The ride to Saqqara was excellent, the stable owner gave us fast horses and new saddles and sent us without a guide, along the canal the scenes of daily life soak back in, a lot of easy going greetings and children shouting, Baksheesh! Same old story.
-Letter Home, February 26, 1979
The same old story in the country side was much preferable to Cairo’s. Nothing easy going about that place. Even the horses wanted out. Having big Khawajas on their backs would have felt like heaven compared to pulling heavy loads amid the car exhaust and blaring horns. No Baksheesh for them stuck in traffic between Bab al-Louk and Bab Zuweila.