Winter in Egypt 2024 - At the Vegetable Market

One of our favorite things about our annual winter in Cairo is access to abundant fresh fruits and vegetables - and at economical prices for us, at least. Egyptians tell a different story about prices.

We headed down the block about a quarter mile to our favorite veggie shop shortly after arriving.  This store has everything you could ask for.  Out front, the big selling fruits are displayed at street level. 

 

The vegetables are in the back of the shop.

Bananas and mandarin oranges sell for  seventeen cents a pound.  Strawberries, my favorite, are a bit higher at twenty-three cents per pound.  Linda was delighted to discover fresh figs are available. She doesn't care about the price of figs. Whatever the price, she's buying.

On the way back home, we passed a lady selling freshly cut herbs.  We picked up two bunches of cilantro for five cents. We only need one bunch but they always talk us into buying two. We'd gladly pay for two and take only one but again, they insist we take both.

We picked up zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, green peppers, a head of lettuce, some oranges and an onion - about nine pounds of food for $2.55 - actually it was $3.55 because I slipped in a package of packaged dates, too, when Linda wasn't looking, which added a dollar to the bill.

Here Linda chops up some of that cilantro to add in to our dinner salad.

Here are a few more pictures from other nearby markets. There are many from which to choose.

Buying from a truck or donkey cart can reduce the cost per pound on bananas and oranges from seventeen cents per pound to fifteen cents.

 

 

 

Winter in Egypt, 2024 - The State of the Economy

 

 

The state of the economy in Egypt is poor.  Hard currency income is down due to declines in the the tourism sector because of the war in Gaza and declines in Suez Canal transit fees owing to the Houti attacks on Red Sea ship traffic. (Reports say Suez Canal traffic is down by 42%)

Tourism accounts for about 12-13% of the Egyptian economy according to most reports.  It's size varies dramatically as things like domestic revolution, change of government and Covid occur.

We have heard that arrivals from North America and South America are down significantly as a result of the war in Gaza.  Many of those tourists normally arrive on a tour that include stops in Israel and Jordan in addition to Egypt. And then there are the people who are unfamiliar with the world map and confuse Giza with Gaza. They most definitely are not the same. In fact, it is 362 km (224 miles) via air from Gaza to Giza and 760 km (472 miles) by road. I inquired about tourism to the Red Sea resorts of Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada and was told that the Russians are still coming but not the Ukranians.  Both cities were popular winter destinations for the citizens of those countries. 

About a year ago, the optimistic Egyptian minister of tourism, Ahmed Issa, gave a presentation noting plans to double the number of tourist arrivals by 2030 with some focus in particular on the Chinese segment of the market:

"The maximum number of tourists Egypt can attract per year currently ranges between 14-15 million," Issa explained.

"Right now we have 1,200 tourist hotels, 1,300 tourist restaurants, 12,000 tourist guides, 2,200 tourist companies, 130 archeological sites and 31 museums," he said.

"We have to double our hotel rooms, offer low-cost air travel and diversify our tourist products in order to achieve the target of attracting 30 million tourists per year," said Issa.

"Right now we are exerting greater efforts to attract more Chinese tourists to Egypt and I can say that there are around 30 million Chinese who are interested in visiting Egypt over the next few years," said Issa.

Here is a fairly recent article in English from a Chinese news source commenting on Chinese tourism in Egypt. 

One significant drain on resources that might conflict with building more tourist facilities is the vast megaproject in the desert where the New Capital is being constructed.  The Wall Street Journal has an interesting video presentation on the Capital at this link - highly recommended.

Despite all this, construction around Cairo seems to be moving ahead, especially the conversion of homes or portions of homes near the pyramids into boutique hotels.  I'll provide more news along those lines in a later post.

Gasoline prices are up about ten percent from a year ago in local currency.  Grocery prices are up significantly even extending to street vendors where some bananas and Mandarin oranges are selling at 15 Egyptian Pounds per kilogram this year versus 10 E.G.P. in the past two years.  A few key consumer items, like sugar, have either disappeared from the local markets or more than doubled in price.

Finally, let's take a look at the Egyptian Pound.  Officially, the pound remains steady at 31 EGP to the dollar - where it has been for about a year after the last devaluation.

