---
type: Place
title: Cairo
description: A perfume seller who won't give back the change, a shoe clean paid at thirty times the going rate, a Salah shirt bought at the factory for £10, and a camera left unattended for twenty minutes that nobody touches.
tags: [cairo, egypt, markets, haggling, street-food, football, scams]
coordinates: {lat: 30.0444, lng: 31.2357}
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
---

# Cairo

The capital of [Egypt](/countries/egypt.md), and the city with the reputation
Harry has come to test. His first impressions, a few hours in, are that it is
**not as bad as he was expecting at all** — loud, bustling, architecturally
striking, and rough around the edges in a way he says he likes. His comparison is
India.

*Obs: the video carries an eSIM sponsor read. Only the travel content is
recorded.*

## The perfume shop

The first thing that happens to him, straight out of the hotel, and he calls it
some of the craziest bargaining he has ever experienced.

The sequence, which is worth having in order:

1. **A man on the street gives him a business card** and two passers-by
   independently vouch for him. Harry goes in.
2. **Lotus flower oil**, sold as the ancient flower of Egypt. The quoted unit
   price is 10 Egyptian pounds a gram; a 30-gram bottle is 300.
3. **He is talked down to 250** — with "money is not everything" repeated
   throughout.
4. **A second bottle is opened before he has agreed to anything**, then a third
   — gardenia — poured while he is saying no.
5. **"No money more"** — the second bottle is declared free, then priced at two
   for 500, then two for 400.
6. **He pays 400 and 150 change is owed.** The seller offers 100 back plus the
   extra bottle.
7. **Harry refuses, repeatedly and calmly, and asks for the whole 150.** He gets
   it.

His summary afterwards is admiring rather than annoyed: he has never seen selling
like it.

## The shoe clean

He asks the price and is told to pay whatever he likes.

- **The going rate is around 70 Egyptian pounds.**
- **Harry pays 2,000** — because they offered him the honest price, so they get
  the honest reward.
- **It backfires immediately.** Others in the group want a share, and when he
  tries to split the money the argument that follows is about who actually
  cleaned the shoes. Harry's line: this is what happens when you try to be nice.

*Obs: the shoe cleaner tells Harry he is fifteen. He is not identified further
here.*

The same conversation contains the flattest exchange in the video: asked what he
thinks of England, the answer is that he doesn't like it. Harry's response is
that he's allowed his own opinion, and moves on.

## The market

Khan el-Khalili and the streets around it — old cobbled lanes now given over
almost entirely to tourist goods.

**The Salah shirt.** Harry asks for a Mohamed Salah top and is walked several
streets to what the seller calls the factory.

- **600 Egyptian pounds**, about £10, described as one price and no discount.
- Harry says it is more than the local price and takes it anyway, because it's
  still £10.
- **Everybody in Egypt supports Liverpool**, because of Salah.

**The fried lotus dessert.** Pastry deep-fried to order and drowned in whatever
sauce you name — Nutella, white chocolate, strawberry, caramel, Lotus.

- **75 Egyptian pounds**, which Harry identifies as the tourist price and pays.
- Flour and oil, and nothing more complicated than that.
- The seller gets through around **five kilos a day**.
- His verdict: soft inside, crunchy outside, and unlike anything he has eaten.

**A note on filming**: he says on the way in that he tries not to film any woman
without her permission.

## Street performers

A group with drums call him over, play for him, and tell him it is free. Harry
insists on giving them 200 Egyptian pounds. His comment is that he wasn't
expecting an honest one and got it.

It is also where he makes the general observation: **Egyptians do not take no for
an answer.** He watches them spot an opening and go for it, and treats it as
persistence rather than as a con.

## The name necklace

Silver, with his name in Arabic, made to order.

- **250 Egyptian pounds**, which he says is far more reasonable than expected.
- **Thirteen minutes**, and he is sent for a coffee while it's made.

The detail he flags afterwards: he left his camera out and unattended the entire
time and nobody went near it.

## Harry's tips

- **Insist on your change.** Politely, repeatedly, and don't accept a bottle
  instead.
- **Nothing handed to you is free.** Say no before it's opened, because after
  it's opened you're negotiating.
- **Pay properly when someone says "whatever you like"** — but expect the crowd
  that follows.
- **Buy the football shirt.** £10 at the factory, and it's the fastest way into a
  conversation anywhere in the country.
- **Accept the tourist price on street food.** It's a pound.
- **Ask before filming women.**

## Source

- [Rawdogging the Scam Capital of the World 🇪🇬](/videos/eRS4cYl0e9s.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRS4cYl0e9s