We went and visited Khan al-Khalili yesterday. This is the market / bazaar that is in old Islamic Cairo. I was told that the market has an identical twin in Turkey (built by the same sultan). So it is like a two-fer. If you visit this one you don't have to bother going to Turkey (the person telling me this said to stay at the one in Cairo since it is the better one) . The market is quite a site. The roads and alleyways are jam packed with merchants selling everying from jewlery and gold to meat, power tools and toiletries. If you want something you'll probably be able to find it in Khan al-Khalili. Haggle with any merchant you deal with, (except when buying gold and silver. Precious metals are charge by weight. A small fee is added for craftmanship) starting out with a counter offer of half the price is fine.

Most merchants offer you drinks (for free) while you negotiate the price. I was buying some incense worth about 5$ (USD) from a kind old man who could barely see. We sat and had tea while talking about the price and different types of incese he had. We talked about where I was from. How long he had been a merchant there. What makes good incense. He was glad to see an American in the market. He said that Americans use to come to the market all the time but in the last few years things have changed. He misses us. He refused to allow us to pay extra for the drinks. There is no obligation to buy. I could have gotten up and walked away with no hard feelings anytime. What is most important is that both of us are happy with the transaction. We bought from about 10 different shops and could have had tea and drinks at every one of them. It isn't like going to target.

If you go to Khan al-Khalili you should visit Fishawi's coffee house. It is reputed to be the oldest coffee house / sheesha joint in cairo. The setting is cool, sitting in the street people watching. About every 2 minutes some kid walks by trying to sell fake rollexes or jewlery. If I just sit there quietly and puff on my sheesha they figure me for a local Egyptian and don't bother me. The second I speak it is like some sort of radar is activated. In the markets you hear mainly arabic, some russian and italian and occasionaly british english. When Tarek and I speak you see heads turn and people stop and stare.

I had one small disappointment with Fishawi's. The sheesha wasn't up to par. Most places you pick your flavor of tobbacco (I reccomend the cantelope), they set the pipe down , give you the plastic tip for your pipe, place hot coals on the top of the tobbaco and cover it with a protective cap. Replacement coals are usually placed every 15 minutes or so. You usually get a second "cup" of tobacco in case you finish the first. At Fishawi's they didn't have the 2nd "cup" or the protective cap. Without the protetive cap your coals burn down way to fast and ashes blow around. We even had to ask for replacement coals twice. Shabby!