 

The black market (which seems to have been euphemistically renamed the "parallel market") has gradually increased over that time to 40 EGP with some reports ranging as high as 50 to 55!  The British Bank HSBC was forecasting an official devaluation to the 45-50 range just over a month ago.  Many were predicting that this would take place after the Egyptian presidential election on December 11-13;  unsurprisingly, el-Sisi was re-elected with 89.6% of the vote.  This is his third term, this time lasting six years after some suitable constitutional modification.

But, so far the official exchange rate for the pound has remained at 31.

 

Winter in Egypt, 2024 - What's the Temperature?

Many people are surprised to hear that we spend each winter in Egypt.  The most common question that we hear after, "How long does it take to get there?" is "What is the weather/temperature like?"  

Here's a chart of the temperature for the past few days as tracked at this weather site:

It's pretty boring.  Low of 54 and high of 66 for the past five days.

Of course, as Minnesotans, we keep track ourselves with an indoor/outdoor thermometer.  Last night, our thermometer barely showed the temperature dipping below 56.

 

 

It will be sweatshirt weather for January, long sleeves for February and short sleeves in March.

 

We don't recommend visiting Egypt in June, July, August or September.

The only excitement that I can see in the weather forecast is for about a tenth of an inch of rain coming next Tuesday following winds of about 18mph on Monday.  Both rain and wind can cause major problems here.  I have blog posts from previous years here, here and here describing a few weather events.

UPDATE, 2/2/2024

For the month of January, we recorded a high temperature of 69 and a low of 45 on the front balcony.

 

UPDATE, 3/2/2024

For the month of February, we recorded a high temperature of 79 and a low of 49 on the front balcony.

 

UPDATE, 4/2/2024

For the month of March, we recorded a high temperature of 85 and a low of 49 on the front balcony.

 

Temperatures are reportedly 90 on the official thermometer on 4/2 with 90, 91 and 91 forecast for the next three days.  It's time to leave for Minnesota.

 

Winter in Egypt, 2024 - Fixing Things, Part 2

With the utilities secured, we took a shopping trip to the nearby Spinney's on Pyramids street and stocked up on food and then turned to secondary arrival tasks.

Although we hired professional help to repair the dining room ceiling medallion, Roshdy thought that the two of us could easily fix the powder-room light.  The water damage to the ceiling must have resulted in the crashing of the glass fixture onto the floor.  All that we saw were the wires from the fixture cut and hanging free.  

  

 

Roshdy showed up with a socket and bulb, a circuit tester and some yellow electrical tape.  Checking the circuit breakers, we soon discovered which one controlled the powder-room light - it was the last one I tried; of course - it's always the last one!

It was good that we disconnected the breaker since Roshdy's circuit tester revealed that the original electrical installer put the switch in the neutral wire rather than the hot wire.  (Remember that Egypt, like most of the world operates on 220 volts, not 110.  The "bite" is much worse.)

Roshdy did the wiring after I stripped the insulation on the new wires.  I have tried to introduce "wire nuts" to Egyptians but even the professionals prefer the old fashioned "twist and tape" method.

We soon had the socket in place, but without reliable light!  I correctly guessed the bulb Roshdy had brought along had an intermittent problem and replaced it with an operating spare from one of our fixtures.  In the end we had a nice bright temporary light in place until we deal with the larger ceiling issues. It's definitely not the attractive style Linda has in mind for the room.

  

 

 

Linda had immediate cellphone service upon arrival.  Her economically priced Egypt phone stays here over the summer, on loan to a friend.  In addition, her U.S. carrier, T-Mobile works here, albeit at a high price per minute.  I had switched to one of the lower-priced U.S. carriers, Pure Talk; this saves considerable money at home but I have no service in Cairo. 

With a copy of my passport and about $25, I was able to purchase a new sim card for my phone down the street at the neighborhood Vodafone store.  That store is conveniently located on the high traffic street at the end of our block.  A visit there usually involves taking a number upon entry and waiting ten minutes to a half hour to advance to the service counter.  This time I waited about 15 minutes. The new sim gives me lots of phone minutes and lots of Gigabytes of data good for a month and can be recharged on-line.  They also install the sim card in the phone and test it.  My Nokia G10 has dual sim slots so I will have access to both carriers, as needed, during the trip home.

