The Brawl at the Stall

First there was the Rumble in the Jungle, followed by the Thriller in Manilla, and now the latest of the great fights of the last few decades, where we had a ringside seat, the Brawl at the Stall….let me explain.

Saturday am we took our newest, favourite, ever faithful friend Mr GPS down to the Khan al Khalili, the main sprawling and warren-like Souq in Cairo just to get a taste and feel for the place.

We started at one of the many mosques and just sauntered down one of the main drags past the more touristy shops selling, pyramids, Cleopatras, Shisa pipes, pyramids, obelisks, Tutenkamuns, pyramids, belly dancing outfits, and even pyramids. Much “Come, no cost for looking” and “Hello where you from” banter from the shop keepers but we are becoming hardened to their little tricks and did not find it too bad at all really. Further down was much more local feel, a fantastic mélange of shouting, bartering, pushing, men with carts, kids selling hankies, cats, rubbish, spices etc etc. The most exciting part was seeing a fight between two of the market traders in what appeared to be the sock section – now christened the Brawl at the Stall. A few of the other stall holders broke it up, the tourist police who were standing next to us had no intention of getting their lovely lilywhite uniforms dirty.

On the way back young T took the plunge into the complex financial transactions that dominate the shopping experience in Egypt. He selected his prey – a nice “Yasser Arafat” checked scarf, and went into complex transactional sparring with the shop owner, Dad had to step in early from the corner and give some sound financial advice when young T was pitching too high. At the right moment he then employed his masterstroke….the age-old “aint’ bovverd and going to walk out of the shop to the next” technique which worked a treat and they settled on 10 egyptian pounds (about 1.10 sterling, 1.50 US dollars). Shop keeper and young PLO fashionista both left happy.