Khan el Khalili is the largest bazaar in all of Egypt. This busy, crowded maze-like market swallows several streets, with plentiful vendors selling gold, plastic ornaments, engraved silver plates, jewelry, spices, food, t-shirts, Egyptian clothing, perfumes, oils, and leather purses.
We spent an hour or so at the bazaar before we boarded our train. We were accompanied by a different guide, another Mohammed, who we'd become familiar with over the last four days. He was a big, muscular guy, one of Cairo's handball champions, friendly, and more relaxed than our official guide. I felt totally protected with him around. We wandered the chaotic narrow streets as vendors urged us to enter their stall to "just have a look, no obligation."
Although guide books suggest that tourists offer 1/3 to 1/2 of the asking price when bartering, vendors seemed unwilling to negotiate on anything. At one point, we wandered into a stall and offered to pay half of the asking price, to which the vendor countered with another amount. We looked to Mohammed, as if to ask if that was a good price. The vendor began yelling at Mohammed, and threw us out of his stall. Obviously the vendors don't want Egyptians to mix with the tourists and give them the inside scoop as to the real value of a given item, so Mohammed lagged behind when we entered a stall. He said his very presence would ensure that we would get a fair price over unassisted tourists. Interesting. We didn't buy much of anything. Just spices and aromatic wood pulp for our fireplace back home.
There were several little cafes scattered about the bazaar, and we had ahwa at the renowned Fishawi's Teahouse somewhere in the interior of the maze. I wandered around on my own for about 15 minutes, making my husband nervous as no other foreign (or Egyptian) women were solo. There was one man who began following me, and continued to walk boldly beside me, even with Mohammed at my side. Guess he was just curious. I held my pocketbook a little closer nevertheless.
The funniest memory I have of our experience at Khan el Khalili was watching our guide fend off harassing vendors who thought he was American (guess it was his khaki pants and golf shirt). They tried to push little trinkets into his hands as we passed "a gift for you, my friend." He'd get irritated and tell them to bug off in Arabic. When they didn't listen, he'd tell them sharply "I'm Egyptian, I'm Egyptian" (in Arabic of course). One vendor persisted and successfully shoved something into Mohammed's pocket, then pleaded for money. Mohammed angrily stormed ahead to another vendor's stall, shoved the trinket into a barrel of plastic ornaments, then kept on walking. It was a kick to see someone else get harassed for a change, ironically an Egyptian!
Overall, I have to agree with the Lonely Planet book on this, "a great deal of it is simply tourist junk."