Cairo

By David Ellis

“Don’t worry about us, Old Mate,” we reassure our guide Musim as we gaze into the garish rabbit warren of Cairo’s Khan el-Khalili Bazaar. “We’re journalists – trained to observe.”

Musim is obviously anything but totally convinced, and probably more to reassure himself than us that we won’t get lost, hands us maps of this extraordinary medieval market place that’s been trading here for over six hundred years.

“We must all be back at this very spot in 2-hours,” he says. “The ferry for our moonlight ride on the Nile will not wait for us.”

“Yeah, yeah,” we yet again reassure him, supremely confident of our abilities to observe just where in this maze to return to. And armed with our maps we plunge forth into the unknown… 

Khan el-Khalili – simply The Khan to the locals – is a bazaar like no other, and if there is a word to describe it, it is, well, bizarre.

Back in 1382 the Emir (Prince) Djaharks el-Khalili established a little caravanseri here – a site with accommodation and dining for wandering traders to gather and sell their wares. Locals in turn offered their own goods to the traders to on-sell elsewhere on their travels, kicking along the local economy.

That original caravanseri courtyard is still there, on the edge of today’s bazaar.

And we soon discover why this jumble of alleyways, shops and street-stall traders still holds such allure today. Name it and you’ll doubtless find it : inexpensive oriental souvenirs by the truck-load, precious-stone jewellery from the valuable to the garish, toys (a favourite is a singing, dancing camel,) perfumes that may or may not be true to label (so check before you accept that second bottle from under the counter,) inlaid mother-of-pearl boxes and trays, clothing and shoes, carpets and coffee beans, rainbows of spices, handmade backgammon sets and other board games, brass and copper “antiques” – let the buyer beware – gold and silver…

You can even buy yourself that must-have ex-palace chandelier, a smoker’s Shisha (hookah) water pipe, and who doesn’t want to bring home a preserved bright metallic-coloured scarab dung beetle, the kind once worshipped as an embodiment of the god Khepri who supposedly moved the sun. (Although how you would get it through Quarantine is anyone’s guess – and in any case our own Christmas beetles and several others are equally colourful scarabs.)

As we plunge deeper and deeper into this Aladdin’s Cave we try our hand at haggling over prices and find that with quiet patience you need never pay the original asking price. Along the way we’re also offered Hibiscus Tea, a smoke of a Shisha, and the local Helba (a semolina flour cake drizzled with a Middle Eastern syrup of sugar, rose and orange blossom…)

But our real priority as travel writers is the al-Fishawi Coffee Shop: firstly because it opened its doors in 1773 and has never turned the light off since, trading 24/7 for an amazing 238 years.  And secondly because we want to take coffee at the very table at which the revered Egyptian writer, Naguib Mahfouz met fellow writers and artists every day for over 70 years until his death in 2006 at age 95. This literary giant churned out 50 novels, 350 short stories, numerous movie scripts, five plays, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988.

And yes we sheepishly defer to Musim’s wisdom: we got totally lost in The Khan, couldn’t find our meeting place, finally found a taxi – and missed our moonlight ferry ride on the Nile by three hours.

Never again shall we say: “We’re journalists – paid to observe.”

GETTING THERE

Bench International has savings of up to $2200 per couple on a range of itineraries in Egypt.

Product Director Fiona Orton says that after this year’s revolution, services and facilities for tourists have returned to normal in Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel and the Sinai Peninsula.

An 11-Day Nile Explorer includes a stay in Cairo and seven nights sailing the Nile in a traditional Dahabiya, with a complimentary Sound and Light Show at Karnak Temple in Luxor or a hot air balloon ride, and is priced from $2850pp twin share, including transport, guided sightseeing, all meals aboard the Dahabiya and domestic airfares in Egypt.

Details : www.benchinternational.com.au  or 1300 195 873.