The Best Places for the Water Pipe (hookah) in Cairo

If you have been in Cairo, and not smoked shisha, your experience in the capital city of Egypt is incomplete. Shisha is an intrinsic part of the Cairene culture. Also known as hubbly-bubbly, this traditional smoking device, is said to have originated in India and is also known as the 'hookah' in the Indian sub-continent.

set of water pipes

In Egypt, smoking shisha is intricately woven into the social and the cultural fabric. Politics, sports, domestic and economic woes, are all discussed, over puffs of the water pipe. Shisha joints are ubiquituous in Cairo and each of them provides a different shisha experience. Try these out!

Go for the ambience!

Al-Fishawi

One such cafe that I absolutely adore is the Al-Fishawi Cafe in Khan-el-Khalili. The Egypian Nobel Laureate for Literature Naguib Mahfouz spent time here writing. It is easy to imagine how inpsirational the cafe may have been for him. His books and characters all seem to come alive, when you spend time smoking the shisha here. Sanwiched in a narrow alley at the Khan, its walls are decorated with huge mirrors; giving the place a bigger look. For tables, there are the typical copper tops and the tea is still served in dainty ceramic tea-pots. Of course, the tea pots are chipped and the furniture creaky, but that is part of the charm. Great place for people watching while puffing away at the pipe.

Go for the flavours!

Sequoia

If you are the kind who is serious about the flavours of shisha, then Sequoia in Zamalek is the place to go to. Apart from the fact that the place has a Nile view that can takeyour breath away, you are definitely going to love the shisha flavours here like the Moroccon apple etc.  The waiter will present to you a wooden tray carrying samples of all the flavours-you can pick smell and decide the one you want. Be warned that Sequoia is not going to be easy on your wallet.

Pottery Cafe

The place, also in Zamalek has some of the most aromatic shisha flavours. I have had a very strange combination here-Lemon with Red Bull. But it is a noisy place and the wait for a table may be long. It is easier to get a table indoors, though it can get very smoky.

Arabesque

Some would call it as the best shisha place in town. I would agree with them. Why? Firstly, because  of the exotic shisha flavours that it has. Secondly, for its juice menu-it serves juices that are fresh and delicious and in such exciting combination of flavours. Thirdly, its location on the Kasr Al Aini street, which can get noisy but is a place where you can rub shouders with the old and the young, the hip and trendy, the locals and the foreigners.  

Go for the drinks, the food...and the shisha

Nile Zamalek Hotel
The rooftop of the hotel, overlooking the River Nile offers the perfect opportunity to enjoy a drink with your shisha. It can be chilly in evenings on the rooftop and the combination of a drink with shisha is sure to give you warmth.

Taboula
Located in Garden City, this place has excellent Lebanese food to complement the shisha. So also, the place serves wine, which can make the an outing to this resturant a complete shisha experience.

Go for the baladi experience!

Any of the ahwas on Bursa (stock echange) street will do well for this. Cairo's stock exchange is located here and the area has been cordoned off and made into a pedestrrian only zone. A place to enjoy your shisha without the constant honking and screeching noises.

Orchids in Egypt

When you think orchids, you think Holland. But a lone man grows orchids in Egypt and claims that they are even better in quality than those found in holland. He is a neurosurgeon by profession and took on growing orchids as a hobby.

For more information, check out my story in Community Times magazine.

The Sun Sets Over the City

These days, have been visiting some long overdue places on my list in Cairo. A friend of mine who is as interested as me in discovering the hidden gems of Cairo, is leaving the country for a while. So, we are trying to see as many places as possible before she leaves.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to this place on Moquattam Hill , where it is possible to see the whole city spread out before you. the best time to go is a little before sunset. It is a beautiful sight to see the sun set, darkness set in and the lights in the city come on.

As is the case with most places in Cairo, there is no dearth of enterprising people who will sell tea and drinks to visitors as they enjoy the view.

To get there, once you are on the SALAH SALEM road, you need to follow it till you get to the turn off for going to Moquattam or the St Simon church in Moquattam. Keep following the road, you will pass a Tata Motors showroom (Indians will be more familiar with this name). And then there will be a turn off on your right to get into the moquattam city. Once you take that, then take the right and again keep following it till you come upon a number of cars that have been parked and a red rope is cordoning off the steep fall.

