|
9/29
The only thing we had planned for today was CD shopping and checking email. We made a stop at an internet café down the street because the hotel’s internet is not working again and then set off to shop. Most of the shops around us just carry cassettes. Lonely Planet recommended a place in Arkadia Mall, Vibe and Diwa. All I saw in Arkadia was a music corner, no shops and it was a bunch of men just hanging out blasting music. I was too intimidated to look.
On the map Diwa and Vibe are just around the corner from each other so we took a cab to Zamalek. We found Diwa with no problem but couldn’t find Vibe (we think a home décor shop has replaced it). So Diwa it was. They had a maybe 3’x3’ section of Egyptian pop music (double sided) and the same area for traditional music and the rest was international. Most of the international CDs were 90-110LE but the Egyptian ones were 35-40LE (about $7US). I ended up grabbing 15 CDs for 600LE. It’s also a book store and since we’ve read all the books we brought for reading we bought some more. They have a used book section for 10LE a novel (they have a lot of old books but also some new we bought 2 of the Bourne series and another brand name I can’t remember). They also have a new book section. I think the cheapest novels were about 48LE and went up from there. I believe they also had a French section in addition of course to Arabic. And there was also a big kids section too.
They have a point system there. Every 100LE equals one stamp. After 20 stamps you get 100LE off. I got 7 stamps total from my 1 visit!
There wasn’t much else in the area so I flagged a cab to get back to the hotel. I said “Taalat Harb” he nodded, we got in and he started driving. I wasn’t really paying attention until I noticed we were headed for Giza. I asked him where he was going and repeated “Taalat Harb.” I’ve never had a problem with a cabbie understanding me here for Taalat Harb. He pulled over to the side of the road and asked 2 girls to “translate” for him. They understood no problem, but apparently he had a problem with the destination now. He got out of the taxi and flagged down another taxi and told us to get in that one. As we were getting in he grabbed the door and started asking for 10LE for himself and 10LE for the other driver. My partner said “for what?!” After a few minutes I was so frustrated I said “just give him 5”
We finally got back to the hotel and one of our friends was working so we sat with him and talked for a bit. He wanted to see what CDs I had bought. He sorted them into piles of his favorites and then sorted them again “you can do a show with these CDs.” We chatted with him for a bit and then went into the room to listen to some of the CDs.
|