  

The next thing that needed fixing was my beautiful gold Rolex watch that I had purchased last March in downtown Cairo for $7.  I was disappointed when the battery failed last July after just four months use!  Worse than the failure was my inability to open the watch up and replace the battery.  I also had been unable to remove a couple of links in the watchband in order for the watch to fit my wrist.  I have never had these problems with an Egyptian watch before.

  

Fortunately, Roshdy knows a "watch man" in his neighborhood.  For $4, he changed the battery - reporting that it was, indeed, very difficult to open the watch - and he took out the links.  I was so pleased that I gave him an additional $1.50 tip.

One final fix was a new battery for our emergency light that comes on automatically when the power goes out, which is a common occurrence. See it in action below.

 

We have only lost power for ten to thirty minutes at a time on four or five occasions, so far this year.  But the emergency light battery dies after about ten minutes.  We have had this light for about ten years now and replaced the battery one time before.  This time it was an expensive repair requiring a trip downtown and about $8.

With all of that accomplished, it appears we are in good shape for our winter stay - except for dealing with the ceiling water damage issue.  More on that at a later date.

 

 

  

Winter in Egypt, 2024 - Fixing Things, Part 1.

Besides turning on the water and gas, we noticed that we were going to need a few repairs. There had been some significant water damage to our apartment during the previous nine months, the results of leaks from the unit above us.  While the worst of it is above the kitchen and powder room, the damage extends out into the living/dining area.  One light fixture had completely fallen from the ceiling in the powder room and the massive ceiling medallion, typical of Egyptian architecture, near the dining room table was hanging by a thread of electric wire.  More than a few feet of heavy plaster crown molding had also fallen to the floor and had been removed from the scene by our cleaning crew that visits before our arrival.

Obviously, some significant repairs will need to be made, but our immediate need was to deal with that hanging ceiling medallion before it fell on someone's head.  Roshdy was able to schedule a contractor to come look that situation the next afternoon.

  

Meanwhile we began uncovering the furniture.  We wrap everything in plastic before we leave each spring to protect it from the infiltrating dust that covers everything in Egypt.  This used to be quite a laborious process to install and remove until we found plastic covers that easily cover our larger chairs and sofa.  Here's what things look like when we first walk in.

Linda had removed the plastic in our bedroom while I had been out at the market the previous night.  It takes a couple of hours to strip off all the covers and put things back in order.

  

  

Plugging in the telephone, I was pleasantly surprised to find a dial tone available.  Many times in past years, the landline connection disappears during our absence.  The wifi modem, had no signal however.  Following two trips to Technical Support at the local telephone central office and a visit by the telco installer, Roshdy had our Internet service functioning by the end of Day 1. Sometimes this can take 2-3 days or more. Because Roshdy has learned who to contact, the process has become streamlined, something we greatly appreciate. What would we do without him?

 

Our arrival in Egypt is no secret. On the evening of the Day 1, the electric utility's meter reader arrived with the bill for the past several month's service.  About a year ago the electric company added a monthly service charge even when there is no electricity is used. This fee is about $2 per month.  Since the comparable charge at our cabin in Wisconsin just went up from $37 per month to $45, I can't really complain much about it.  The bill for electricity actually used during our three month stay will total  about $30.  Just as quickly as the meter reader found us, one of our "building cats" from last year showed up to check out her favorite feeding and resting site.

 

We have a new "Home Owners Association" representative collecting our dues for the apartment this year.  He waited a couple of days before arriving to collect that assessment.  We pay $10 a month for the time that we are here and $5 a month for the other months - plus any special assessments for the elevator, water pump and the like.  We settled up for about a hundred dollars for the preceding nine months.  More about that in a later post.

