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.

Cairo to Siwa-By Road

The distance from Cairo to Siwa is a total of around 750 kilometres. If you are driving to Siwa, the best route to take is Siwa to El Alamein to Marsa Matrouh to Siwa. The journey can be completed in 8-9 hours with a couple of short stops in between.

From Cairo, get onto the Alexandria Desert Road. Once you cross “Masters”, a popular stop for tourist buses, look out for a signboard showing the way to El Alamein. You will have to take a U-turn and then a right to get onto the road leading to El Alamein. It is also the road leading to Porto Marina. It is quite a straight road right upto the city of El Alamein. Here you will find signs directing you to Marsa Matrouh. Once you are onto the straight road to Marsa Matrouh, the drive is again easy till you hit a sign which shows the way to the Marsa Matrouh city, a little to the right. Do not be tempted to take this road, but go on straight. Before you reach the gates of the Marsa Matrouh city, there will be a sign directing you to Siwa-you will have to take a U-turn and then turn right.

Right till you hit Siwa town, the road is fairly straight and will pose no problems.

A couple of points to be remembered that will make the trip easier.

§ Fill up on petrol before leaving Marsa Matrouh. There is no gas station on the road from Marsa to Siwa.

§ A few kilometers onto the Marsa-Siwa road, some construction work is going on and there is a stretch of ungravelled road for about 10 km. So, it is slow going.

§ Once you are onto the road to Marsa Matrouh, there is a place that you could use to break for a quick bite. You cant miss it –on the right side of the road you will see the KFC hoarding . Pizza Hut, KFC, Costa Coffee are all here, plus a couple of restaurants that are about to open. The toilet at the Pizza Hut is clean enough.

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.

Ramadan and Iftars

This is my first Ramadan in Egypt and such a different experience from the Ramadan in Saudi Arabia. Majority of the Egyptians fast during this holy month- no food or water from sunrise to sunset. However, most of the cafes and restaurants are open during the day for the expatriates and the non Muslims. This is in sharp contrast to Saudi Arabia where eating or drinking in public places during the holy month of Ramadan is a punishable offence. Some of the other gulf countries like Dubai and Bahrain too are fairly strict in their observance of “no eating and drinking in public places” rule. Egypt, with its bustling tourism industry is much more “open” in this regard.

The offices work on curtailed hours like that in the any other Muslim country; and the expat non-muslim management in some companies also observes the fast during the office hours to show solidarity with their Egyptian workforce.

Cairo’s roads are the most unsafe at the best of times and an hour before the Iftar is probably even more dangerous and nerve racking with traffic at its peak coupled with reckless driving as the people are trying to reach their destinations to break their fast. During Iftar and for an hour after that, Cairo roads are blessedly empty and it is the best time to go out and get your grocery shopping done as I discovered a couple of days back when I went to Metro; no crowds at the shop and no long queues at the checkout counters. However, this is not possible in Saudi Arabia as all establishments close before Iftar and open only after the Iftar and the Maghrib prayers

Of course, the one thing that is universally common during Ramadan, whether it be Saudi Arabia, the gulf countries or Egypt is the difficulty to get any work done- whether at office or at home. For example, my landlady had been trying to get hold of a plumber to take care of a leaking toilet in our house and she told us how difficult it is to get anyone to come out and work during Ramadan. And when she finally managed to send over a plumber, he has done a stop-gap kind of repair that will tide us through the remaining days of Ramadan with a promise to come and complete the remaining work- but only after the end of Ramadan and EID.

There is a lot more that needs to be taken care of in our house but even we have now adopted the refrain-“After EID”!

Parking in Cairo

When we received my mom at the airport, her first remark on being escorted to our car was “has your car been banged up? Why are there so many dents and scratches on your car?” And we had to explain to her how difficult it would be to find a “scratch-free” car in Cairo due to the peculiarities of “road etiquette” here. She was convinced about this that same night, when we were returning home from dinner. Our chauffeur turned the car into a lane and then immediately braked and started backing out-the reason being that another car was coming in from the other end and there was space for only one car to pass through!. No, he had not entered into a “one-way” lane. It had been converted into a “one-way” lane due to the cars that were parked on both sides of the lane. And while observing these parked cars, my mom realized that indeed there was not a car to be found that did not have chipped paint, a bent fender, or scratched body.

