Cairo [Egypt]
Top Few Things To Do In Cairo
I visited the revolving restaurant at Cairo tower where I purchased the express tickets up the tower to the restaurant. It is a perfect place for a date or a couple dinner. It was not the food that got my attention but instead it was how Cairo transformed from a plain and mundane city into a city of light at night. It is recommended to make the restaurant bookings in advance and to head over before the sunsets. It was amazing how the city transformed into such a colourful and a city of life at night.
One of the few stops that you should head to would be the Egyptian museum where there are tons of artefacts (I did not count the amount, else I will still be in the museum a year later). There are optional tour guides upon the moment you step across the gantry. The guides are strictly optional, I was travelling alone and did not feel that the guide was required and I am not some history addict where I wanted to know every detail (there are signboards in english inside with brief history summary). Else, if you really do need one after you step in, you can either:
A) find a group that has a tour guide that is explaining in English and "tag" along (I know, typical Singaporean, but no denials).
B) Walk out of the building back to the front gate and get a tour guide.
C) Www.google.com/Find the exit.
3) Left Bank(Closed)
Left Bank is the perfect place for brunch if you are staying in Zamalek area (I was staying in Novotel Cairo El Borg). The food at left bank left a really good impression on me, however, if you are a non smoker travelling to Egypt, you might want to try getting used to the smell of smoke. Left bank was a classic example where there was an indoor and outdoor area. Yes smoking is definitely allowed in the alfresco area. However, even half of the indoor area allowed smoking as well (Nope there isn't a door separation, it was an open indoor area with an invisible line drawn for smoking and non smoking tables).
If you are travelling to Cairo and you have enough time to travel out a little, please do take time off to visit the great pyramid of Giza (Unless you are made of ice and melt under the sun, then you might want to skip this). The great pyramid of Giza is one of the 7 wonders of the world. The part which I found fascinating was the structure of the pyramid. How on earth did people carry such huge boulders to form the pyramid in the olden days without machines and technology? The Pyramid of Giza is a must go pyramid even though there are other pyramids in Egypt and around the area which I too visited but none left an impression as great as the great pyramid of Giza.
Travelling in Cairo
I would consider myself as a solo traveller who has traveled to a fair amount of countries. However, till today (22nd June 2019) Egypt remains on the top of the list as one of the most difficult countries to travel alone.
Ease while travelling: When people think of Egypt, they would mostly associate it with danger. However, it is not as bad as what everyone thinks, it is not what you see on the news. It was actually pretty safe in my opinion, one thing that made things better was the tourists police where you can almost see them at every turn of the street. They too have private hire car service which they call Careem in the middle east instead of what we know as Grab in Southeast Asia.
Difficulties faced: Even though mentioned previously that they have car hailing services, there was a huge problem which I faced. Their carplates uses Arabic numbers which I have no clue on how to read it. What I did? Remember the games such as match the shapes and spot the difference in the picture which we played when we were young? This was the perfect time to show off how good you were with those games with moving cars (the app shows the color and brand of the car which helped A LOT). Secondly, the crossings of road, I have been to Vietnam and Thailand but I have never wondered so much on how to cross a road without traffic light. There is an Egyptian joke which says "Just pray, close your eyes and cross". I am pretty glad I did not follow the saying else I doubt I will be typing this now. Ok, it is not all that bad, once you get the hang of it, all will be fine. Just a side note saying that their size of the road is pretty much the size of the 3 lane road in Singapore? But you will see it fitting 5 lanes of cars. I can confidently say that if I were to wind down my window, I can hi-5 the driver in the car beside me without extending my arm fully. One last thing to look out for during your trip, you will stick out like a sore thumb and everyone will know you are a tourist (I'm Asian), their stares are not of hostility but more of curiosity. Since you are being so outstanding, there will be "Nice" locals trying to help you cross the road and they will start talking to you, they will claim that they have different occupations but in-fact they are salespeople in disguise. These "Nice" people are usually located at the road across the market, so remember to take every occupation they so state to have with a pinch of salt.