Where should I live in Egypt /Cairo?

I think this is the question I get asked the most by newcomers to this country, often before they even arrive.

Quick Orientation :

Cairo is the capital & the business centre.
Alexandria is a lovely Mediterranean sea side town 3 hours drive away from Cairo but has its own international airport too.
Port Said & Port Suez are along the Suez Canal. A lot of people who work in the shipping industry are posted in these towns.
Sharm el Sheikh & Hurghada are the party towns on the Red Sea Coast.
Luxor, Aswan are in Upper Egypt and are the ancient pharaonic towns.

These are the main cities that expats live in.

I'm not qualified to elaborate on all the cities. Cairo is the only city I have enough knowledge about to share information on places to stay. So here goes...

Where to live in Cairo :
Big rule of thumb : STAY AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO AREA OF WORK OR STUDY !

Traffic in Cairo means that it can take ages to reach from point A to point B. It's better to live as close as possible to your office or college/university so you can save a ton of time on traveling and use that time more productively.

If you are an Expat with kids then your child's school is another major consideration to keep in mind. Which school ? How long will it take my child to travel from home to school ? Is there a school bus facility ? Is there a convenient pick-up location ?
In a toss up between your own/spouses office location & child's school location, you need to take a call for yourself and your family that will best suit your needs.

If you are a student, then you may also like to stay in walking distance to a Metro station. The Metro service in Cairo is efficient & extremely beneficial to anyone who doesn't have their own means of transportation in this city or who doesn't want to drive here. :)

Areas to live in :

Maadi : The choice of a majority of expats. Close to many international schools. Maadi is a lot greener than a lot of other areas in Cairo. Plenty of organisations catering specifically to or of interest to expats like Community Service Association (CSA), Cairo Rugby Club, Studio 206, Ace Club Maadi : Association of Cairo Expatriates, Cairo Hash House Harriers, Cairo Petroleum Wives, Maadi Womens Guild, Serafis among others.

There are bungalows (stand alone houses) 2/3 floored buildings as well as a couple of highrises around roads 200 & 201.

Rents are higher in this part of town. But its worth it for the benefits of the greenery and community living.

Zamalek : An Island on the Nile in the centre of the city. Its the location of choice for embassy employees (a lot of embassies are located in this area) and AUC students. The AUC hostels are also located in this area.

The constructions are older here but not necessarily in bad condition. The apartments are really huge and spacious with high ceilings and wooden floors.

Garden City : Similar to Zamalek. Rent rates would be slightly lower than Zamalek. Its just across the river towards Maadi.

Mohandaseen : The business part of town. Started as a residential area for engineers is the story I have heard. Its an extremely busy part of town.

Dokki : A residential area between Mohandaseen and downtown.

Most of the restaurants and clubs are clustered around these areas of town.

There are other areas of town that are cool to live in to. These include downtown Cairo, Heliopolis, Nasr City, 6th of October city and El Rehab City.

Excepting downtown (which is logically in the centre of the city) the others are on the outskirts of the city and it takes some time to reach the city centre from these locations. But they are better planned with more greenery, parking spaces and less traffic.

Nasr City is also home to City Stars the largest mall in Cairo. A shopaholics delight with tons of stores, restaurants, food courts and cinema halls. Read more at http://www.citystars.com.eg/

This is just a quick primer on some residential areas in Cairo. Rates will depend on size of apartment/house and location. For eg within Garden city itself similar apartments may rent for different rates based on quality of construction, amount the owner has spent on doing up the place etc.

So find yourself a good "semsar" - real estate agent - and happy hunting.

(I may write a post later on estate agents, so stay tuned)

Edited on 18 April 09 to add:
Egypt Today did a wonderful series on this topic a while ago, that I though could add to this post.

Dokki
Downtown
Garden City
Heliopolis
Maadi
Mohandaseen
Nasr City
New Cairo
Zamalek
Suburban Joy: covers Cairo-Alex Desert Road, Sixth of October City, El Shorouk City, New Cairo and the Maadi Circular.

The magazine had articles on Shorouq, Kattameya, 6th of October City, Al-Solaimaneyah also. I can't find the links for them online though.

