Siwa Oasis - Part 1 : Transportation

This is the first in a beautiful series of articles written by my friend Gabi Philips who has spent an extended period of time in Siwa.

How to Get there

Siwa is 306 kms from Marsa Matrouh to the Southwest. It is about 800 kms from Cairo, 600 kms from Alexandria.

It is connected by bus only to Marsa Matrouh and Alexandria, the bus leaves to Alexandria only once a day (as far as I remember about 10 pm from Siwa). From and to Marsa Matrouh the bus leaves 4 times a day at 7 & 10 am and 1 & 4 pm, the bus from and to Marsa Matrouh costs 12 LE, if you missed the bus there are microbuses all the day to and from Marsa Maatrouh (for 13 LE)

If you're going by car then I guess it is an easy way :)

Last time I was coming back from Siwa I was with someone who used to pass the way from Marouh to Siwa in the 70s, he was talking about how the gazelles / Ibex used to jump around.

Personally, I took the bus from Cairo to Marsa Matrouh at 12 midnight (50 LE) reached Matrouh about 6 am, couldn't wait for 7 am, so I took a microbus, arrived at Siwa 10:30 am (still had the full day to enjoy).

I got a crazy idea that a visit to Siwa could be on a weekend, leaving Thursday night, arriving at Siwa Friday morning, leaving Siwa to Marsa Matrouh Saturday night (about 8 pm) so as to reach Cairo early enough on Sunday :) maybe I'll try it one day.

Internal transportation:
1- Hire a bicycle: it is for 2 LE/hour or 10 LE/day. You can hire one and do most of the visits in one day.

2- Donkey cart: written on it Siwa taxi, you can use it for short distance, long distance and even make a deal for the complete tour.

3- Hire a truck: for the long distances like the temples in the West, the water springs in the East and West. Price depends on both distance and time. The prices I got are 50-70 LE to Abo-Shrouf depending on time. 20 LE to the nearby hot spring in the East. 35 LE to Taghaghein island. 40LE to the temples at Maraki. Those prices are for one hour and increases by 20LE in case of more time (he didn't tell me for each extra hour).
You can find such trucks downtown, I have one phone number 0129750865 his name is Soliman.

Gabi



Pictures and more descriptions can be viewed here

I have an earlier article on traveling from Cairo to Siwa that you can read here.

Weather in Egypt

Regarding the weather, It is hot and dry in the summers and cold and dry in the winters.

A lot of people assume it doesn’t get cold here, but it does.
Heat can go upto 48C. Peak summer is July August.
Cold can go down to 4C. Peak winter is Jan-Feb

This is in Cairo. If you are visiting the desert/Luxor/Aswan the temperatures will be hotter and colder than the limits for Cairo.

Air conditioning and heaters make it manageable but there is no central heating or air conditioning. So please bring appropriate clothes.

MBC4 - Noor ?

All my regular programs that I used to watch on MBC4 (One of the few free to air English channels in Egypt) seem to be replaced with an Arabic daily soap - NOOR!!!

Why oh why can't they just stick to English programs on MBC4?

They have a range of channels for Arabic programming. The MBC series MBC4 (English serials) MBC2 (English Movies) and MBC Action (Action based serial and movies) are the only free to air English channels in Egypt other than Dubai One.

I just watch an hour or so of TV in the evening if I get the time and to have all my regular programming Ghost Whisperer/Medium/So you think you can dance on primetime 9pm-10pm replaced with a soap and an Arabic one at that, and daily, is no fun at all :(

:'''' (

Fuel Prices to rise ?

Saw this article on the Reuters site.

Essentially the article states "A booklet distributed by a parliamentary committee dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) said the price of 90 octane fuel would rise 35 percent to 1.75 Egyptian pounds ($0.33) a litre. The parliament is in session to debate the proposal"

If the cost of fuel does indeed rise, it will mean increase in costs of everything else and will accelerate inflation.

As of now, I'm adopting a wait and watch policy.

Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif in Cairo this month?

Found this article in the DNA 2 months ago, by the calculations mentioned(and knowing Indian film industries time estimations), Akshay and Katrina should be in Egypt this month to shoot for Singh is King. Does anyone have any information?

A lot of my Egyptian friends are huge fans of Akshay Kumar and his action sequences and I'm sure they would appreciate the chance to see him in person. Personally, I never liked him too much in his action roles, but I have to grudgingly admit, I do respect his comic timing in his latest few movies with Paresh Rawal and others.

I'd be more interested to know if Kirron Kher would be accompanying the group. I'm a huge fan of both her and her husband, Anupam.

