Khan el Khalili

There is an enormous bazaar in Cairo called Khan el Khalili. For those of you who’ve been to Hong Kong’s Stanley Market, imagine that, times about a million, and way more crowded than Stanley on its busiest day. It’s unfathomably huge. Jason went to the Khan a few weeks ago by himself. The adventurer in him needed something to explore, so he took the metro and set out to see as much of Khan el Khalili as he could. He got there right around Iftar, the breaking of the fast during Ramadan. It is the custom during Ramadan to be generous and share whatever you have, so when Jason arrived at dinner time, he met some local people who insisted he join them for the meal. After eating his fill and practicing his Arabic with them for a while, he spent the next few hours exploring the market. He came back home later that night excited to tell me all about his adventure, and decided we should go together later that week. However, the Khan is not stroller-friendly (none of Cairo really is, but there is no way we could get a stroller through the crowded walkways in the Khan), so we had to find a babysitter. Our friends Paul and Traci came to babysit Luke that Thursday night while we went to the Khan with Noel, Rachella, and Beth.

We took the train to a station near the Khan. It was about a 20 minute train ride, if I remember correctly. The train was clean and not too crowded that night. Once we got to the station, we got out and began walking to the bazaar. Just outside the station street vendors sell all kinds of merchandise, from cell phone covers to hardware to clothes and food. (Note that you can even buy "pharonic status" in this shop. I've always wanted to be royalty...) We made our way through the crowds and started toward the Khan. Ours were the only Western faces I saw until we got to the actual Khan. I imagine we walked for about 20 minutes before reaching what is technically Khan el Khalili, but the part of Cairo between the metro stop and the Khan was solid shops and vendors, so that I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference in where the Khan began and ended. I think we were there at the time when many Egyptians were out shopping for gifts to give at the end of Ramadan, and the best analogy I can give you is that it was like the day after Thanksgiving at the mall, but on steroids. We kept thinking of the phrase, “crush of humanity.” The crush of humanity almost crushed me several times!

We fought our way through the crowd and finally emerged in front of the Egyptian Pancake House. We sat down outside and ordered dinner—these delicious pita-like pancakes covered in honey or with bananas baked in, or filled with cheese…all yummy. While we were eating we were approached repeatedly by people selling their wares—wallets, necklaces, papyrus pictures, and bookmarks—and none of them wanted to hear “no.” We kept sending them away, and most of them did go away, except one little girl who looked to be about four years old. She was by herself wandering through the market. She kept coming up to us asking for our cokes. None of us gave her any, though we did offer her food, which she refused. She would not leave us alone. One of the waiters kept sending her away, but she ran back to our table each time. I felt sorry for her, because she appeared to be so young and unsupervised, but the others thought she could have been seven or eight, and just small. Still, I wouldn’t let Luke wander around like that at seven or eight! Noel snapped this picture of the little girl after dinner.

We spent the next few hours walking around the Khan. There were some really neat little shops with various Egyptian crafts in them. My favorite are the glass shops. They make some amazing Christmas ornaments and also hanging light fixtures with neat glass teardrop baubles hanging from them. They’re hard to describe, but of everything I’ve seen so far here, those light fixtures are really the only thing I’d buy to put in my house. Most of the Egyptian handicrafts don’t suit my taste, which is probably a good thing for our budget! I didn’t buy anything on this shopping trip, but Jason bought some old Egyptian money. (I think it’s weird to buy money, but that’s just me!)

After about 2 hours of looking around, we girls decided we had had enough. The crowds and the shopkeepers trying to get us to come in their shops really wore us out. We told the boys they could stay and keep exploring and we’d go home, or they could go with us. We decided to all go home at once. We caught a cab to the metro station. It was a small cab, and Noel, Rachella, and Beth climbed in the back, while Jason sat in the front seat with me on his lap. Very cramped and unsafe! I couldn’t sit up straight at all, and the most comfortable way to ride would’ve been to hang my head out the window like a dog! Noel got a picture of me doing this, but I don’t have it yet. I’ll post it if I can get him to send it to me!

The Khan is definitely an interesting experience. I’d like to know if there is a time that it is less crowded than it was that night to go again. The shopping stresses me out a little bit, but I could eat those Egyptian pancakes once a week and be happy!