Roshdy's contractor arrived to deal with the dangling ceiling medallion the next day.  The basic process was:

1. Remove the light fixture.

2. Loosen the knot in the wiring that was holding the medallion and take it down.

3. Prepare the concrete/plaster surface to receive a fresh coat of plaster to "glue" the medallion in place.

4. Mix a batch of plaster out in the hallway, ie create a mess.

5. Apply the plaster to the ceiling area.

6. Replace the medallion and clean excess plaster from around it.

7. Hold the medallion in place until the fresh plaster "glue" dried sufficiently.

8. Rehang the light fixture.

All of this took about two hours.  We were fortunate to happen to have two ladders of our own, a spray bottle with water to moisten the underlying surface and a flashlight to supply to the workers. It's been our experience that workers don't carry all the tools needed to complete a job. They typically arrive by taxi or tuk-tuk so they have no way to bring any larger items.  Plastic protection and rags for post-work clean up? Well, that's on the homeowner. We have those things also. Their small tools are usually carried in a plastic bag. Photos follow:

  

  

 

The bill for the work came to $25 dollars.  The guys did a great job of carefully cleaning up so I added another $5 tip.  At that point the apartment is "livable" and we will be able to move on to fixing the remaining water damage. That should be fun!

 

 

 

 

Winter in Egypt, 2024 - Our Annual Escape from the Cold

The early part of winter had not been too severe this year.  Linda took a picture of our street again this year to compare to the one she had taken the year before.  It showed quite a contrast. 

  

 

 The Egyptian adventures began before we left Minnesota

(Linda recounts our departure and travel to the land of the pyramids)

We were scheduled to fly out of MSP to Cairo on Jan 7 at 9:10 pm. On that morning, as I was checking on our flight status, I noticed that the flight was cancelled. WHAT??  After panic set in, I began to try to get on another flight before it was too late. Originally booked on KLM (operated by Delta, of course) but Delta would not help us reschedule. A lovely KLM lady, Karen, helped us get on an earlier flight. Earlier by nearly 5 hours. No problem for me cuz I was packed and just had to change into my “flying clothes”. But for Mr Procrastinator, not so easy. He was chasing around the house to find this and that to pack.

Annette, our neighbor and ride to the airport, even left watching the Viking’s game to leave the house 5 hours earlier than scheduled. We made the flight with plenty of time to try to relax at the airport. When checking in there we realized that we had been given Sky Priority. We didn’t even know what that was cuz we never pay for anything but the most basic seats at the back of the plane. I just won’t be forced to being nickel and dimed by the airlines. Rankles me to no end.

 

Well, it turns out that Sky Priority gets one to the front of all lines and also into the front of the planes. We were just 3 seats behind the first class suites. Real linen placed on the tray table for us and metal flatware at meals, champagne and other assorted alcohols offered, fabric gift bags and very attentive service.

Tom Notes:  We even had a bilingual (English/French) menu offering our dinner choices.  This plane didn't yet have "Onboard WiFi" available so we couldn't scan the QR code to see what might be coming for desert.

 

That’s all well and good but the best part was the extra space, complete with foot rests. We didn’t have “lie flat” seats but there was plenty of space to totally stretch out our legs. Amazing how that so called extra space makes the flight seem so much shorter. It’s the same amount of space I remember from flying in the 1970’s. However, the space didn’t help the 10 hour layover in Paris.

We’ve been on that flight through Paris many times previously but were not scheduled to be this time. Originally scheduled to change planes in Amsterdam and Rome. Yes, two plane changes but that makes the time go faster than sitting in one airport for 10 grueling hours. Flying time to Paris-8 hours, waiting time in Paris-10 hours. Could have flown home again in less time.

Tom Notes:  The long wait between planes in Paris is quite a mixed blessing.  Long-haul international flights all seem to leave from the K concourse of Terminal 2E.  Finding the K concourse and its thirty or so gates is a bit confusing as it involves passing through another security check and a ride on a three-terminal train.  Just finding out which gate to proceed to is a problem.  CDG uses the European scheme of listing departures by scheduled departure time rather than destination - if your flight doesn't depart for several hours, it won't even be on the board!  Having the time to negotiate this is good - but we didn't need ten hours.  (See this post from last year describing our adventure changing planes in Rome with only 45 minutes available.) I don't know which is worse.

I refer to the K concourse at CDG as the "Quonset hut" because of its peculiar shape.  It has plenty of shopping opportunities for folks with expensive tastes: Dior, Burberry, Hermes and the like have large facilities.  (Map of the concourse can be found here.)  Fortunately, Relay, more like a Dollar Store than Dior, offers merchandise and food at reasonable prices (Coca Cola, a bottle of water and a chicken sandwich for about $12.)