Shout out to Indians in Egypt

Hi,

I've been receiving tons of requests for help and information about life & living in Egypt. There are a lot of groups around that can help you with that, but there wasn't a particular group focussing on Indians & their special (read spicy) needs.

I've created a group called desisinEgypt on yahoogroups. To sign up please send a blank mail to desisinEgypt-subscribe[at]yahoogroups[dot]com. You can subscribe even if you aren't Indian, but do be warned that the discussions will have a strong Indian slant.

Membership is moderated on that group because of the nature of the group and subscribers have to fill up a small questionnaire before their membership is approved.

You are allowed to ask all kinds of questions and feel free to reply to peoples questions. We will keep the discussions civil & polite.

Dubai firm launches Muslim image bank

Dubai firm launches Muslim image bank
by Lynne Roberts on Wednesday, 29 August 2007

Muslim Heritage Consulting has launched the world’s first Muslim history image library online.

The library, at www.MuslimHeritageImages.com includes manuscripts from the 10th Century as well as contemporary images of people, architecture and museum artefacts.

Collections telling the story of Muslim civilisation have been brought together from museums, archives and private collections across the world.

Many images recreate pivotal moments in history such as pioneering early surgical work carried out in the Middle East centuries before similar treatments were available in Europe.

Samia Khan, spokesperson for Muslim Heritage Images said with interest in the Muslim world growing, it was important to have a definitive and reliable source of images.

'One of the biggest challenges for museums, publishers and production companies has been trying to relate these stories from the past using imagery which is extremely difficult to find. Muslim Heritage Images has brought together thousands of images of manuscripts, and photos of Muslim culture, history and people and made it accessible using a simple online format,' she said.

A note of caution : I visited www.MuslimHeritageImages.com While the pictures are beautiful, they are all copyrighted. Only the minor thumbnails are clear, slight enlargement shows pictures with large watermarks which take away the beauty of the picture. I guess this is a site for commercial distribution of the images.

I am not against copyrighting, but it can be done tastefully like those at http://www.worldpressphoto.org (Refer my previous article : CIC World Press Photo 2007 Awards Exhibition) so that surfers who would just like to enjoy the beauty of the pictures can do so without any hindrance. But if you try to copy the image by any means, it disallows that and a polite message requesting you not to copy the picture pops up.

Description de l'Egypte

The Description de l'Egypte is now available online in digital format.

The Description de l'Egypte was the outcome of 150 prominent scholars and scientists who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 with 2000 artists and technicians.

Twenty volumes of text and picture plates depicting aspects of contemporary and ancient Egypt civilisation went down in history as the most comprehensive record of Egypt's land and monuments.

In the first project of its kind, they have been fully digitized and integrated on a virtual browser for the world to view at http://descegy.bibalex.org/

"The Description of Egypt" was typical of European attempts to understand and unravel the mystery of the orient in anticipation of occupying its lands and draining its wealth. "The Description of Egypt" comprises materials that belong more to science than to letters. It is composed of 12 large-size volumes of maps, lists and drawings, and 24 volumes of texts. It is noteworthy that the birth of "Egyptology" owes much to "The Description of Egypt" and was complemented by Champollion's eventual translation of the Rosetta Stone.

Read more about the Description de l'Egypte at Tour Egypt.

CIC World Press Photo 2007 Awards Exhibition

Contemporary Image Collective (CiC) in collaboration with the World Press Photo Foundation and with the patronage of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Cairo has brought the World Press Photo 2007 Awards Exhibition to Cairo.

It has been taking place for three weeks at the El-Sawy Culture Wheel, open to the public starting 10 August 2007 from 9am to 8 pm.

The traveling exhibition is shown each year at about 90 venues in 40 countries all over the world, and is considered the most prestigious news photography display. As an historical document, the exhibition contains the world’s main events of 2006. The 2007 edition of the World Press Photo exhibit brings almost 200 prizewinning images, results of a worldwide press photography annual contest, with the submission of 78,083 images from 4,460 professional photographers in 124 countries.

