I can’t believe it has taken me three months to get to this place! Wow – it is incredible!
Yesterday afternoon Paula, Meral (a turkish expat) and I decided to head to this market – famous for the sheer size of it, as well as the amount that tourists get ripped off in it!
So armed with Amr, our driver, and his friend (who knows the market well) we set out. The first thing I noticed was how colourful everything was – bright fabrics, sheesha pipes, statues – all overflowing out of a million stalls with a million people telling you to “Come and see this never before seen – one minute – just follow me” – and then being whisked away against your will to buy something you really don’t want!
But because we were armed with some locals, we managed to get away fairly unscathed (people that approached us quickly realised that we were not to be messed with – have I mentioned that my driver is my hero?).
Our first stop was at Abd El’s shop (Amr’s friend). We had to buy something from here, so we started some negotions, but realised they would never end, so we said we’d come back later.
I bought two long strings of pearls (real ones) for LE300 – which I thought wasn’t bad, but technically I could have gotten away with a lot less had I tried (very obvious that you haven’t bargained hard enough when the seller accepts your offer straight away!)
Then we found a shop that had all kinds of granite, onyx and other stoney things like vases, bowls, boxes and jars – really cool stuff! So we spent ages in there, and the man that was selling to us was just so great. He was old and dignified, and not pushy and incredibly patient (you can imagine how patient he had to be with 3 girls in his shop!) – but we bought lots so he was happy!
Our final stop was back at Abd El’s shop, where I did the most magnificent piece of bargaining (by the end of the afternoon we were having competitions to see who could get the most discount…). I wanted a sheesha pipe – and the price tag of the one I wanted was LE1650! After about 45 minutes I got away with paying LE330 – only to be told at dinner last night with Egyptians that I was horrendously ripped off! (A sheesha should only cost LE50 max!) Grrr!
On the way out there was this tiny kitten (honestly about 6 inches high) just sitting in the middle of the pathway – it was so cute, was so tempted to take it home with me! Someone saw me looking at it, and offered it to me for LE5! Pity Luke is allergic to cats, otherwise it is likely that kitty would have been rescued!
But Khan Khalili was a pleasant surprise for me – I was expecting dirty smelly roads, and lots of poverty – completely wrong! The whole area is pretty clean, and there are loads of sheesha cafes squeezed inbetween the stalls, and lots of people bustling around…
Can highly recommend it to anyone 
