Bus Traffic Through Khan el-Khalili

We made another shopping trip to Khan el-Khalili Bazaar a couple of days ago.  The Khan is one of our favorite spots to visit and see what is new in the way of Egyptian souvenirs and, in some cases, what is old.

There are more shops selling brass light fixtures than in the past. Would love to take a couple of them home but how to get them home safely?

Statues of gods, pyramids and pharaohs abound. We just need more places at home to put them. (or a larger house)

 

After shopping in the Khan, we always exit via a narrow alley that leads back to Al Azhar Street to catch a taxi ride home.  But first we stop and visit the el Halwagy cafe where the owner always welcomes us back.  He knew we had missed a year and that it had been 25 months since we had visited.  We ordered two lemonades. As a welcome back gesture, he gave us a plate of cake to supplement our drinks.

 

I looked up the alley and decided that the tour buses must have been re-routed this year; there was no way they could get down the alley with the way merchants had pre-empted the alley space with displays of goods.

But yes, even the large buses could still squeeze through. You could barely fit a finger between the bus and the items on display. These drivers know the size of their vehicles down to the tenth of a millimeter. It's not an optical illusion; it really is as tight of a fit as it looks in the photo. Those drivers are good!

I took advantage of the many traveling sales people (or did they take advantage of me) to shop for a new watch while neighboring ladies considered decorating their hands with henna and the wallet salesman pushed his wares. New this year was a man selling women's nightgowns. Seemed odd to me that anyone resting at this cafe would be interested in buying sleep wear on the street but that's Egypt for ya.

None of the sales people flinched as the buses came through.  Among the American group seated next to us, a few ran for cover as the first bus approached.

To watch one of the buses run the gauntlet, click on the embedded YouTube video below.  A previous visit to el Halwagy in 2013 can be found in this blog post.