The pictures are amazing. We quite enjoyed a walk across all the pictures. The tags are very descriptive, so you don't have to rack your brains trying to figure out what has been captured in the picture. The Nature (Animal world) section was my favourite.The Sports pictures have also captured motion brilliantly. The Pictures of the war are truly horrifying to anyone with a tender heart.

My only wish is if they could have arranged the pictures by grouping the same category in sequential order instead of scattering them all around. It would have made it easier to compare and contrast styles & techniques.

If you don't have the time to actually visit the exhibition, the pictures can also be viewed online at http://www.worldpressphoto.org

But I highly recommend visiting el Sawy to see the photos.

Sound and Light Show Timings at Pyramids

Here are the timings for the Sound & Light Show at the Pyramids of Giza.




Tickets are sold starting about 45 minutes before the first show.

The charge for the Non-Arabic shows is 75LE last time I checked.

Egypt wants a bite of Indian BPO mkt

From The Economic Times

CAIRO: Egypt has set its sights on grabbing a share of the multi-billion dollar Indian-dominated call centre market and is looking to an unexpected corner for a helping hand, India.

As it makes its pitch to the world, touting a multilingual workforce over India's English-speakers, a time zone shared with Europe and proximity to the US, Egypt is marketing its edge over India to India itself.

The government has sent a high-level delegation to India to convince the IT behemoth to sub-outsource its outsourcing to Egypt.

Several cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding were signed between the two countries, and Indian industry giants such as Wipro and Satyam have signed agreements to set up support centres in Egypt.

According to the Yankee Group, a US-based technology research and consulting firm in IT outsourcing, Egypt is 15 to 20 years behind India, which has boomed to dominate 60 per cent of the overall offshore market.

But the south Asian giant struggles to maintain an adequate supply of skilled workers, and handing some of the pie to Egypt could be mutually beneficial, Egypt says.

The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) was set up by the government of technocrat Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif in 2004 to guide Egypt's burgeoning IT industry and propel it onto the world stage.

The government hopes to entice major IT players to set up their call centres, accounting and payroll management, known as business process outsourcing (BPO), in Egypt, pumping resources into an industry it hopes will elevate the national economy.

"This sector will lead to a renaissance in Egypt," ITIDA CEO Mohamed Omran told media. So will Egypt become the new India? "Absolutely not," said Omran. "We cannot compete with India, we don't want to compete with India, we want to cooperate with India."

"It's what makes the most sense," said Mai Farouk, an independent IT analyst, currently researching Egypt's outsourcing industry.

"It would help the industry grow and elevate its standard," said Farouk, but she fears that the lack of a formal analysis of Egypt's IT experience so far could send the country down the wrong path.

"There has been no thorough analysis of the Egyptian experience," she told media. "In Egypt, if a type of business is successful, everyone jumps into it. It is an individual and business trend here.

"We need to study and learn from other's mistakes," she said. One problem facing India is the country's poorly planned roads making it difficult for staff to reach some of the outsourcing centres, something Egypt has picked up on.

Far from the clutter of Cairo, the government has allocated a vast expanse of desert to the highly marketed "Smart Village," a gated compound built with state of the art technological services.

The lush techno park already houses industry giants Microsoft, Vodafone, Ericsson and Alcatel among others. At the high-tech Vodafone Egypt offices, employees have already tasted some of that renaissance mentioned by Omran.

Staff have access to their own restaurant, cafe and gym. Sherif Bakir, head of retail at Vodafone Egypt, says the Smart Village has been very enticing for investors as well as new recruits.

"Young graduates in Egypt are attracted by so many factors in the IT industry: the prospects of a career, the salaries (which are four times that of an average starting salary) and the opportunity to work somewhere like Smart Village with all its benefits," he said.

"And in Egypt, being a call centre agent is not seen like being a telephone operator. It's not a dead end job, it's seen as a stepping stone to a career in the IT industry."

But critics say Egypt's outsourcing "boom" won't develop into more than a boutique industry, with the much-touted multilingual and skilled human resource pool amounting to a tiny percentage of Egypt's 76 million population.

A high level of illiteracy, dire poverty and a very large rural population mean that most won't touch the benefits of a booming IT industry.

