Am heading there mid week for visa purposes. Does anyone have any tips?

Used to live there - so no!

............................................
Probably too late now anyway......but of course I know the 'right' bars...and some of the wrong ones for boys only...unless you want to get labeled something undesirable.

Good to see you back

Not too late- my flight has been put back until next week due to work so any top tips will be welcome. Wouldn't mind taking in a bit of culture as well as the bars.

Surprisingly - I can do culture too! Going to have to think hard about this one...I was comatose for most of my years there! Workaholic teemed with partyaholic

Definites:
Egyptian Museum (a while ago it was under renovation)
Pyramids (try having a look at Saqqara and the Giza great pyramids just off the 'naughty' street)
The Citadel (used to have sufi shows there)
Khan el Khalili (bizarre - and a bazaar! stuff from all over, have a cup of tea in the tea rooms)
Get on a regular sea bus and go up the Nile - you can see the old embassies (virtual palaces) and get out, wander around, then get back on again
Hire a felucca - but basically private small long wooden boat, triangular sail, take onboard your own refreshments!
Coptic Cairo - churches, museums
Rubbish city (not for entering) - maybe someone can help me out with the name but this place is where the people who scour your rubbish live - a haven for drug dealers. Think it was by the bazaar? Up by the bazaar are old graveyards where people used to stash their hash as it was forbidden to consecrate a grave, many mausoleums are inhabited too which is interesting.

Beware of:
Taxi drivers - no meters and you will get ripped off (take microbuses/dolmuş - some can be extremely 'ornate' inside, deafening and dangerously fun!)
Pickpockets
The Nile - as with the Bosporus - don't go in - they talk of people getting dragged under by the Nile weeds, never to be seen again!!!
Belly dancers - they aren’t Egyptian my friend!

Food/drink:
This time of year along the Nile you get these mobile tin pots with a funny liquid in - it's called humus and is a hot spicy fabulous drink. Love it.
Don't know if it is the time for mango, sugar cane or whether that Ramadan drink from dates (?) will be around. These juice shops are everywhere.
Sharwarma - like a durum but better.
Egyptian pizza - is it called pide too? Filo pastry with lots of stuff ontop. Yum.
Pigeon - can't go to Cairo without sucking on a pigeon bone or ten. Yuk.
Fish - I fell in love with fish in Egypt. Much better ways of preparing than here. Great fish restaurant on Gamat el Dowl off Ahmed Orabi in Mohandiseen (Ibn something - fathership is in Alex). Can obviously give better directions if needed!

Um.............what else what else?

Bars? I used to (rarely) hang out Deals (foreigners in Zamalek - small but OK), (all the time in) La Bodega (Zamalek - çok popular), Morocco (Blue Nile boat), Bamboo and others I can't remember just now. You can take a bottle of spirits in, pay a corkage fee, then drink at your leisure over a few nights.

Um.........there are lots of fabulous places - some I can only describe but you prob won't make, like the hill overlooking the city where you can smoke sisha.

You will have a great time. Egyptians are as warm as Turks and always smiling. Just be on the lookout, remember you can shout if you feel you are getting ripped off and don't get stuck on a bridge if it rains!

Come on Egyptians on here!!! Where else is there?

Killer weeds uh? well they have the killer jelly fish swarming the Bosporus now.

BTW the bars I mentioned - the good % of customers will probably speak English, if you need a hand, but dress up a bit and be prepared to spend some pounds. Socialising as we know it is still a luxury. No club scene when I was there (only in Sharm and that was limited).

Thanks, Charly- that is fantastic (are you sure you do not work for time out?)

My mate suggested "the Pyramids, the Egyptian Museum, a felucca ride at sunset, smoking lots of shisha, and a trip to khan al khalili souq for all-in-one Christmas shopping". Your suggestions were altogether more informative.

As for the night life: limited indeed. My mate wrote this a while back:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1369691,00.html. Scroll down to the report by Hugh Miles entitled "diversions- caning it in Cairo". [hope this does not cause too much controversy]

Come on Egyptians- would love to hear fom you.

If you havent been to Egypt before, then here's some good advice that will also save you a small fortune....

If you have been, you'll already know.

Take a big bag full of sweets and pens. You'll get hoards of begging children - they're the ones to give to, but they love pens and sweets - money is just snatched from them!

Gilly, please stop advocating paed***illia on this site [Administrators disarm him]

On a serious note, thanks for the tip.

Yeah, I also think she would make a great travel writer.

Cheers,

Cem

Maybe pens are a better idea than sweets as all too often these kids end up with rotten teeth and no means to to visit a dentist. They dont have the luxury of toothpaste and I have seen first hand how big a problem this can cause. I know that we feel like we are doing something 'good' but it can end up doing 'more harm than good' in the long term. If you are feeling generous, for a few quid you could always buy some shoe shine and cloth for the children and help them earn a few a bob! Ive never been to Egypt, so I dont know if this would work for the kids there but I bought shoe cleaning stuff for kids in Thailand and one of them was still there 3 years later cleaning shoes in a small village that I had visited!!!

Very nice and thoughtful...bravo ! The world needs more generous and compassionate people like you.

By the way, it would be nice if there was an 'applaud' emoticon (I've come across it on another forum).

Cheers,

Cem

There is one =D>

So there we have it JC, no sweets! (good thinking Abi) So go and buy a tub of pens or crayons or shoe polish and some cloths. In fact why not get them started on a small business enterprise! Have you thought about maybe investing in some premises, basic machinery, raw materials....

nice one Gilly, will be giving away business plans!

Thanks for the tip, BB- I have seen some of the street kids in South America and it is a very good idea to give them something they can use productively. And Cem, (a) let's see about the clubbing option tomorrow night; and (b) let's have a game of chess sometime. Looking forward to meeting you both tomorrow night.