Baladaya! Baladaya!

One of the more entertaining sights in Cairo, and free of charge if you can believe it, is walking down Talaat Harb street when the Baladaya (government police) make a surprise appearance.

Talaat Harb is perhaps the busiest street in downtown, full of street vendors, cars, and crowds. What a lot of people don’t know is that these street vendors are illegally hawking goods to whoever is willing to pay. Enter the Baladaya. They have the authority to come in and shut down anyone they happen to catch in the act of selling goods.

But the vendors have fought back by developing a system that can be likened to the domino effect. When word gets out that the baladaya is coming at one end of the street, shouts of “Baladaya! Baladaya!” can be heard cascading down a two-kilometre stretch. What “Baladaya!” really means is, “Pick up your shit and get indoors.”

It’s quite the sight. These vendors have lightning-quick reflexes and move like they just had a hot poker shoved you-know-where. Most have their livelihood on a single wooden table, so when the call comes, the table gets hoisted up on top of their heads and carried at full sprint to the nearest safe haven.