View From the Roof

Yes, Finally made it to the roof top of the Nile Zamalek Hotel! And am so glad! The view of the Nile is breathtaking and unbroken.

The weather these days is just perfect to spend time with a sheesha and tea, looking over the Nile and contemplating life. The place ahs salads, drinks and a few meat and chicken dishes on the menu.

But the real attraction is that one can order food from the neighbouring Blue Elephant restuarant and they will deliver it to your table on the rooftop. The place does some delicious Thai dishes and my excitement about the place is primarily because it has a number of vegetarian options and it can serve the vegetarian version of almost any dish on its menu. The place was formerly known as Sabai Sabai.

I got a great idea while sitting -it would be a great place to throw a party-the setting and the food are good. The 2 ingredients for a successful party!

How to get there? Take the left onto the Brazil street from the 26th July street. Keep going straight till the street curves on to another street (cant remember the name now) and on your right, at the corner, there is the Nile Zamalek Hotel. The entrance is from the side facing away from the road.

Dont get discouraged by the disheleved nature of the looby or the construciton work going on on the floor where you get off to climb the stairs to the rooftop. It will be worth the climb!

Baksheesh, please

According to a survey conducted by Expedia, an online travel company, Indians ranked as the "second worst tourists" in the world. One of the reasons for this dismal ranking is the fact that they got average scores on their "generosity" or to put it simply due to their lower propensity to tip. However, one year of stay in Cairo, Egypt can change this forever. As I have discovered!

During the initial months of my stay in Cairo, I had this in-built inertia against tipping-why should I pay for a service that I did not ask for and did not want? Why should I tip a person who is just doing his job? But soon the “tipping culture” gets to you and you start understanding the nuances.

My first brush with tipping was when on landing at the Cairo international airport, I visited the washroom and came face to face with a lady holding a toilet roll in her hand and handing me a swathe of tissue. I thought to myself-what a great way to ensure that there is no wastage of tissue and to encourage conservation!!. And then I saw the other ladies who had used the washroom tip the woman. The woman then looked expectantly at me-since I had only large denomination notes with me, I mumbled a thanks and left the washroom.

"Baksheesh", as tips are known in Cairo is a way of life here. At the supermarket, the person who puts the groceries inside bags, then insists on carrying it out to your car needs to be tipped. The person who opens your car door for you-whether you want such kind of service or not has long ceased to have any relevance-is not being chivalrous

While going out for dinner, the "baksheeshing "begins when you are parking your car. A man will suddenly materialize and insist on guiding you on how to turn your wheels to park your car-it is a different matter that he may never have driven a car in his life! Of course, you need to tip him. The person who guides you to your table expects a tip. You need to leave a tip on the bill amount, even if they have already added service charge. When you are walking towards your car, suddenly a man darts in front of you and takes a swipe at your windshield with a cloth-his idea of cleaning it. Your windshield is, of course, absolutely clean and you did not ask for it but you need to give him baksheesh. Decide to fill up on gas? Keep a pound ready to tip the guy who is filling up your tank-never mind that he is just doing his job

Of course, all this baksheesh business can sometimes get very uncomfortable. Like the time we ate at the Egyptian Pancake House in the Khan. Our cheque had just been brought to the table when one of the waiters came over and asked if we had liked our food. What care and courtesy! We assured him that we had enjoyed the food but he kept waiting while we sorted out the money for the cheque. We then realized that he was hanging around to ensure that we left a baksheesh.

At other times, it can get unpleasant too. While leaving from a pub, we handed LE 5 to the person “in charge” of the parking on that street. He took the money and then demanded LE 20! He held onto the car window and let go of it only after we firmly refused to pay anymore. On another occasion, outside the Boulaq market, our driver handed over LE 1 to the man who had helped him find parking. But the man got into an argument and demanded more money saying that the place where our car had been parked was his!!! (when did the authorities of Cairo hand over this tract of land to him?). Finally, the matter was settled at LE 7. Whew!

Sometimes, it is plain funny. The liftman who took us up the Cairo tower, kept telling us “welcome” and repeated again and again that he loved India and of course, loved Amitabh Bachchan. He completely ignored the other Egyptians in the lift and we were quite amused to being singled out for attention. We, of course, had to give him baksheesh! Another time, when I had gone to see off my friend traveling to Paris, we entered the wrong terminal. We were looking around trying to determine the correct terminal when a man in overalls (probably the maintenance staff at the airport) approached us. On hearing that we were there for the Air France flight, he pointed to the adjacent terminal and insisted on leading us there. My first thought was that people are so helpful and polite here...but I soon realised the folly of these thoughts. Even after we had thanked him, the man kept standing around and then it dawned on me that he was expecting a tip!