Omran, of ITIDA, says the figures speak for themselves. "A tiny percentage of a huge population is a lot of people," he said. "We're talking millions. And IT is like blood, it gets into the veins of all industries and sectors."

He is eager to showcase his agency's pride and joy: Xceed, one of the largest contact centres in North Africa and the IT arm of the government-owned Telecom Egypt.

At the 16,000-square-metre (170,000-square-foot) space equipped with "cutting edge fault tolerant IT infrastructure," 1,200 agents offer customer and technical support to General Motors, Microsoft and Oracle among others, in eight languages including English, French, German and Hebrew.

According to Xceed, in 2005, nearly 70 percent of total outsourced Egyptian workstations were supporting local customers. "However, by 2010 this will be nearly completely reversed with 65 percent of Egyptian outsourced workstations servicing foreign end-users."

The ministry of communication and information technology is trying to attract foreign companies with a special focus on call centres, by offering five to 10 year tax exemptions, branding Egypt as a safe oasis in a troubled region.

Lake Nasser's Wildlife - Picture Gallery on BBC

Should have put this up earlier, but was keeping the pictures to myself :)

A friend of mine "Mohamed El Hebeishy" has had his pictures published on the BBC site. Mohamed's name may be familiar to you, from the travel articles he writes for many magazines and Newspapers in Egypt and his accompanying photos. Check out

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6906660.stm

All photographs by Mohamed El Hebeishy

Papads & Pickles

Good news for Indians in Cairo (& Lovers of Indian Food)!

Patak's pickles have been available in Carre Four for over a month now and the stock seems to be getting renewed (Its not the same old dusty bottles sitting there)

Also unlike the Thai pastes from "Thai Chef" which are only available in their mildest form, Patak's pickles are available in Mild, Medium and Hot versions. I obviously picked the Hot versions & they are completely worth the 33 pounds they are currently charging. The Mango pickle is my favourite, then the mixed and then the lime. These are the 3 versions that are available as of now.

Her curry pastes are also available, but there the price doesn't make it worth the money for Indian cooks. I haven't tried those.

Sharwoods curry pastes & chutneys are also available at Carre Four and Alfa Market in Zamalek (I haven't checked other outlets yet) I've only tried the Bengal Mango Chutney. It was not hot enough for my taste. I haven't tried any of their other products. Based on my sampling I would say - "not as Authentic as Patak's"


There was another brand of Indian pastes at Alfa Market Cuoco or Kuoko or something like that. It did not smell robust enough, so I did not pick them up.

I did see Lijjat Papads at Alfa Market Not the spicy Punjabi Masala ones, but the slightly tamer pepper versions. But YES ! Papads are now available in Cairo too.

3 Tips for new arrivals in Cairo

This was compiled by a friend of mine who wanted to remain anonymous, but has given me permission to post this here on my blog. Thanks A.

Since some people are arriving in Cairo in the next few days, here are some tips about Visas, Duty Free, and Taxis!

VISAS:

If you haven't already gotten an Egyptian visa in advance at a consulate abroad, you will need to get one upon arrival at the airport. Here's how it goes... You will come to a hallway filled with about 5 or 6 little booths labeled with names like "Bank of Alexandria" "Banque du Caire" "Banque Misr" etc. You go to one of them and tell them you will buy a visa. You can go to any of the booths, and a visa costs the same for everyone, as far as I know... It costs 15 US DOLLARS. Be careful: once I saw a German guy pay 15 EUROS, so he got ripped off about 2 Euros because 1 US $ doesn't equal 1 EUR! You should pay in dollars, or insist that they convert your Euros or British sterling to 15 US Dollars and then use that money to buy a visa from them or any of the other booths.

Then after you've paid, they will give you two small stamps... in my passport I have a small orange one labeled LE 27.20 and a small blue-green one labeled 5 LE. (Strangely, when I bought another Egyptian visa at a consulate in Europe , my stamps were blue-green for 5 LE and green for 7.70 LE).

Then you will go to the border control guy, who will stamp your passport marking your arrival DATE. He’ll then stick on the two little paper stamps into your passport.

