What's on in Cairo - Staying Informed

My Editor at the Oasis (CSA's monthly magazine) asked me to write this article as I run whazzupcairo@yahoogroups.com and whazzupcairo@googlegroups.com, 2 groups that inform its subscribers of events in Cairo well in advance, so you may book your tickets when they are still available.

The scan of the published article is here - on my blog of my published articles.

The article would be of interest to the readers of this blog & I post it here.

Stay Informed

Having moved to Egypt and settled into Daily Life, you would now like to explore the Cultural Scene in Cairo. But how do you know ‘What’ is taking place in town and ‘Where’?

Some English newspapers like Daily Star Egypt or Al Ahram Weekly give you a daily listing of events, but often by the time the paper arrives, it is too late to buy tickets to an event.

Your other option is the monthly magazines: Egypt Today, Community Times and the Croc. These magazines are a little more comprehensive than the daily newspaper and give you a little advance warning. You can subscribe to these magazines and newspapers by calling their offices or online.

A better option is to figure out which places you like to attend programs at and sign yourself up for their mailing list. Places like Makaan, el Genaina Theatre, Villa Grey, Institute Cervantes, Aliiance Francais, Diwan bookstore and others.

Places like the el Sawy Cultural Center bring out a monthly program in the last week of the preceding month in English, Arabic and French. You may need to visit their location to pick up the schedule.

The Opera House brings out its annual program at the beginning of the New Year in September. Since most acts are international, the programs are planned well in advance. You can buy the annual schedule at the Opera House in the evenings before a program starts. (It is not normally available at the Ticket Office)

www.yallabina.com does post movie listings and concert schedules, but they seem to have moved onto a more Middle East regional perspective, publicizing events in Dubai more than those in Cairo. Plus their information isn’t always 100% accurate as I found out the hard way, when trying to book tickets for the Disney Ice show which led me on a wild goose chase across Link Dot net offices. Friends have reported that the movie timings mentioned are mixed up pretty often. So the best way to use this site is, as a very general guideline and then call the location and verify details.

If you use Facebook, there are a number of online groups like Cairo Gigs and local bands whose groups you can join and then you will get a mail when they have a new concert planned in the city.

If you listen to 104.2 NileFM, you will get to hear of the major concerts and events happening in Cairo.

Expat Women’s clubs and The American Research Center in Egypt, have their own mailing lists and you automatically get sent mailers, once you are a paid up member.

Some special smaller scale events like the American Independence Day Party, the Green and Gold gala etc are advertised in the Oasis, so make sure you pick up your copy every month.

The www.livinginegypt.org site has an online calendar for CSA specific events with a feature that lets you automatically save an event in your Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express calendar.

A simple alternative to signing up for multiple lists is to subscribe to whazzupcairo on googlegroups or yahoogroups. It is a completely free service where you receive notifications on events occurring across the city straight into your mailbox. You can save the events you are interested in, in your online calendar. Signing up is simple. Just send a blank mail to whazzupcairo-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or whazzupcairo-subscribe@googlegroups.com and when you receive a mail to confirm that you requested the service, mail back with your approval. All you need is an email id.

If you find that the service brings too many emails into your inbox, you can switch to the digest version (25 emails together or one for all the emails in a day, whichever comes first) or no mail version, where you can continue to view the posts on the web.

If you check on even a few of these options, I am sure you will find a lot of events to fill up your time, especially your evenings and weekends.

Helpful Websites and Blogs:
http://egypttoday.com/
http://whazzupegypt.blogspot.com/
http://www.livinginegypt.org
http://www.ct-egypt.com/
http://lulusbay.blogspot.com/
http://www.culturewheel.com
http://www.thetownhousegallery.com/
http://dailystaregypt.com/
http://www.yallabina.com/
http://www.saharasafaris.org/
http://www.cairochronicles.com/jack
http://www.fugatesincairo.blogspot.com
http://miloflamingo.blogspot.com
http://oldbagofcairo.blogspot.com
http://egypt4.wordpress.com
http://www.living-in-egypt-manisha.blogspot.com

Karishma Pais (Kim) is an expat trailing wife in Cairo. She has a Masters Degree in Human Resources and Behavior. She consults on HR projects, delivers intercultural training at the CSA, counsels new and experienced expats, writes for several magazines – online and offline, she runs whazzupcairo@yahoogroups.com and whazzupcairo@googlegroups.com among other activities.
Her Social Commentary and blog about life in Egypt can be read at http://whazzupegypt.blogspot.com

1 month free for TE Data customers

A friend of mine on another group sent me this information. I had also read it in the Business Today, Egypt or the Business Monthly.
Kim

Just wanted to let everyone here who has TE Data (not sure about other companies, but you can always ask) if you were subscribed during the Internet cut in Jan/Feb., then you can call up TE Data's customer service at 19777 and they'll give you a free month. I just found this out since I needed to find something on their website, where it was advertised. It took about one minute for the customer service guy to add my extra month, so free is always good.

