Middle East - Anthony Ham [174]
The official speed limit outside Cairo is 90km/h and 100km/h on major motorways. If you are caught speeding, your driving licence will be confiscated and you will have to pick it up (and pay a fine) at the nearest traffic police station several days later. Roads throughout the country have checkpoints, so make sure you have all of your documents with you, including your passport.
Several car-hire agencies have offices around Egypt, particularly around touristy resorts like Sharm el-Sheikh or Hurghada. The following are all found in Cairo.
Avis (www.avisegypt.com) Airport ( 02-2265 4249); Nile Hilton (Map; 02-2579 2400; Corniche el-Nil, Downtown)
Budget (www.budget.com) Airport Terminal 2 02-2265 2395)
Europcar (www.europcar.co.eg) Airport Terminal 1 & 2 ( 02-2267 2439); Heliopolis Sheraton ( 02-2267 1815; 6M, 1226 Sq, behind Florida Mall)
Hertz (www.hertzegypt.com) Airport Terminal 2 ( 02-2265 2430); Ramses Hilton (Map; 02-2575 8914; Corniche el-Nil, Downtown)
Their rates match international charges and finding a cheap deal with local dealers is virtually impossible. You are much better off organising cheap car hire via the web before you arrive in Egypt.
As a rough guide, rates are around US$50 a day for a small Toyota (100km included, US$0.25 per kilometre after this) to US$90 a day for a Cherokee 4WD (US$0.40 for the extra kilometres). Note that this doesn’t include taxes.
Local Transport
Travelling by servees (service taxis) is one of the fastest ways to get from city to city. Service taxis are either microbuses or big Peugeot 504 cars that run intercity routes. Drivers congregate near bus and train stations and tout for passengers by shouting their destination. When the car’s full, it’s off. A driver won’t leave before his car is full unless you and/or the other passengers pay for all of the seats.
Train
Although trains travel along more than 5000km of track to almost every major city and town in Egypt, the system is badly in need of modernisation (it’s a relic of the British occupation) and most services are grimy and battered and a poor second option to the deluxe buses. The exceptions are some of the trains to Alexandria and the comfy tourist and sleeping trains down to Luxor and Aswan – on these routes the train actually is the preferred option rather than the bus. For more info, you can try the government’s irregularly working website www.egyptrail.gov.eg.
Students with an ISIC card can get discounts of about 33% on all fares except the sleeping-car services.
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Iraq
* * *
WARNING
CLIMATE
HISTORY
THE CULTURE
RELIGION
ENVIRONMENT
BAGHDAD
HISTORY
ORIENTATION
SIGHTS
SLEEPING & EATING
SOUTHERN IRAQ
BABYLON
KARBALA
NAJAF
UR
BASRA
NORTHERN IRAQ
KIRKUK
MOSUL
IRAQI KURDISTAN
ZAKHO
DOHUK
LALISH
AMADIYA
SULAV
BARZAN
AKRE
GALI ALI BEG & THE HAMILTON ROAD
SHAQLAWA
ERBIL
AROUND ERBIL
DUKAN
SULAYMANIYAH
AHMADAWA
HALABJA
IRAQ DIRECTORY
ACCOMMODATION
BUSINESS HOURS
DANGERS & ANNOYANCES
ELECTRICITY
EMBASSIES & CONSULATES
GAY & LESBIAN TRAVELLERS
HOLIDAYS
INTERNET ACCESS
INTERNET RESOURCES
LANGUAGE
MONEY
POST
TELEPHONE
TOILETS
WOMEN TRAVELLERS
VISAS
TRANSPORT IN IRAQ
GETTING THERE & AWAY
GETTING AROUND
* * *
Torn between its glorious past as the cradle of civilisation and the turmoil of its recent bloody history, Iraq is a country of contradictions. It is the birthplace of writing, thus beginning the recorded history of the human race. It is the legendary home of the Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel, Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Epic of Gilgamesh. But it is also a place of death and unimaginable violence.
Ancient Iraq was known as Mesopotamia, from the Greek meaning ‘land between two rivers’. It was here that humans first began to cultivate their land in the fertile valleys between the mighty Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The Sumerians, the world’s first great civilisation, invented written communication and the wheel, and refined agriculture,