My letter to a loved one, written from Cairo, September 2006

Hi, I tried to call you before, but I could only hear your voice vaguely. I hope you are ok.

Our news follows: -

I have changed our flights and we are leaving tomorrow. Cairo is too much for Tali. He is not interested in the things I am interested in and to be honest is being a pain in the arse. But I can understand it.

I have dragged him in a lightening fast three-day tour of Cairo – a literary tour, which I based around my novel. We got this wonderful female tour guide called Seham. I told her about my novel and all the places I wanted to see – based on the areas I wrote about. She took us to all the wonderful bits – Islamic Cairo, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, Coptic Cairo, Garden City, the Muski, Bulac, Abbassiya, Heliopolis, Zamalek, Giza. These were places were all the action took place in my book. She was very interested in my book and impressed that I knew so much about Cairo – (remember all that research I did and all the books I have on the political upheaval during the 20s and 40s!).

I totally love Cairo. It is amazing. I will write about it in more detail later. Tali got totally freaked out by the intense crowds, the noise, the pushing and shoving, Islamic Cairo and the abattoirs, markets and cafes, but I have to admit that I was freaked out too, so I can only imagine how hard it must have been for him.

OK, in summary we saw:-

• the Pyramids of Giza, Cheops, Khufu etc
• We went inside the Pyramid of Khufu
• We saw the Sphinx
• We went to the Pyramids Light and Sound show at night
• We went to the Egyptian Museum
• We went to the Muski, Khan el Khalili bazaar and the famous 200-year-old café where writer Mafouz wrote his novels while having shisha and drinking Egyptian coffee. This café – famous and even more famous for being famous is so super-brilliant, words cannot describe it. I took photos. It is called Fishwahi’s and has been in the same family for 200 years. I had henna done at Fishwahi’s, I had grape shisha (brilliant) and Egyptian coffee (brilliant), all the while talking to my new Egyptian friend Seham – the lady tour guide.
• We went to the Al Azhar mosque – went inside, took photos
• We bought a shisha pipe for you at the Khan el-Khalili bazaar – over 1000 years old bazaar.
• We went to the Northern Gates (1000 years old)
• We saw the City of the Dead (cemeteries where the tombs look like houses and people actually live in them, because they are so poor they cannot afford real houses
• We saw the Egyptian Museum – the mummies tombs
• We went to a Perfumery and smelt pure Egyptian perfumes, like the lotus flower, frankincense etc. I bought some perfumes (of course)
• We went to Coptic Cairo which is 2000 years old – brilliant
• Went to the Hanging Church, the Synagogue and saw where Mary and Joseph stayed
• We went to a papyrus shop and watched it being made (of course, we bought some prints for framing)
• At the Muski bazaar, I bought some headscarves out of necessity to wear
• We saw a 1800 year-old castle, on the Muquattam hills used to spy out invaders of the crusaders – pre-Islamic times.

 Our flight tomorrow is at 8am and so it’s a very early start. We are going straight to Mum’s. I will try and set up wireless internet straight away.

I hope you are well and that you are having some success at last in LA.

Email me soon.

Love US XXXX

 PS......I have bought lots of books, black and white prints of photos from the 1920s and 1930s of Egyptian scenes