-Rose

Rose is correct that everyone who subscribed during that period will receive a free month (excluding any fee you pay for renting a router, etc.). In my experience, I didn't have to make a special call to receive the free month. When I called to schedule for bill collection, as I do every month, they informed me that the month would be free, other than my router rental and collection fees. Also, many of you may be happy to know, if you do not already, that TE Data has just reduced their rates. They also did this automatically and told me so when I called to schedule bill collection. The cost of my connection was reduced by about 25%, but I don't know if this is the same for all packages. Thank you to Rose for pointing out the free month.

Melinda

Basic primer for Indians coming to Egypt

A lot of indians who come to Egypt or plan to travel here : their first question is where do I buy Indian supplies?

I get a lot of my supplies from India or Dubai since my husband and me travel reasonably frequently.

The besan that is available in Cairo is not exactly the same that we get in India, but its manageable.

There's a guy called Nijamuddin in Khan el khalili who sells besan etc. His number is +20122639355 He also stocks some Indian masalas etc. He speaks hindi, so its easy to communicate with him. He will deliver home if its a large order. Otherwise he is on the el muizz street on the el Hussein mosque side.

We have an association for Indian women in Cairo that meets every month called Annapoorna. If u attend the meetings, then u can meet a lot of women who can help with a lot of information. Some of them have been here for over 20 years.

I also run a yahoogroup for Indians called desisinEgypt@yahoogroups.com

Its so that Indians can help each other out with information.

You can join by sending a blank mail to desisinEgypt-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Once you are a member, you can post any questions u have on the group.

Rough idea on tipping

What we have mostly heard is that the service charge does not go to the service staff.

If you go on any kind of guided trip in Egypt, you will keep hearing the phrase "In Egypt, tipping is a way of life"

10% at restaurants is standard.
For a private car and driver hired for the day 20-50LE
For a guide 30-50Le per day (if hired through a company and not being paid directly)
On a group tour in a bus 5/10 Le per person for a whole day trip to the bus driver.
1-2 LE for someone who carries your bags a short distance.

Some people do expect higher tips if you look very obviously foreign, but these rates are pretty standard.

Homeopathy in Cairo

I was looking for a Homeopathy dispensary and got varied answers from my friends.

1. I heard about this place recently and saw that they do homeopathic medicine. http://www.jamilina.com/ It's in Medinet Nasr, which I know its a bit far from you, but you could try calling them and they might know of somewhere nearer.

2. There is Dr. Magda El-Mahgary, based in Maadi, who does make homeopathic remedies.
From her you can buy homeopathic remedies, and she also has a list of all natural medicines available from Egyptian pharmacies.

3. The official homeopathy website for Egypt is http://www.h2rc2.com/
Mind that strictly speaking, homeopathy is illegal in Egypt as it is not yet accepted officially as a branch of medicine. But the local homeopathy society is in the making and alive and kicking in practice. They more or less regularly offer introductory and advanced courses

Kims Note: The actual practitioners are listed here http://www.h2rc2.com/pages/Qualifiedhomeopaths.html and here http://www.h2rc2.com/ESSH/page9/page9.html


4. This information may be out-of-date
Dr. Magda prepares the remedies herself and sells them together with all kinds of macrobiotic food in her own shop in Heliopolis.
One remedy costs 25 LE. She also offer one day classes for 300 LE/person about homoepathic treatment.
Her shop is called Medina an-nawara and is located in 30 Shibin street, off Iman Ali between Salah eh Din and Ismailaya Square.
The shop is open on Tuesdays from 11.30am until 3pm. Or you can call her secretary Miss Reda on 6441479

How to dial a number for Egypt

The Country code for Egypt is +20 (or 0020) if you are dialing from outside Egypt. Affix this before the rest of the Number.

How to dial the rest of the Number?

Jack puts it very well when he says:

There are 2 things to remember/realize

1. your mobile number is prefixed with a 2 digit "city code" or "area code" plus a "0" that indicates a "long distance" number

The ones I know of are 010, 012 and 016

If you are from the US, think of this as your area code.
If you are from elsewhere in the world, think of it as your city code.