Soon you learn to judge situations. In some cases, the amount that a person gets through baksheesh are his only earnings, thus justifying tipping. Sometimes, the employers deliberately underpay the employees, hoping that they will make up in tips. This moves you to give baksheesh. Of course, in certain cases, culture overrides the necessity angle and compels you to tip. Therefore, it is important to use your judgment. Good service and need of the person should win over coercion.

P.S. Don’t leave your house without your mobile, house keys, wallet etc. In Cairo, they add…Don’t leave your house without sufficient change!

NO PARKING!

I had yet to see a “No Parking” sign in Cairo. Cars parked on both sides of a narrow street, cars parked on the pavements, cars double parked or at times even “triple parked” are a common sight here. I thought that the city of Cairo had never heard of “no-parking” areas. So, the incident that took place last week took me by surprise.

I was visiting the Al-Kotob bookstore on the El Lasilky road in New Maadi. Once I had alighted from the car in front of the bookstore, my driver kept waiting there on the curb, thinking that I would be back soon. Soon a traffic policeman approached him and asked for his license. He said that he was sorry and would go away but the police insisted on “seeing” his license. When my driver took it out to show him, the policeman just took it from his hand and walked away. My driver approached him with LE 10 in his hand to get back the license but the policeman just shook his head and said “No… don’t make me angry”, implying that he was not happy with the tenner that my driver was offering. The policeman quoted LE 30 for giving back the license. After much haggling and bargaining, the matter was settled at LE 25. The money would be split between the three traffic policemen on duty at that place! Nothing to go the government’s coffers!


This is a nice way to extract money from the unsuspecting souls-the no parking signs on the Lasilky road are put up so unobtrusively so as not to be visible at all, thereby luring cars to be parked there. Two sign are put up in front of a building housing a bank, giving the impression that the no parking regulation is specific to that building; and another is put up between trees, so as to be almost invisible!

According the new traffic law passed by the Egyptian government in August of this year, parking in no-parking zones is punishable with your license being revoked for a period of not less than 30 days. For more on the new traffic rukes, check out this link. The new stringent traffic rules may not have resulted in better traffic discipline and more money in the government’s coffers but has definitely increased the earnings of the traffic police. According to my driver, before the new traffic law came into force, the matter would have easily settled at LE 10 but the stiff fines and the prison sentences under the new law has also seen an upswing in the money extorted by the traffic police.

Names for streets and bridges

26th of July, 6th of October, 15th of May….these are just not dates but names of important streets in Cairo. When I first arrived in Cairo and saw these dates as names for the bridges and streets, I found it a bit strange. But these are no ordinary dates-they occupy a special significance in Egypt’s history.

26th July is the name of the bridge connecting Mohandissen to Zamalek-an arterial road in many ways and always extremely crowded. This bridge has been named for that day in the year 1952 when the extremely unpopular King Farouk abdicated and left the Egyptian shores. Thus Egypt was once again ruled by egyptians for the first time since the Persians invaded Egypt. The 26th of July bridge culminates into the 26th of July street in Zamalek, home to a host of restaurants and shops.

The 6th of October bridge and 6th of October city are named for that date in the year 1973, when Egypt launched a surprise attack on Israel and succeeded in breaking through the Bar Lev Line, across the Suez Canal. Since that year, this day has been celebrated in Egypt. In the year 1981, the then President of Egypt Anwar Sadat was assassinated during the annual 6th October victory parade in Cairo. It is also a national holiday.

The Tenth of Ramadan city is located some 55 km from Cairo. The name comes from the fact that the date 6th of October in the year 1973 corresponded to the 10th day of the Muslim festival of Ramadan-and hence the name.

Am not sure about the significance of the date 15th of May. In the year 1948, this date marked the commencement of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the first in a series of wars fought between the two parties.

In India, most of the streets are named after famous historical figures. Naming streets and bridges for important historical dates is something unique that I have come across in Cairo.

Cairo-the city that never sleeps

Cairo is truly a city that never sleeps. As I discovered on my way to the airport some days back.

