April 14th- Spring Break Day 13

We took the train again back down to Cairo. Once we had checked into our hotel we took a taxi to the Khan el-Khalili, which is the original caravan market dating all the way back to the 14th century. You can buy everything here and it is a huge place. It used to be more dived into strict districts, the gold district, the copper district, the spice district etc. but because it is getting more touristic it is beginning to loose the distinction.

This is also the place where our co-worker got stabbed last month and a bomb killed several French people. (see our post for March 2nd). We actually saw very very little of the Khan due to the fact that we spent over three hours with one merchant. Our friend that got stabbed recommended a good shop for inlaid-mother of pearl. It's actually the place where he got the table that saved his life! We weren't actually in the market to buy anything, but we did. Egyptian culture has a long history of customs when it comes to buying anything. They are great smooth talkers and love to bargain for everything. But there is also a lot of respect to the buying process. You will often get invited in for a cup of tea, which is rude to turn down and can sit for a long time not only discussing the item you wish to buy and the price but learn all about the merchants family and children. Since we came to this guys shop with his card and the recommendation of our friend, who he remembers as the American that got stabbed, he was very welcoming and inviting. We had tea with him and he taught us all about how to know the difference of good mother-of-pear and cheap plastic replicas. We ended up buying a true mother-of-pear end table that flips over to a chess table and then folds out to a backgammon board and then can flip over one more time for a felt card or domino table. The chess pieces are Pharonic chess pieces carved out of camel bone.
The next morning we dropped Mom and Dad off at the airport and then we caught the train back to Alex where we slept for three days before school started back up.

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