You Make Me Wanna Tout!
Well I made it here safe - at 11pm. It was frustrating the first night - the cabbie took me to the hotel that paid him the most instead of the one I asked for - the most common scam in Cairo apparently. It was a shithole but it was cheap and I was tired to I took it for the night and found the right one, 3 blocks away, the next day. I’m right in the middle of downtown, (in the 3rd most populous city in the world), so the place is crazy, but the people are unbelievably nice. When I walk down the street people will yell "Welcome to Cairo" at me. Not everybody, mind you, but enough to take away the nervousness. Today I walked about 7 miles from the hotel through "Islamic Cairo" (Dad - look it up in that guidebook I left you), into the "Northern Cemetary," around the Citadel, and back into downtown. I saw the poorest people I’ve ever met and they welcomed me and offered me tea. It’s the complete opposite of what people were afraid of.
It’s not perfect, mind you. In central downtown there are guys called "touts" who’s job it is to befriend tourists and drink coffee with them then take them into perfume and papyrus shops or travel agencies to sell them stuff. They’re not all aggressive, and that’s what makes them a challenge - they’re nice and that’s where the pressure comes from. The first one got $5 off me for something I didn’t need, (I won’t say what since it will of course be a gift for one of you), but I haven’t caved in since. The thing is people will just start talking to you and take you to coffee, so it’s hard to tell the touts from regular people. Last night a tout called a guy over from a travel agency and instead of trying to sell me a tour we talked politics for two hours. Right now my biggest fear is I’ll never get any alone-time, which I need. In a few days I’ll get out of downtown and things will slow down.