Akshay to romance Katrina amidst pyramids
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 11:14 IST

MUMBAI: Akshay Kumar is hell bent on covering the seven wonders of the world. Currently, he is preparing to shoot action scenes on the Great Wall of China and next month he plans a stint in Egypt amid the pyramids.

This time, it's for a song with Katrina Kaif in "Singh Is King".

"We'll be shooting the introductory song of the lead pair. This will be where Akshay first meets Katrina. The film is complete after this," Vipul Shah, who teamed up with Aneez Bazmi for the movie, said.

The last time a romantic song was shot amid the blow-dried pyramids of Egypt, it featured Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in Karan Johar's "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham".

"Not surprising that Akshay wants the song to be canned in Egypt. He wants to better Shah Rukh Khan's success score with Kajol. Most trade pundits see Akshay and Katrina as the next most-successful couple after Shah Rukh-Kajol," the director said.

After "Namastey London" and "Welcome", Akshay really feels Katrina is his lucky mascot.

"But we aren't shooting in all the normal places in Egypt. We want to capture parts of the country other than the predictable pyramids," Bazmi said.

Late Night Visits - ONLY in Cairo!

My door bell rang at 11:40pm. thats 23:40 hours.

The laundry boy had already brought my ironed clothes at 10:45pm - he normally turns up anytime between 10:00pm and 11:30pm - so I was wondering who it was. Being Egypt, I knew it wasn't an emergency (they would have rung the bell 5-10 times in quick succession if it was) so I thought it was probably someone who needed me to turn the key in the elevator or something like that.

Turns out it was my electricity guy with the bill for the last month. At 11:45pm!

Only in Egypt!
1. Will the electricity man hand deliver your monthly bill at your door step.
2. Will the electricity man also collect the payment for the bill.
3. Will the electricity man land in your house at odd hours of the night.
4. Will your electricity bill range from 40Le to 300LE for almost similar levels of usage of electricity.

Gotta love this place!

Wessaya, Cairo

Wessaya
Multiple Locations
Cairo
11am - 2am

Wessaya is a local fast food joint with a subway sandwich kind of menu. Take a look at the menu here

Their bread is soft and moist when eaten fresh. But because of the toasting it may harden if kept for too long.

The spicy sandwiches are truly spicy and suit my Indian palate, so for me thats a good thing. Go for the regular options if your spice tolerance is low.

Read the Rest of My Review

Whazzup Egypt blog - considered worthy of study at AUC :)

I found an extraordinarily high number of hits to my Whazzup Egypt blog from a particular site called wetpaint

On further investigation, I figured out that my Whazzup Egypt blog was one of the blogs the students of the LALT 101 course at AUC had the option to review and evaluate.

If any of the students of this course read this post, I would appreciate it if you could share your findings with me. Please, pretty please :)

Lovers too poor to wed catch breeze on Nile bridges

Most visitors to Cairo would have definitely noticed those couple hand in hand with their backs to the traffic gazing into each others eyes or out onto the Nile.

Will Rasmussen of Reuters has written an article delving into this phenomenon.

CAIRO (Reuters) - For a prime spot on Qasr el-Nil bridge, spanning the River Nile near the heart of central Cairo, it's best to arrive well before sunset.

On warm spring nights, the bridge is the place to be for courting couples in the capital of the most populous Arab country, where poverty, crowds and a conservative culture leave few other meeting places.

"We know how to be in love in a place like this," says Ibrahim, 19, a student and part-time DJ in Cairo. "We come for the breeze, the view, and to be far from the pollution," he said, resting on the bridge's iron railing with his fiancee, Marwa, an 18-year-old technology student.

The high cost of getting married -- from gold jewellery for the bride to the ceremony itself and a place to live -- and the poverty of many residents of Cairo, means engagements can last years.

On Thursday nights on the eve of the Muslim weekend, couples line the bridge, each pair a few meters apart. They face outward to enjoy the view and avoid being seen by relatives. . . . . . .

Read the Entire Article here

Brownies, Alexandria

Brownies,
Green Plaza,
Alexandria

10Le (tax included) gets you a lovely brownie with a scoop of ice cream and tons of chocolate sauce.

When I reheated the stuff today, the brownie was quite good, good texture but not nutty enough. The fudge melted amazingly well on reheating and regained its consistency once it was poured over the ice cream and brownie. The ice cream was a disaster, that was to be expected since it had obviously melted on the 4 hour ride from Alexandria to Cairo and refreezing it wasn't a good idea. Fortunately I had a tub of vanilla ice cream in the freezer which I used for the brownie. It did taste pretty good.

Not as good as the Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae at Hard Rock Cafe, but pretty good competition.

Read my entire review here