Day 131:

I dig that there are Korean restaurants all over the developing world. I dig also that the only people we find dining at them are Korean people. Well, Korean people and former ESL teachers turned wayward backpackers.

I like to visit the Korean restaurants, rocking up in my dirty boots and ripped t-shirt. I like to eat my bibmbap in the style of Mr. Kim, the head of the parent's association at my old, twice a week, country school assignment in Suncheon. Mr. Kim was also a scruffy guy... HE was straight off the farm. Now at my city school post, the parents association was made up of 50 soccer-mom types, but in the country we had Mr. Kim. Indeed, he was a scruffy guy, but we were happy to have him - most of the kids at the country school didn't even HAVE parents, living instead with grandparents and aunts and uncles.

At the cafeteria lunch table, Mr. Kim's eating style was... well... it was all about the spoon. No chopsticks for Mr. Kim. Maybe you won't understand this if you haven't eaten at a Korean school cafeteria... but, yeah, Mr. Kim was rural and awesome. That's all you need to know.

I find that my Mr. Kim impersonation, performed at Korean restaurants in a half dozen countries so far leaves fellow diners mystified and confused.

I ate at the Hana Korea restaurant in Cairo this afternoon. Pretty decent... great rice. The K-restaurants in Delhi all used Indian rice. Yuck.

Spent today walking the streets, both in the claustrophobic and frantic downtown and in the upper-crust neighbourhood of Zamaluk. Mostly I was just looking for a Lonely Planet guide to Europe. After visiting four bookshops I gave up and went for lunch (see above). I saw a few nice buildings, including a big ol' cathedral, and a few nice gardens. From a busy bridge, I stared out at the mighty Nile river.