Our first day in Cairo greets us with clean skies and warm weather (33 Celsius)

We had a simple breakfast of Toast and Jam, weak drip coffee and some cheese.

After breakfast a quick look around the streets near the hotel - well nothing much to be said about that. Pretty dusty, broken pavement and a few shops open. It is a public holiday today - Mohamed's Birthday.

We find a Cab or they found us - a black type of beaten up car ( Fiat ) which is too small to be a taxi.

We said we wanted to go to the Egyptian Museum and he said 30 Egyptian Pounds - a couple of moments bartering and we got it for 10 Pounds.

We arrive at 9:10am and notice that there is a huge crowd in line already. We walk past the crowd to get an idea of the line and notice that  after you pay there was yet another line into the museum.

We flagged this as it looked like you would be there for 3 hours before getting in side.

We grabbed another taxi and a bit more heavy bartering we got a 10 pound ride to the Khan el Khalili bazaar. We arrive early just about 9:30 and it does not properly open to 11 or so.

We walked around and grabbed a drink in a cafe - 1 can of coke, 1 small water = 35 Pounds - ripped off but who cares as we stayed there for 30 minutes or more.

During my time sitting there I had a guy want to sell a wallet, watches, and 3 shoe shines.

I bought a leather wallet (well they did the lighter test and it did not melt) - bartering started at 100 pounds, and I got it for 10 pounds.

I flagged the watches without ever knowing what they wanted for them - I am sure far too much.

After we left the cafe, I got a show shine down the road for 5 pounds - about $1.30 NZD. The guy did a good job, but it was funny as all the tourists were watching me as they wondered by. My shoes needed a good clean anyway.

We wondered around the souk seeing lots of similar things for sale. There is a lot of crappy Egyptian type tacky tourist stuff - gold coloured as we would expect to see. Lots of real gold and silver, lots of ornate boxes and plates. As you continue on you get to a clothing souk, where people are trying to sell t-shirts and belts and other crap.

We bought some sweet potato from a buy pushing his cart of them around - quite smokey and basically ok to eat. Cost 1 pound for 1 medium sized one - probably about twice the locals price.

We ate our sweet potato and then decided to head back to the hotel as it was over 30 degrees by then.

We found a cab - again my time to barter with him. First cab I show him the card to the hotel, 50 pounds - I laugh and move to the next. 30 pounds - I say 10, he says 20, I say 10, he says 15. I decide not to take his offer - mean while he is holding up all the traffic behind him and everyone is tooting. He calls out to me - I poke my head in the car and he says 15 pounds - No I say and in the end he agrees on 10 pounds.

We get in - I can't even get my feet behind his seat ... He starts to reverse against the traffic and then we are off on some rather interesting driving...

There is a small video of the driving at this point - click here to download - approx 1.2 MB

We get back to the hotel and again he wants 15 pounds, I give him 10 and say bye...

We go back inside the old lift to the 5th floor to the hotel and have a snooze.