 

 

Other ways to pass the time, besides shopping, eating and dozing in the chair include walking to the end of the concourse to watch airport operations or playing on one of the PlayStation5 systems.   

 

But another glitch. We boarded the plane in Paris from gate 43. Barely seated and seat belt buckled when it was announced that there was a technical problem with the plane so we had to disembark. Not everyone had even boarded yet. All passengers trudged down stairs to gate 52 to get ready to board another plane which would not be ready to fly for a while. Because waiting 10 hours was not enough!

About 45 minutes later we heard an announcement that we were all to return to gate 43 and get ready to board the original plane because the technical situation had been resolved. Now, you begin to question if it’s safe to fly on that original plane. Thinking logically though you realize that the pilot doesn’t want to die so he would not fly an unsafe plane. We eventually left Paris a couple hours late on the original plane. Now I’m wondering about what was happening with the luggage with all the changes. Not a huge problem for us because we have clothes in Cairo. Perhaps not what you really want to wear but definitely enough to get by for several days. It has happened-just last year, as a matter of fact. Our bags arrived about 2 days after we did.

Sky Priority from Paris to Cairo flight as well. Four hour flight with champagne again. Too bad I don’t like it.

Tom Notes: I had just taken a picture of Linda settled into her comfortable Sky Priority seat at 6:25pm when the announcement came.  I followed up with a picture of the champagne when we were back in our seats at 9:00.  

 

  

This was now a pure Air France operation so our meal service on this leg came from a French chef with a Michelin star to his credit.

In addition, this plane did have "Onboard WiFi", although only text messaging was free. 

We sat beside an interesting and chatty couple from Calgary. Both originally from Egypt. They wanted to marry in 1969 but his family would not allow it. Both went their separate ways and got on with life. He eventually divorced and her husband died. She found him on Facebook and they reconnected. Been married now for a year. He’s 76, she’s 71.

Our bags were among the first on the carousel and were tagged “priority", another first for us. Our friend was at the airport to meet us. It’s a fairly long ride from the airport to our apartment so we arrived home about 2:30-3:00 am. Head swimming from lack of sleep. It’s been 29 hours since we left home. We’ve slept but only intermittently. Now we must remove the plastic covering the bed, get the sheets on and fall into bed. While I was doing that, Tom and Roshdy went out to get enough food so we can eat breakfast in the morning. Eggs, cheese, bread, kofta and bottled water. For years I drank tap water but Tom refuses to do so. Lucky for us, Cairo is something of a 24 hour city so there was no problem finding food.

In the morning I awoke after a nice long uninterrupted sleep and found a cat at our door. It was the one who had kittens last year. Name is Kitty Kat. She came inside and ate. I always bring cat food so we can begin feeding the cats immediately. They expect it. She’s a lovely cat and seems to remember us and so is friendly immediately and not afraid of us. After complaining about our 9 month absence, she sat with me while I ate and had my coffee.

 

Tom and Roshdy worked on securing our land line and internet while I worked on removing the plastic covering literally EVERYTHING. It’s a big and exhausting job. Dirty one too since it’s all covered in dust. 

    

By 3:00 pm I needed a nap 💤 and slept for an hour, a nice deep sleep. Second day we began getting things settled, that is, getting the rugs out, lamps on end tables, pictures on the wall, putting away all the things we brought, etc. I’ve not really arrived in Egypt cuz I’ve not been outside the house. Too many things to do inside. Tom feels arrived because he’s been out a couple times already. We have a new convenience store nearby but I know nothing more yet. Soon I’ll be truly here and ready to explore. Life in Egypt will begin.

It’s been a nice 68 degrees outside and in. Have not needed a heater, as we often do.  Makes me a little worried for February and March but we’ll see. Mosquitoes are ready and waiting for me. MN mosquitoes don't bother me but Egyptian mosquitoes leave red bumps every time. They prefer my hands and legs but if those are covered then they attack my face. Some other years I've returned to MN with what looks like measles covering  my entire face. Joyce may remember seeing this.

Looking forward to more enjoyable adventures in the coming weeks.