Khan el Khalili, Cairo

This is a part of Khan al Khalil which shows a traditiona and old security measure. Notice the many different gates. During off hours they are locked separately. As a result, thieves and robbers may not organize to steal from all butiks and may not easily find out their convenient way.

Tourist buses stop in this area, and its also an unlikely touristic place. When you decide to buy something give a price, usually one-fourth or one-fifth of the price th eseller asks. Don't think your price is final. There would be new prices several times until both parties reach an equilibrium. So, the price you are thinking or ready to pay for ask a price lower than that, leaving a room for negotiation. That's the bergaining process and as one of my friends say, half the fun! Bergaining with smiles and jokes would get you a cheaper buy, usually.

Khan al khalil is the place, where you see the widest and largest collection of souvnir items, including papyrus, and pices of phraonic idols and symbols. This is also a big bazar area with spices and stuff of daily necessaitites. And this is also the area where you buy them cheapest or at the highest price!

Yet another amazing experience we had in Cairo was a visit Khan el-Khalili markets.

These markets are a labyrinth of streets and lanes with shops selling everything from tacky souvenirs to gold and silver, clothing, antiques and pretty much anything else you can think of.

I was feeling game, so browsed the markets by myself. I made many new friends as I shopped - even got a marriage proposal or two - and saw so many great things to buy that it was too hard to decide and I didn't buy anything.

Meanwhile, Alex was sitting in the famous El-Fishawi Cafe sipping a Turkish coffee and puffing a shisha.

The markets are crazy, busy, crowded, noisy, fabulous!

What to pay: Better bring your bargaining skills with you!!

It's like visiting bangkok without going to it's famous chatuchak market. How could one not visit Khan Al Khalili, esp if you are a shopaholic like me? =P

From our hotel, meridien @ New Cairo, we took a cab down to this bazaar and it cost us about 35 EP. We asked the driver to drop us at Hussein (or Houssein) Mosque which is a very good meeting place if you are going with a few frens.

T-shirts are cheap there, you can get USD$5 for 2 pieces. You can get cartouches, perfume bottles, scarfs , souvenirs. a lot of things there.

Well even if you are not buying, you should just go and visit this place.

I dun know, when i was there at 10am, most of the shops were not opened yet. And from what i understand, if you are their first customer, they would certainly try their best to sell the thing to you.

So Good Luck!!!

Khan Al Khalili is a set of Bazars in the old city of Cairo which was once the center where merchants gather to relax and make their deals and sell the goods.

What to buy: The many shops that is filling the streets and allys are full of different goods that you will also find the same in Luxor, Aswan, Sharm and hurghada. It is among the gold, silver, papyrus (not originals), status, carpets and rugs, shishas, and other kind of gifts.

What to pay: Just bargain. Ask in couple of shops and you will get to know the price range but start with the half of what the salesman is saying.

I am not too sure the name of this shop but if you walk around Khan el Khalili a big outdoor/indoor suq while visiting Cairo, you are bound to come across a few shops stocking the most beautiful and ornate little Perfume bottles.

What to buy: These little treasures are something I quite literally stumbled on while walking through the stalls. The are found in the inside of the shops and there are so many that one has to be careful that they do not feel caustrophobic amongst the beautiful sea of glass and be a Bull in a china shop (OK my starsign yes is Taurus but I managed to restrain myself hahaha!!).

These little bottles are handblown into shapes that almost reasonable little mosques or in one of my bottles case's a camel. Some are more ornate than others and have the most amazing designs on them, others are simple yet still beautiful nevertheless. Another beautiful thing to purchase are the perfume oils that would go nicely inside your bottle. I choose the Lotus flower for it's subtle scent which wasn't overpowering but still retained a lovely scent, I didn't want to add it to the perfume bottles because I was afraid of breaking them. They are very fragile and fortunately they are still all intact even after I left Egypt. Make sure that the seller wraps them securely in something like cotton wool.

What to pay: Rather than bargaining for one bottle try bargaining for three or more. If you try to bargain for one, you can sometimes get a rude vendor who is not interested in you. It is even best to bargain with a few friends as the more you buy the more discount you will get.

Under type, they should put crap or tourist tat!

There are interesting things to buy at this ever increasingly tourist-oriented bazaar. The problem is most people come here once as part of a group and go thru the market like a pack of cows in heat.

I bought one of those snakes, just so I could whip it out as I was appraoched to buy one every 5 minutes, with the refrain, snaaaake!, snakke!

Walk away from the El Hussein are towards Bab Zwaia and things become much more interesting.

What to buy: I did not buy anything in a month except a wooden snake, ten postcards and a used book on Islamic architecture.

One thing I have to say, is that for tourist tat, this is as cheap as it gets in Egypt, in Aswan or Luxor there is less, and in Sharm or Hurgada, expect to pay triple.

Do people really use those sheeshas when they get home?