We took the bus/metro back to town, and headed out to explore the Khan al Kalili, the big market. We didn't quite get there, as we spent most of our time exploring the local markets leading up to the tourist market. Al-Muski is where locals go to buy underwear, jackets, shoes, etc. We ate at the Egyptian Pancakes restaurant, which was heavy and although cheap, not that great.

The next morning we had our first experience with Cairo taxis, and it actually went pretty smoothly. The guidebook had warned us that the system for taxis in Cairo is as follows: When you get in, never ever discuss a price. If the driver wants to discuss a price, get out and find another cab. Tell the driver where you want to go. When you get there, get out of the car and hand the driver folded up bills corresponding to the exact fare. No change is ever given. Cabdrivers will often yell at you, trying to extract more money, but just walk away.

How do you know the exact fare? Well, we asked at our hotel. It cost just under $1, and in this case the taxi didn't try to hassle us into paying more. The guidebooks often post suggestions for what fares you should be willing to pay, but these fares can be out of date as guidebooks are typically 2-3 years old.

Arriving in Cairo for our last few days, we headed out of the train station towards the taxi rank for the inevitable fight with the taxi drivers. They wanted to charge us quadruple the local rate to drive us to our hotel. When we objected and offered the local rate, it was accepted, and as we were putting our bags in the car, the driver added "per person". We grabbed our bags out of the trunk and an argument ensued. They learned some new English. Wendy: "I know how much it should f**king cost to get to that hotel, so don't rip me off. I'm so tired of this s**t!" With these words, the argument ended, and we finally hooked up with a driver who claimed to know where the hotel was. He didn't, and after a tour of the downtown area and many stops to ask people, he finally dropped us off at the right place.

We tried to stay at the Berlin Hotel again. The outside of the building is grungy, and the elevator had long since passed away. 6 flights of stairs later, we were showed to a room which seemed ok. As we were checking in, another guest came out of another room, complaining how loud it was. The owner told him not to worry, that he would switch him rooms. He told us the room he showed us wasn't available, and that we could leave our bags with him, and he would move our bags to the room (or one similar) when it was cleaned. I specified with him that it would NOT be the room that the other guest had just complained about.

Fast forward to when we came back to our room at the end of the day. Of course, it WAS the room the other guest had complained about. Luckily, we hadn't paid yet. We screamed and complained, and of course no other rooms were available. At this point, we only had one more night left, and we had really had it with being screwed over by unscrupulous businesses. We grabbed our bags and left the hotel. We wandered the area and eventually settled at the Lotus Hotel. A member of the 'hotel staff' followed us up to the reception.

We had learned that when wandering looking for hotels without a reservation, it is very important to fight off any touts that might want to take you to the lobby. The hotel will increase the daily charge to pay off the tout. Fortunately, in this case, the guy did actually work for the hotel so there was no problem. We had a positive experience at this hotel - it was clean, with a private shower (with hot water).

Rewind. During the day, we had visited the Egyptian Museum. It's big. Really big. The building itself is pretty plain, and filled to bursting with ancient artifacts. The English labeling is pretty scarce, so make sure you have a good guidebook.

In order to get into the museum, it is first necessary to get through a couple of lineups. One to buy tickets, one to go through security, and the last one to actually get into the museum. Security is fierce. You have to check any cameras and camcorders, no exceptions. Everything gets x-ray'ed. Leap of faith - leaving our expensive camera equipment with a security guard who gets paid peanuts (turned out it was ok). We were lucky enough to be in the first batch of people in. We immediately asked the first guard "Tutankhamen?" He pointed the way. We ran, kept asking every guard we saw "Tutankhamen?", and finally made it. We were the FIRST ONES IN! The entry guard high-fived us for our efforts, and proclaimed us the winner. He was also excited to find we're Canadian, and proclaimed his love for Celine Dion! Not only that, but we had about 10 minutes *alone* with Mr. Tut, able to inspect the beautiful gold mask from every angle. Finally the crowds started trickling in and we moved on to other parts of the museum.

Once the museum filled up, the crowds became unbearable. Everyone is with a large tour group, and the tour group leads will fight tooth and nail to get the best position for their group around the display cases. We got yelled at to move several times, which we ignored and just shot nasty glances back. The tour group leaders were unbelievably rude, and it really tainted our experience. I got so pissed off that I would quickly move to block display cases that I could see were a tour group's next target.

Next up, we visited Coptic Cairo (an easy trip on Cairo's fabulous subway), the old Christian section of Cairo. We wandered through a few churches, a synagogue, and were marvelously not hassled by anyone. The churches weren't that spectacular, but it wasn't that crowded, and was certainly a pleasant break from the crowds of the Museum. Our next stop was the City of the Dead. We took a taxi out to the Mausoleum and Mosque of Qaytbay. The taxi driver offered to stay to drive us back, but we didn't want to even think about how much that would cost, so we said no. We were the only tourists around and I have to say we felt a little uncomfortable. A guardian showed us around a little bit, but it wasn't anything that was worth the trip. We found our way back to the main street (8 lane road) leading back to town, but we had to cross it in order to get a cab going the right way. It was a scary moment, but we made it across. Our whoops of celebratory laughter and high-fives were met with congratulations from an Egyptian fellow who'd watched our progress. We finally grabbed a cab and wandered around the Khan-al-Khalili. We had dinner at the Restaurant Felfela, right across from our hotel (as we did the following night). It's a wonderful restaurant with beautiful decorations, great ambience, and great service. Highly recommended – just watch for any meat surprises in the vegetarian dishes.

The following day we set out in the morning to explore Islamic Cairo. We started out at the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. This Mosque is very photogenic, although different from others we'd seen. Most of the Mosque was outside - or at least most of the Mosque that we saw. It's a very photogenic Mosque, with lots of interesting details, rows of columns, etc.

Next we headed to Rafai Mosque, and the Madrasa of Sultan Hassan. To be honest, we were really not impressed by these mosques after what we'd seen in Turkey and Morocco. They all charge expensive admission, there's no one actually worshipping in them, they're not well kept up... We should have just stopped after Ibn Tulun and gone back to shopping.

We walked to the Citadel from the mosques. Despite being RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER it takes about 1.5 hours to walk there because you have to walk all the way round the far side. They do this so they can funnel everyone through the same entry gate and charge admission. The admission gate itself is flanked by bank machines, and tight security. If you have anything that's not allowed, they'll store it for you, for a good price for you my friend. We visited The Muhammad Ali Mosque, which is a bad copy of Istanbul's Blue Mosque.

We cabbed it back to the Khan-al-Khalili, and did some last minute souvenir shopping. We bought a huge hanging lamp, and some other souvenirs. We spent the next few hours trying to figure out how to protect the lamp for its long ride home. We asked someone on the street, and what happened next unfortunately summed up our experience with Egyptians. He kindly said his friend has a box and he would bring us to it. The fact that he spoke English fluently should have warned us he was not on the up and up. He brought us to his friend's closed alabaster shop, and said he would go get the box, and to wait there. Meanwhile his friend started the hard sell on his crappy China-made souvenirs. During the course of the conversation, it was made obvious to us that he intended to *sell* us this crappy box, for $20 US. Once we pieced together this was yet another scam, we got out of there as fast as we could.

We finally got a box from a grocery store for about a dollar. While in the store, we had an interesting conversation with an Egyptian who was just visiting, on a break from his studies in London. He asked us if we had enjoyed our stay in Egypt. Not wanting to offend anyone, we of course lied. He seemed genuinely surprised that we supposedly had a good time.

This is part of a larger trip report from a backpacker's trip to Egypt.
You can also look at our Pictures from Egypt or select from the sections below.