Exploring the Khan

Need a Camel Saddle? 

No visit to Cairo is complete without a trip to the Khan. Originally built to house makers and sellers of luxury goods it provided a secure indoor location for these merchants to sell their products. Now it is mostly taken over by tourist shops, but careful exploring will yield some of the original craftsmen and merchants. This was our second visit to this fascinating market, and we enjoyed it as much this time as in 2009 when we first visited.

We started exploring out on the streets surrounding the Khan, wandering by shops selling camel saddles, wooden buckets, kitchen tools and numerous other specialities. We went to the Tentmaker's Alley where tents were originally made and decorated, and you can still order an elaborate custom made tent to provide shelter when desert camping, but this area is also slowly being taken over by the tourist shops. We walked by shops selling full coverage women's gowns still common here in Egypt, in any colour so long as it was black, right next to vivid displays or bras and skimpy underwear in every day-glow colour imaginable. Each of these streets surrounding the Khan, has little side alleys tempting you to wander off down to see what they had hidden.

Tents in any colour . . .

When you finally enter the Khan itself, you are inside a massive building with ceilings and multi levels where merchants originally lived and worked. The shops are mostly on the one level, but looking up reveals an entirely separate world of windows and verandas and who knows what.

Fortunately we had our own private guide and we were taken to many shops that were not the average tourist-trap. We visited a custom jewellery shop where you could order special items made to order as you waited. Down one narrow alley/hallway we were introduced to a university professor who has continued his father's craft of creating wonderful items from camel bone. The shop is full to the ceiling with interesting objects carved and created from camel bone.

Is this built to code?

Then we went down another narrow side alley past a shop making glassware from recycled bottles and glass, around three or four tight corners, up various flights of stairs twisting up, up and around until somewhere high into the upper reaches of the Khan, we met a man who we visited last time and he unlocked his Alabaster shop, where objects created from this stone reached from floor to ceiling. It is impossible to leave this shop without purchasing something. I'm just glad my guide knew the way, because I know I could never find it again.

Be careful how you bargain with the merchants. I saw a leather messenger bag I sort of liked and was quoted a price of 2500 Egyptian pounds. However when I examined it more closely I really did not like it, but because I originally expressed interest, the merchant wanted that sale. 2000 EP . . . . 1600 EP, 1000 EP . . . . 800 EP as he followed me down the market. Finally I said I “might be back”, and he left. Mistake, walking back out of the Khan he was still there, bag in hand dropping the price as I walked past. I think I could have gotten it for about $30.00.

Wallaby Burger & Beer

Regis meeting a Wallaby

After a day exploring a new city, I love finding a local Pub where they serve good hearty local beers, preferable local craft brews. Finding some nice local food specialty to snack on with the beer main course is even better. Everything came together here in Hobart Tasmania during our visit.

Although the captain had cut our stay in Hobart short so he can try to outrun a storm on the

Yup, Cobras in Tasmania

way to New Zealand (Who says cruising isn’t exciting?), we still had almost a full day to explore the city. So far, my impressions of Australia are very favorable. I loved Sydney and Hobart was just as nice. It is a clean, vibrant, modern city with lots going on. We arrived on a Saturday and Hobart has a really fabulous market that takes over an entire section of the downtown, with local fresh produce and hundreds of local craft-people selling unique hand made products. How about a lovely hand carved wooden bow-tie for my Tux? Although I have one more Gala night on the cruise requiring formal wear I did pass on this unique item, but I may try my hand a making one at home . . .

SPRING!

One nice thing about visiting the southern hemisphere in October, is that it is Spring here and everything is green and the flowers are blooming, and a walk through a residential area allowed us to see some beautiful gardens just coming into their best. Having two springs in one year is great!

Sampling the Local Brew

Getting tired, thirsty and hungry after a morning of exploring, I led us back to a pub I had noticed offering 16 local craft beers, and I discovered they had a Sampler tray where instead of having to only choose one or two beer, I could try five of them. They were all good, but then I have not found too many brews I do not get along with. Among their Gourmet burger selection we discovered a Wallaby burger, and Regis reluctantly agreed to try it (We were sharing). The meat was shredded instead of a patty, and to be honest it was like pulled pork only a little bit stronger tasting. I enjoyed it, but Regis’ imagination kept her imagining cute little hopping animals, so I got most of the meat . . .

RuinPubs

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Take a tumbled down old building and turn it into a night club and you have one of the most popular attractions in Budapest. And when I say “Turn it into a night club”, I do not mean renovate it, I mean make the ruin the club. Bring in bands, furnish it with whatever old recycled furniture you can find, decorate the walls with whatever is available, and allow tagging anytime.

I think there is room for that old Communist era car in the courtyard; cut the roof off and make it a booth.

Hey that is pretty weird – perfect!

After that, anything goes; find something odd eccentric, weird or cool and use it to decorate.

There you go, Budapest’s RuinPubs.

The original and most popular RuinPub, hosts a Farmers Market on Sunday mornings, so we went exploring and found it to have a look. It is pretty hard to describe, but “Ruin Pub” does it pretty well. The building was originally a ruin, and it has not been fixed up other than to stabilize things. It is open to the sky in the courtyard, and the rooms are open to the courtyard. There are actually two cars parked inside being used as booths. Scattered throughout are rooms with chairs sofas, stools and tables of all styles and colors. There are actually some painting hanging on the walls, but much of the décor is pure graffiti and proud of it. There is a wrecked piano hanging in one stairwell, a table made from VHS tapes, a bathtub converted to a couch. Everywhere you look is something else amazing.

It was nice to go on Sunday for the market because I could wander around snapping pictures. I can only imagine what it must be like at night time. We will definitely go back to see.

The pictures I have chosen only give a glimpse into the Ruin Pub scene in Budapest, and this is only one; there are lots of them, some even bigger than this.