Cairo Favorite Tips by TheLongTone

Fruity! Eating and Drinking Review

Favorite thing: Small juice bars are everywhere in Cairo and should not be missed. They offer a variety of juices, either freshly juiced to order or in the case of out-of season fruits, made up from a sirop. My favorite, and popular with Cairenes too, is 'nus bi nus' (half and half), a mixture of orange and carrot. Another drink often to be found is made from sugar cane...as you might expect it is sweeter than sweet.

There's a system in many of them: you pay one person who then gives you a token which to hand over to the man actually responsible for producing your juice. Prices will generally be on display: generally between 1 and 5 LE ,depending on the fruit.

The cautious should disregard all the rubbish you hear about Cairo water ('and even keep sure you keep your mouth shut when showering'.....puh-lease). Yes they use tapwater. No you won't catch anything from it. It's well chlorinated. Not very nice to drink on it's own but perfectly potable.

budgeting

Favorite thing: Favorite thing? Budgeting is a task?
What are your needs and expectations?
All amounts in Egyptian pounds (LE) unless stated. 2007/8 prices.

The necessities: food and drink.
Eating like an Egyptian with a proper income, you can lunch well for 10le or less. Drinks in most Cairo cafes are cheap: maybe 1 for tea (black) i.50 for a small black coffee & the juice bars the same: or not much more.

You can get by on very little, 10 will buy you a good lunch.

Taxis I avoid like the plague. How long is a piece of string. 5-10 for most trips within the main Cairo area.

And there's your events & entertainments. Museums are 10 LE upwards,

And being Egypt, there is baksheesh.

More important is the kind of money you want to carry and where you carry it. Accumulating enough small denominations so you have 1 le notes for small baksheesh and some fives/tens so you can give taxi drivers the money you want them to have as opposed to the money they want.

I'd go out with fifty, and could well get back to my hotel in the evening with change, having dined well.

Minarets, mihrabs, minibars &c: a glossary

Favorite thing: Lots of my tips are about mosques & so on, so for those unacquainted with the termshere are afew terms
Hypostyle: A general architectural term, not specific to islamic or mosque architedture. It means any structure in which a flat roof is held up by rows of supporting pillars.
Mihrab: the niche that indicates the direction to face for prayer. The ritual focus of a mosque, often very beautifully decorated..
Minaret: the tower from which the muezzin used to perform the call to prayer.
Minbar: the pulpit. found to right of the mihrab.
Quibla wall: the wall containing the mihrab indicating the direction in which mecca lies.