It would seem the seasons changed over the weekend, the warm weather giving over to the khamaseen blowing in from the Libyan Desert; these winds coincide with the height of the tourist season.
The annual arrival of 8 million tourists to Egypt has resulted in the opening of a number of new money exchangers in Cairo and souvenirs shops that are tapping into the taste for a less cliché keepsake; offering products make in the desert oasis of Fayoum, Dakla and Siwa.
In these new style craft shops tourists feel a wholesomeness about the fact that their money is returning to a community-based project. And they are loading up with scarves, pashminas, ethnic style jewellery, home-made greeting cards and wooden or clay household items.
The modern tourist has a new shopping list, passing over the busts of Tutenkamun and papyrus book marks for boxes of Viagra, Cleopatra cigarettes and antique doors that can be the cornerstone of a new house back home.
In Cairo, Viagra is bought over the counter without a prescription and anecdotal evidence suggests that pharmacies are doing a steady trade. The notorious brand is prominently displayed and customers range from University of Edinburgh students to middle-aged Australian women.
The university students, Zak and Dave, told of their plan to move the tablets for 10 pounds sterling a piece around the dance clubs of Scotland’s capital of fringe art, comedy and theater, that apparently needs a hand to get the party started.
For the middle-aged Australian tourists it is just a matter of necessity and economics. With the cost of a prescription in the Great Southern Land around LE 120 and then LE 80 for a dose, 15 or 20 boxes of Viagra in the luggage makes good economic sense and an added bonus to their exotic holiday experience.
Tourists love the packets of Cleopatra cigarettes. They are quaint curiosities that are stuffed into the corners of suitcases, often as gifts for smokers back home. Together with a Pharonic cigarette lighter it is a quick fire way to catch people’s attention back in the office blocks of Rome, Moscow and Berlin.
At the Cairo airport or in the hotel lobbies it is common to see a tourist clutching a shisha pipe. These attractive glass icons of the Orient proudly stand guard in lounge rooms around the world were they are rarely smoked, but allude to a luxurious lifestyle and a reminder of fun and late nights on the Nile.
Egypt is attracting more and more antique hunters, I am told by one man who has spent the last 3 years getting hold of wooden doors, adding to his collection of perfume bottles and finding good quality items that he will sell when his ex-pat contract is finished.
I have often eyed antiques myself and thought, ‘that would bring a pretty penny in London or Sydney’. But I was surprised doors were in such demand, but apparently, these character laden oversized wooden antiques with brass knockers and handles act as the starting point for architects who are designing new houses; and the door is the focal point.
One British couple, Sarah and Ed, who returned to London after two years in Cairo and moved into a new house, regretted not buying soft furnishings, silverware, small pieces of furniture such as bed side tables or even a coffee table, because even with the cost of shipping, you are still looking at a 50 percent saving on the prices in ‘rip-off Britain’.
Over my time in Cairo I have always been impressed with the quality and originality of the art work. There really are some excellent shows, and paintings in particular are very reasonably priced. It is a town where you don’t have to be a multi-millionaire to start collecting original works and quality paintings age well and as we know will appreciate in value.
One of the more obscure souvenirs was scooped up by a family member. Yes, Uncle Alan, the Most Reverend in fact, took a vile of Nile water home with him to Leeds, Yorkshire, to go with his collection of waters from the world’s great rivers including the Ganges, Mississippi and the Yangtze.
Tourists and foreign workers come to Egypt for a myriad of reasons and I really do wonder just how many snap shots of the pyramids there are in the world? How many blondes have heard they are worth a thousand camels? And if Egyptian Viagra really is one of the New Wonders of the World.