Kim's Note : Not all nationalities are eligible for Visa on arrival, so kindly check before you travel !

DUTY FREE ALCOHOL:

There is a rule that when you arrive in Egypt, you can buy alcohol at Duty Free shops for two days, but afterwards you can’t. So, if you arrive on 25 Jan, you can go to the store on 25 Jan, 26 Jan, and 27 Jan, but NOT on 28 Jan.

At the Duty Free stores you can buy imported alcohol for cheaper rates than you will find elsewhere in Egypt . The wines vary in prices from about 4 USD to 20 USD. You must pay in foreign currency, such as Dollars or with a Credit Card.

Many of the wines are ONLY available in the Duty Free stores, where they have wines from all over the world. So if you are arriving and you want to drink something better than the Egyptian-produced wine (middling quality and costs 25-50 LE!), you should be sure to buy your duty free allowance. It also makes a great gift for dinner parties.

I know you can buy chocolate and things like that at the Duty Free, but you can also buy imported chocolate at grocery stores such as Metro. I’m not sure which one is cheaper.

There is a LIMIT to the number of bottles you can buy. If you buy the bottles AT THE AIRPORT when you arrive, then you can buy FOUR bottles of alcohol. I’m not sure where the Duty Free shop at the airport is… you should ask someone. I think it’s before Customs but I’m not sure. I heard the shop at Terminal 3 (the new one) is the biggest.

If you buy bottles AFTER you leave the airport, your limit is just THREE bottles. Here are the other Duty Free Shops that I know of:

1. First floor of the Doqqi Sheraton Hotel (This is close to downtown.)

2. Mohandassin: Gam’at al-Dawal Al-‘Arabiya. At the south-eastern end of the street, near where it intersects Sharia Al-Sudan. Just tell the cab driver “Nasyet Share3 es-Sudan wi Gam3at ed-dawal el-3arabiyya.” The fare from Downtown to there is about 6 LE depending on traffic. Precisely, the duty free store is on the intersection of Gam’at ad-Dawal Al-‘Arabiya and Sharia Zamzam but the cab driver probably won’t know that small street.

3. Nasr City (Madinet Nasr): in the City Stars Mall.

Kim's Note : If you fly in on Egypt Air, then I too haven't noticed a Duty Free Shop in that Terminal. But if you come in on any other airline, the Duty Free shop is in the Visitors area as you walk out of immigration at the extreme Right.
I haven't compared the rates on Chocolates either.

GETTING FROM AIRPORT TO DOWNTOWN:

There are two ways to get to downtown from the airport: public bus and Cab. The bus doesn’t run late at night (like from midnight till 5 AM ). The bus is big and white and relatively clean. I caught it by walking away from the terminal to the small bus-stop on the other end of the parking lot. I paid something like 2 LE for the ticket plus 1 LE for my bag. Don’t let them put your bag in the storage area under the bus - it's oily and very dirty.

The cab touts can be annoying but I found that if I just agreed to about 40 or 45 LE then they say yes and it’s ok. Tell them that you are paying this price INCLUDING the parking ticket which costs 5 LE. They will probably try to stick you with the price of the parking ticket anyway. If they do, then that’s fine… paying 45 LE or 50 LE is the normal foreigner price. You could probably negotiate to something lower like 30 or 35 if you speak good Arabic, but I have found that the cab drivers just argue too much to make it worth it.

If you are taking a cab downtown, just try sharing with another foreigner coming in on your flight; you can split the fare in two then, and each will pay about 25 LE.

ONCE YOU GET HERE:

If you want a map, head to the AUC bookstore and get the “Cairo Maps – The Practical Guide.” Just bring your passport, which you will need to leave at the gate to enter university grounds.

Kim's Note : Maps are available at other bookstores too. Check Bookshops in Cairo for a list of English books stores.
You need to leave some kind of photo id at the AUC gate. Photocopies aren't valid. It could be a drivers licence (issued by your home country) or a photo credit card too. You take a call on what photo id you would rather leave with the security. I've visited numerous times and the guards are very polite and helpful and safe to leave stuff with them (from my personal experience so far)