Here in Cairo, double parking is the norm and not the exception. And don’t be surprised if you find the cars “triple” parked too, leaving only a single lane for the moving cars, on what was probably a three- lane road! What happens to the poor guy who has parked on the kerb, when he wants to move out his car? Not to worry-Cairo and Cairenes have a solution for that too! A person who double parks or triple parks, just leaves his car in “neutral”-so when his / her car is blocking another car, it is just “nudged” backwards or forwards (as the case may be), out of the way and then “nudged” back into its spot! So convenient! No need to waste time searching for a parking spot and everyone is happy! But not the best for the car necessarily! Because all this “nudging’ and “pushing” is bound to leave a scratch on the car.

The Cairenes have a special fascination for their cars and will not scrap an old car even if they don’t use it anymore. They would rather just cover up the car and let it occupy precious space on the streets (and thereby multiply the parking problem!) than let it go. I don’t know the reason for this- maybe it is some kind of status symbol to have many cars, even if some are ready to be scrapped! Also, such cars, if used, can only be a menace on the roads and also contribute to the pollution.

The high-rises, apartments and office blocks are made with little or no provision for parking, compounding the problem. I can only imagine the residents of such high-rises or the people working there, circling the block, striving to find a place to park their car.

I am not driving in Cairo but my husband does on occasions and he has this interesting experience to share. The lane leading to his office is narrow to begin with; the cars parked on both sides making it even narrower-so that even if yours is the only car in that lane, it requires some skillful driving to get through without “kissing” the cars on either side. So what hubby does is –when he reaches that lane, he stops for a moment, ascertains that there is no other car in that lane (actually he makes sure that there is not even a remote possibility of another car coming in from the other end :-))and then quickly drives down the lane and breathes easy only when he has reached the other end. Reversing the car in such close confines would be quite a task!

In fact, the parking problem in Cairo is so acute that some people ingeniously make a living out of it. Near major shopping areas, offices and restaurants, don’t be surprised if as you slow down looking for a parking spot, a man materializes and offers to guide you into a parking space and look over your car till you return in exchange for a “tip”.

Street Savvy in Cairo

I chose to walk to my Arabic class today-I have been in Cairo for close to three months now and have not really walked anywhere- walking to and fro from the car to my destination does not count. Having made the momentous decision, I observed the road from my apartment (yes, my apartment overlooks the busy Gameat al-Dowal al-Arabiya street) and decided the spot from where I would cross the road-a number of people were using this spot to cross to the other side; and also it looked to be the shortest distance to the other end.

So, on my maiden walk on the streets of Cairo, I stood at this spot, hoping for a break in the traffic or for the approaching cars to slow down and allow me to go through. When neither of these things happened and I was still waiting, at the end of five minutes I decided to “go” for it- took a deep breath, tightened the shoulder strap of my bag (thank God, I had worn sensible walking shoes that day!) and dived into the oncoming traffic. For a second, I just froze, I thought that I would be mowed down under a car; but then my “Mumbai training” took over and I forged ahead confidently, without hesitating or looking back and lo! and behold! I was “home”. I told myself I had done this before on the streets of Mumbai and I could do it again!

Though I had made it safely to the other side, my woes had not yet ended; I found it difficult to walk on the side of the road with the cars whizzing to within an inch of me –so I thought I would get onto the pavement-is it not the safe and sensible thing to do? Pavements are meant for pedestrian traffic after all! But not in Cairo –I found it impossible to get onto the pavement; the cars were parked so close to each other and so close to the kerb that I could not find enough space to squeeze through and I did not want to go through the embarrassing situation of having to wriggle my way through two cars-What if I got stuck? And even if I did manage to find my way through the maze of cars and to the pavement, getting off would again be a problem….the cars are parked on the keb, then “double parked” and even “triple parked”!

Walking to the class was an education on "street etiquette" in Cairo. I finally made it to the class-hurray! I am now “Cairo street savvy”