Coming to dialing a landline number in Cairo from your mobile phone :

No matter what your mobile phone number is, if you are calling a land line, you need to tell it what city you are calling to.

So, the "city" code for Cairo is "2".
You need to dial ZERO first, to indicate a "long distance" or outside your "city", then the city code.

So to dial a landline in Cairo you dial

02

If you wanted to call a number in Alex, which has a city code of "3"
you would dial:

03

2. The 2nd thing to remember is that recently (6 months ago?) the government added a new number to the FRONT of land lines in the Cairo area.
Phones in some parts of the city , a 2 was added. In some parts, a 3.

So in Zamalek, Mohandaseen, Agouza, Dokki (and I think downtown) a phone number that used to be
735-1234
is now
2735-1234

So, if the number you have for the bus station (or anybody else in Cairo) has only 7 digits, you need to prefix it with either a "2" or a "3"

FURTHERMORE, if you are dialing from a mobile, you need to prefix the city code "02"

So to call the fictional number I mentioned earlier.

735-1234
you need to prefix the new 2
2735-1234

and then the city code.

So the full dialing instructions from an (Egyptian) mobile phone would be
02 2 735-1234



Basel adds :
Egypt International code: from USA or Canada 011 then 0020 from rest of the world 0020 except Bahrain (maybe they have changed it not sure) just one zero i.e., 020

Greater Cairo City (Cairo + Giza + Qalyoubeyyah) code 02 and Alexandria City code is 03 ... etc

Mobiles codes Vodafone 010 and 016, MobiNil 012, and Etisalat 011

It is a coincidence that Egypt international code is +20, i.e., zero at the end so a whole number in Cairo would be +20-2-87654321 by eliminating the zero before the city OR mobile code and adding the international code

0020
03
34567890

=

From abroad: +20-3-34567890 (from mobile or landline)
From Cairo: 03-34567890 (from mobile or landline)
From Alexandria: just the 8 numbers of the person u r calling, i.e., 34567890 (from landline)
From Alexandria: 03-34567890 (from mobile)

To call a mobile number:

From Cairo to Vodafone number: 010 or 016-7654321
From abroad: +20-10-7654321

Exception Exception exception exception exception
for the numbers of the "Smart Network" like 19519 Pizza Plus or 19991 McDonald or 16516 Cairo Yellow Cab (Taxi), you just dial the number no matter where you are in Egypt or what mobile operator you are using, just dial the five digits and you will be connected to the nearest office or branch.

HOWEVER, sometimes when you use your mobiles, and if the service is for Cairo only, you dial 02-19019 from your mobile.

Egypt Railways Timetables + Abela Sleeping Train

There is an extremely accurate site run by the Egyptian Railways with timings and classes and fares information for the Egyptian rail, train & Metro System.

It also has maps :)

&. its available in ENGLISH too!

http://www.egyptrail.gov.eg/docs/index.html


Although this site does cover the sleeping trains (Cairo-Luxor-Aswan), those trains as I understand are run by a different company called Abela.

You can access that site directly at

http://www.sleepingtrains.com/


Advice on the Sleeping train : The one from Cairo is good. Very comfortable. The journey back to Cairo from either Luxor or Aswan is not the best. The train tends to jerk quite badly and you feel you are being thrown off your bunk. This is not just personal experience but from
the experience of over 20 friends.

Otherwise its a great experience. Expats/ tourists need a copy of their passports and 60$ in cash per journey to book tickets at Ramses station. The train takes off and arrives at Giza station - note this is very different and far away from Ramses station.

There are little coupes for 2 with bunk beds. A sink in your coupe. 4 common loos for the bogey. You get served dinner and breakfast on the train. While booking you can request a vegetarian meal too. There is a club car which serves alcohol and parties the whole night. How rocking it will be depends on the crowd on board the train with you.

Review : Garden City Hotel and other budget places to stay at in Cairo

A lot of people have asked about The Garden City House Hotel in Cairo. Its recommended in a lot of guidebooks to Cairo as a budget location to stay in.

Here are some reviews of the place, by people across a couple of websites and information groups.

1. I have stayed in the Garden City House Hotel multiple times. It is a favorite place for archaeologists passing through Cairo on their way to sites. I think it is a favorite because of it's location -- close to the American Research Center in Egypt office (across the street) and the Egyptian Museum -- and because it traditionally was a good value. However, I have to say that I think 100 LE per night for a single room is over priced for what you get. The staff are nice and it's a very good location, but its nickname among people I know who've stayed there is the "Garden Shitty".