I left house at 2.00 a.m to catch my flight to Mumbai and the entire city was alive. The Gamat-el-Dwal street was busy as ever. In addition to the cars, there were Victorian style horse buggies also vying for space. People were enjoying a night out lounging in the buggies and surveying Cairo form their elevated position. And of course, the coffee shops and the sweet corners were open but even restaurants like KFC and Hardees were still open and brimming to capacity.

And it was not just the arterial roads that were alive but also the small lanes and by-lanes were busy. At this time of the night, in any other city you would probably find very few cars-it would either be people like me who are traveling or some really sad and dreary souls. The streets would be deserted and the shops closed. But Cairo was bustling with life and the surprising thing is that it was a week night. In fact, close to the airport, for a couple of minutes, it was really slow going because there was a lot of traffic. Is it the warm summer evenings that are drawing people out or maybe the fact that the schools are closed?

This is in sharp contrast to what I recently witnessed in some other cities like Cape Town in South Africa and Windoek in Namibia, where once the sun sets, the streets soon empty out and it is not even safe to walk around. And Mumbai, the crowded metropolis would also be busy slumbering at this hour.

I like this bustling city even though my sleep is disturbed due to the incessant honking on the Gamat-el-Dwal street which even my sound-proof windows cannot keep out! And the late nights do not deter the Cairenes from being up early and going about their business as usual!

SMART PARKING IN DOWNTOWN, CAIRO

An antidote to the parking problems in Cairo as I discovered on my last vist to downtown. While we were parked near the Groppi café, a man wearing the SAYDO company overalls approached us and explained how the parking cards issued by SAYDO worked. You buy a plastic “smart” card for LE 27 –this gives you a credit of LE 22 and LE 5 is towards insurance and sales tax. With this card, you can park your car in the downtown area (i.e the area in and around the Tahrir Square and the Talaat Harb square), in the Saydo designated zones. When you arrive, you punch in your card in the parking metres installed by SAYDO-this will activate the road spikes. Your car is now parked between the kerb and the spikes-so when you want to leave, you just punch in your card again-see the amount that you have been charged for the duration of your parking, the spikes come down and you drive away!. Differential rates are charged depending on the time of parking-the highest rates applicable between 7.00 a.m and 4.00 p.m.

Men wearing overalls with the Saydo logo are on hand to help you with the parking. Once you have exhausted the limit on your parking card, you can either return the card and get back the LE 5 that you had paid as deposit or buy a new card for LE 22.

The drawback as I see it is that you are charged for the entire hour even if you are parked for only 10 minutes! And on a bad day, despite having the smart card, you maybe cruising around for a parking spot because all the designated spaces are full.

GREETINGS FROM CAIRO

You just can’t get down straight to business in Cairo: whatever be the situation-whether its an official setting or you are just asking for directions. This is how your conversation will most likely progress-first, you will obviously greet the person (that’s fine…we were all brought up to be polite and civil, though in Cairo, the greetings can stretch out a bit too long!), then inquire about his/ her health and the health of the family members, next assure them that everything is fine with you and the world (whew!) and only then slowly ease into the “real purpose”. By the end of it, you can’t be blamed for having forgotten what is it you really wanted to talk about.

In the beginning, this laid-back attitude of the Cairenes is very difficult to fathom. Having lived in Bombay the whole of my life (except for the past 3 years), where everyone is always on the go and there is absolutely no time to be wasted on small talk, it takes some time getting used to. I am still fascinated by the way two Cairenes greet each other- their greetings will be so effusive and so drawn out, as if they have met after a long, long time and they are twins who were seperated at the “kumbh mela”. In reality, they could be meeting every day. Even if it is two strangers meeting for the first time (and probably the only time!), they can soon be engaged in a deep conversation and with so much of camaraderie that it may seem they have known each other for years. It can definitely be frustrating at times, but there is something reassuring about it too-as if everything is right with the world, there is no problem and no stress.

One incident in particular, made me really appreciate this attitude of the Cairenes. If you know anything about the traffic in Cairo, you know that it is really bad, getting a parking space near your destination near impossible, and if you are lucky enough to find it, then maneuvering your car into the tiny space is definitely a superhuman achievement. But it is also only in Cairo that a person would break away from a deep conversation that he is engaged in with another man, come over and patiently guide you into the parking space (without being asked to) and walk away without expecting a thanks!. And one evening, when we were late for an appointment, my husband and I were lucky enough to come across such a Cairne. Have you had a similar experience?