Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 43]
When we first came to Cairo, we used to be almost mobbed by the swarms of bootblacks, & stick sellers, silk vendors & a hundred & one other dirty sweeps if you stopped to look in a window out would come some one, & start to tell you all about it & try to get you to buy, this sort of thing had rather the opposite effect on us, for many a time I have felt inclined to buy something but soon as they started that game off I would go, & I think that was the same with all of us, we had never been used to that sort of thing in Australia, & were not going to stand it here, when you sat down in a restaurant, one of these boot-blacks would pounce on you & before you knew where you were he would be rubbing away for dear life, while you were
trying to get rid of him, you would gave 2 or 3 beggars round you wanting bucksheesh, & you would have your work cut out to shake them off, if you went into a shop to buy anything they would ask you about 10 times the value of the article, we soon jerried to all these little games, & found out the shops that had the fixed prices, & you did not have to argue for an hour with them about the change, "oh how they rooked us for a while"
There are some very fine buildings in Cairo, & some bonzer streets, & there are also some of the worst dens on earth there, after what I have seen in Cairo with my own eyes, I will believe anything is capable of happening there. No doubt you heard all about Capt Beans letter about the Australian troops in