Sometimes you luck out and get a decent room, but sometimes you get one where the a/c or toilet isn't working (they'll repair it, but not necessarily the same day) and/or where the bed sags and the pillow is rock hard. Also, I don't think they've painted the walls in the building in a few decades -- the massive amount of dirt smudges is really unappealing. Don't get me wrong, I have many fond memories of my stays in this hotel, but that is partly because of the comedy that sometimes ensues from the state of the accommodations and the other people staying in the hotel with me.

That being said, I'm not sure you have much in the way of other budget options for that particular area of town. From what I've read, there are good budget places elsewhere, but none as close to the Egyptian Museum (if that is important to you). I'd suggest looking in the Lonely Planet guidebook if you want other budget suggestions. I've always stayed at the Garden Shitty because someone else was paying and choosing the place.

Another option, if you really want to be close to Tahrir Square and/or Garden City is the residence in the American Research Center in Egypt offices. I tend to think they are a little over priced too at 25 USD per night, but you get a lot more, especially if you'd like a place where you can make your own food. It's more like a shared apartment -- a few bedrooms, one bathroom, and one kitchen. But most of the time it is not full and you may be the only one staying in one of the rooms. The only catch is that you must be a member of ARCE to reserve a room, but this is not too expensive if you are a student. You can check them out at www.arce.org

2. Garden City House is basically a hostel, similar to other hostels around Tahrir such as Ismailiya House, and New Sun Hotel (over-priced for the rooms you get). This is convenient if you are working near Tahrir, Garden City, or even other areas such as Zamalek or Doqqi.

I've heard that a bit more expensive but nicer is Hotel Luna, Meramees Hotel, and Lialy Hostel, also near Tahrir. All of these are in the Lonely Planet Egypt.

My favorite hostel downtown is off of Midan Talat Harb. It's actually not in the Lonely Planet, but I found the rooms to be clean, prices cheaper than other places, and the manager to be fair. It's called Kings Palace, located at 3 Ibrahim El Qabbani which is about 2 minute from Talaat Harb Square. Tel #s are 23919374 or 23919689, fax 33920401, email kingspalacehotel@hotmail.com or kingspalacehotel@yahoo.com

Further from Tahrir, but still in downtown (on 169 Mohammed Farid street) is Pension Roma. This is in a classic downtown building, and rooms are in nice condition, with lots of wood decor. The beds are a bit uncomfortable, but the charm is high. Prices are about 45 for single, 75 for double, no bath. Higher prices for room with bathroom.

3. Zora : Garden City House: I've stayed there, and I found it to be dingy as described, but actually a lot more homey than some other, cleaner budget places. My bathroom was enormous and I had a full tub and a dedicated hot-water heater. I didn't use my a/c, so I'm not sure whether it worked or not.

I really appreciated the fact that the staff, while very nice and polite, did not want to get into my business at all--I could come and go as I pleased (I was staying there alone) and didn't get a single question. (More hostel-y places with younger staff can just be a daily battle with getting hit on.) The location in Garden City is nice too because you're not descended upon by touts the instant you step outside. The traffic noise is pretty severe, but I guess that's everywhere but Zamalek.

I also really, really liked Pension Roma. Equally homey feeling but much better kept, and very used to people staying for weeks at a time.

The only drawback is that there are no rooms with en-suite toilets (some have showers, though), so that can be a deal breaker for some people. Also no a/c, but super high ceilings. There's no online booking or email contact--just reserve by phone, but that's worth the effort (whoever answers will speak perfectly good English).

By the way, I wrote the Cairo chapter of the Lonely Planet Egypt that's coming out in May. I generally agreed with the recommendations in the previous edition (8th), but they tend to favor the chatty backpackers' places over the mellower places with less of a social scene (and Pension Roma does not rank high for this reason, I guess).

4. I stayed there for like 3 or 4 days when I first arrived in Egypt. It is a good location but you can DEFINITELY do better. It sucks. The showers are awful and the beds are the worst. Look into other hostels, they are all pretty much the same price. My friend stayed in the King Tut hostel and he said it was good. Don't stay at the Garden City- its awful.

5. Vivian : I agree with the previous post. The Garden City is simply dreadful especially arriving at 4am from Europe. ARCE has beds on site. But the Nile Zamalek Hotel is a great alternative and a 5LE taxi ride to Tahrir and ARCE.

