peter.  Peter begins to read from the books and Molly takes great delight in correcting his French pronounciation.  Later Mourid brings through some photographs that had been taken in Garagos in the 1930’s.  He tells us this was part of a much bigger album that had contained photographs of local people in Garagos and how they lived at the time – how they dressed, where they worked and what they looked like.  Photographs were taken in profile and face forward - a bit like mug shots. I can imagine that if a study like this was done nowadays people would find it rather intrusive.   Mourid says that over the years he has given various bits of the album away and only these few pages remain.  This is a shame – Peter and I would love to have seen more.

I tell Mourid about an academic paper I came across on the internet.  It is a study that was done in 1999 on the impact of the conversion of Copts to Catholicism in Garagos.  The website only gives a synopsis of the paper but it can be purchased in full.  However, it is written in French.  Mourid who used to work for the French Embassy in Cairo before retiring speaks fluent French and said that he would be interested in seeing the paper and between them all they would be happy to translate it.  Time moved quickly.  Its 9.00pm and Raymond needs to leave for Hurgada – a 7 hour drive from Cairo.  He tells us that as soon as he arrives he will start work without any sleep.  This already is becoming a common theme where well educated men are leaving their families to go and work on the Red Sea coast where tourism is booming.  This must be so difficult for the family.

We spend the rest of the evening chatting and we laugh as Molly continues to try and deliver a French lesson to Peter.  At 11.00pm we also say our goodbyes.  We are told that next time we must stay with them in their home and not stay in a hotel.  We go out to the street to find a taxi and it’s only minutes before we find one.  Now we may have already decided not to use Abdul again but I think after this particular journey I can certainly appreciate what a safe driver he is.  I think we just climbed into the Taxi from Hell!  Peter is very good at striking up conversation with people but the driver didn’t speak – just grunted responses.  He drove like an absolute lunatic and after routing around on the backseat discovered that there weren’t any seatbelts in the back.  He drive at high speed in very congested traffic, weaving and dodging other cars, beeping his horn at every opportunity.  This can only be described as a white knuckle ride.  I kept praying that soon I would catch sight of the Cairo Tower and would then be confident that this ordeal would shortly be over.  We hit some congestion in and around Tahrir Square where I thought if we crash at least it will be at a lower speed.  As we approached Dokki via one of the bridges I could see how heaving the city was.  It seemed busier at midnight than it did during the day – both with pedestrians and traffic.

We eventually arrived back – in one piece thankfully.  Peter and I sat on the balcony (well I’m more half in and half out of the room).  We watch the busy metropolis come to life and try to think about what the following day will bring.