Middle East - Anthony Ham [166]
Banks Open 8.30am to 1.30pm Sunday to Thursday. Many banks in Cairo and other cities open again from 5pm or 6pm for two or three hours, largely for foreign-exchange transactions. Some also open on Friday and Saturday for the same purpose. Exchange booths are open as late as 8pm.
Government offices Open 8am to 2pm Sunday to Thursday. Tourist offices are generally open longer.
Post offices Generally open from 8.30am to 2pm Saturday to Thursday.
Private offices Open 10am to 2pm and 4pm to 9pm, except Friday and holidays.
Restaurants Open between noon and midnight daily. Cafés tend to open earlier and close a bit later, usually operating from 7am to midnight.
Shops Open 9am to 1pm and 5pm to 10pm Jun-Sep, 10am to 6pm Oct-May. Most large shops tend to close on Sunday and holidays.
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CHILDREN
Though Egyptians are extraordinarily welcoming to children, Egypt’s budget and midrange hotels rarely have child-friendly facilities (the five-star chains do). Towns and cities don’t have easily accessible public gardens with playground equipment, or shopping malls with amusement centres. Fortunately, there are other things kids find cool: felucca and camel rides, exploring the interiors of pyramids and snorkelling on Sinai reefs are only a few. Restaurants everywhere are very welcoming to families.
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PRACTICALITIES
Egyptian Gazette (50pt) is Egypt’s flimsy and embarrassingly bad English-language daily newspaper. Al-Ahram Weekly (www.ahram.org.eg/weekly; E£1) appears every Thursday and does a much better job of keeping English-speaking readers informed of what’s going on. Egypt Today (E£15) is an ad-saturated general-interest glossy with good listings.
You can pick up the BBC World Service (www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice) on various frequencies, including AM 1323 in Alexandria, the Europe short-wave schedule in Cairo and the Middle East short-wave schedule in Upper Egypt. In Cairo, FM95 broadcasts on 557kHz between 7am and midnight daily, including news in English at 7.30am, 2.30pm and 8pm. Nile FM (104.2kHz) is an English-language music station broadcasting out of Cairo.
Satellite dishes are common in Egypt, and international English-language news services such as CNN and BBC World can be accessed in hotel rooms throughout the country.
Electrical current is 220V AC, 50Hz in most parts of the country. Exceptions are Alexandria, and Heliopolis and Ma’adi in Cairo, which have currents of 110V AC, 50Hz. Wall sockets are the round, two-pin European type.
Egypt uses the metric system for weights and measures.
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Formula is readily available in pharmacies, and supermarkets stock disposable nappies. High chairs are sometimes available in restaurants. Baby-sitting facilities are usually available in top-end hotels only.
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COURSES
If you’re serious about learning Arabic, the best option is to sign up at the Arabic Language Institute (Map; 02-797 5055; www.aucegypt.edu; 113 Sharia Qasr al-Ainy, Downtown, Cairo), a department of the American University in Cairo. It offers intensive instruction in both modern standard Arabic and Egyptian colloquial Arabic at elementary, intermediate and advanced levels in semester courses (US$8532) running over five months. The institute also runs intensive summer programs (US$4128).
A less expensive option is studying at the International Language Institute (ILI; Map; 02-346 3087; www.arabicegypt.com; 4 Sharia Mahmoud Azmy, Sahafayeen, Cairo). This place has courses in modern standard Arabic and Egyptian colloquial Arabic over eight levels. Prices start at US$250 for 32 to 48 hours’ tuition over four weeks.
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DANGERS & ANNOYANCES
With the exception of over-zealous touts and the odd scam (Click here) in the major tourist hotspots, Egypt is generally a safe place to travel around. Violent crime is rare, and most cities are safe to walk around at night, the exception being if you are an unaccompanied foreign