Highly Recommended : Gourmet Egypt

I've ordered off the website of Gourmet Egypt a couple of times.

They are a company that originally stating importing high quality meat and sea food to supply to the top restaurants of Egypt. But somewhere down the line, they realised that even regular citizens and expats would like to be able to buy this high quality protein. Thus started Gourmet Egypt.

The beef and lamb are top quality from Australia. I've ordered their meat and seafood pretty often. Meat is clean and low on fat. The seafood is delivered cleaned. The boneless crab meat is my favourite.

They have some ready to eat pies. I haven't tried them yet. But there are some of them sitting in my freezer and I will update what I think about them when I get around to heating them.


The 1kg New Zealand mussels arrive about 40 in a pack on the half shell. They were supplying this much before the occasional box found its way into some of the Hypermarkets. (This needs a bit of cleaning, if you plan to serve them in the shell)

They offer a lot of Sushi quality fish and cleaned shrimps!



The working of the service is pretty simple and straightforward.

You order off their English website. There's a 5Le delivery charge. You can specify any time constraints you have for home delivery. I have normally received my deliveries the next day itself and always within the time window that I have specified.

They have just last week opened their on ground store in Maadi near the Carre Four mall. It would be worth checking out if you are going that way.

I still love the Home delivery service though.

The Airport Bus

This information too is gleaned from multiple sources.

Thanks to George, Sonja, Chad, Ian and Andy.

When you exit the arrivals terminal, just walk ahead for about 3-5 minutes or so and you'll run into a big parking lot with buses. You can ask the people around you and they should be able to direct you.

There are 2 buses:

1. 50 piastre bus, which tends to be old and very, very slow. I took this in late January when it was still cold. The doors never closed and it was an ice box for the 45 min trip back to Ramses station.

2. LE 2 bus--if you feel like it, you can splurge and treat yourself to this bus. It should also drop you off at Ramses or by the Egyptian Museum. The 2 LE bus is bus # 356. They are good buses. They are air conditioned.

To get to the airport, you should go to the area next to the Egyptian Museum, under the overpass with all the buses. The area is called Abdel Moneim Riad I've never done this, so you should check with others first...

When you exit the arrivals terminal, just walk ahead for about 3-5 minutes or so and you'll run into a big parking lot with buses. You can ask the people around you and they should be able to direct you.

Note that this is if you arrive in terminal 1 (the newest terminal, where most international passenger flights seem to come in). If you arrive in Terminal 2 (the old terminal), I read in the Lonely Planet that one bus picks up there (though I'm not sure exactly where) until midnight, and the other all night. The transfer bus from one terminal to the other is very well marked now! It seems to run all night, to boot (or at least until 2 or 3 am).

The easiest way that I've found to find bus stations or get help when at the airport or similarly touristy areas is the following: find a taxi driver (or anyone really) and indicate that 5 pounds is all you have to spend, and that you need to get to downtown. Taxis won't even take you from one terminal to the other for 5 pounds, so having already lost you as a potential customer, they will tell you where the bus is.

Also, if you want to take the bus from Abd el Moneam Riyad or Ramses, you may have to get off early (likely when a bunch of other people get off) at a central area where the transfer buses stop and hop on a transfer bus to the proper terminal. I asked the driver, and then asked him again when people hopped off - it worked out.

Added on 9 Oct 08: Check the Cairo airport website on http://www.cairo-airport.com/services_transportation.asp for more details.

CIB Womens Credit Card

Met with some representatives of CIB (Bank) who were marketing their Women's Special Credit Card.

One meeting was enough to show me how far the Egyptian Credit Card market has to grow. Credit Card acceptance is quite low in Egypt. Other than the top hotels & restaurants, the hypermarkets and airlines, there are very few outlets that accept payment via credit cards.

This is not a big problem, given that these are the only places where you spend in large amounts and don't want to be carrying all that, in cash.

But today's encounter with the CIB reps took the cake. As an expat wife, I obviously don't have a job in Egypt (expat resident wife visas don't permit you to work - with or without pay)

So the bank reps kindly informed me that to get a credit card with a credit limit of 10,000LE, I would have to pay them a deposit of 11,000LE. That's right - a deposit of 1000LE more than the "credit"they were willing to extend me! And I would still have to pay the bills at the end of the billing cycle.

They did advertise some discounts and some special invitations they would send out to cardholders.

But why would I want to tie up 11,000LE for the length of our stay in Egypt for probably credit card purchases of about 2000LE per month at a max.

Sorry maam, but the offer is of no interest to me at all!