Oh, No! Not Another Electric Light Post.

Yes, it's time to talk about our lighting problems again. I posted a few times on this subject last year. (One of my readers kindly referred to this sort of thing as "very detailed.")

We have a pair of wall sconces in our main living area.


We found one with light and one without shortly after arriving this year. I checked out the bulb, it was fine. A little more peering into the socket revealed a pretty ugly case of corrosion on the socket contacts.

When we were out walking a few days ago, I passed a light bulb shop and stopped to see if they also sold replacement sockets. Sure enough, for four pounds Egyptian, about 69 cents, I could pick up a nice solid plastic and ceramic socket set. I could have had another flimsy brass edition for half that, but this one is what my previous electricians were using. The one on the left is original, on the right, my replacement.


I pulled the old unit out and took a good look. I can't tell if this was just corrosion, heat damage from the 100 watt bulb or internal arcing from poor contact. But, I'd say it was past due for replacement.


Maybe this kind of thing is why many visitors to the U.S. wonder why we build our houses out of wood. Concrete, brick and ceramic tile doesn't burn so readily.

After removing the threaded insert from the old socket cap, I began trying to insert it into the new one. No go. It turns out that there is a tiny set screw in the nut on top. I'm way past the age where I need bifocals. I'm at the point where I can't see the little stuff through the bifocals! Fortunately, I have a baby screwdriver and could deal with unsetting and resetting the little screw. Here are both top and bottom views of the socket cap.


Things went back together nicely and now we have light again. By the way, there is no UL rating on the socket. I suspect the whole fixture is a bit of a mix of crafts and cultures. If I continue to have heat problems, I suppose I will have to go with one of those "curly-fry" bulbs.

It's Not the Bluebird of Happiness

On our regular walk, I always see a few of these pretty blue birds sitting in the palm trees, ready to swoop down and feast on any garbage lying about.




They look a bit like a crow but with the blue coloring, are obviously something else. It turns out that they are House Crows. Suspected of stowing away from India on ships headed through the Suez Canal, they are pretty common here now. More pictures by other folks, here.

There's Been a Change in the Weather

If you were looking at my earlier post on our visit to the Friday car maket, you might have noticed an ominous appearance in the distant sky:


It look a bit more like Kansas than Cairo! We had heard a couple of cracks of thunder earlier. After ducking under a coffee shop roof for about ten minutes to escape a shower, we headed back toward our car when the dark sky started to rumble again and bigger rain drops started to pelt us. Then hail. Then dime-sized hail. Then quarters!

We joined a few people standing under a roof near the water tower and waited it out. The hail didn't accumulate as it did last year, but there was plenty of rain.


And rain is not something that the streets of Cairo deal with very effectively.


Do you know any other occasional visitor who has experienced two hailstorms in Cairo?

House Hunters, International

Linda has a post for the blog, today:

Today we thought we were on "House Hunters International" and it was so much fun. Our friend took us to a residential area that he said had inexpensive housing. The first one we saw was totally unfinished, ie no windows, no doors, no flooring, just a concrete shell. It was 2 levels in an apartment bldg. We found this one semi interesting. No price.

2nd one was what they call a "villa" which means a house. This one was what they call a semi-detached in Canada. It was 2 houses together with a shared wall. It was about 5,000 sq ft on 3 levels. I don't think that included the garage and rooftop. The floor plan was awful--so cut up. It was a 5 yr old bldg but never lived in. Below grade was the garage, a big area that could be a family room, a bath and a big storage area. 1st floor had a big kitchen, 2 baths and a 2 story living room. 3rd floor had 3 bedrooms--master with en suite--another bath, a loggia overlooking the living room and another family room. Then we went up circular stairs so steep that it felt like a ladder to the roof top. Lovely space there but really not a particularly wonderful view. There was a side yard and a back yard, something quite rare here. The place cost about $276,000 but......it was never completed and would take so much more money and TIME to make it liveable. It would be a fun project but I'd have to live here full time and then I'd miss book club. OK, that settles it, book club wins every time. We were never really interested but it was offered for our viewing so of course we said we'd look.




Number 3 was the best even tho we didn't get to look inside. The owner is a friend of our friend and the owner is in the US. But the garden was wonderful. It even had a banana tree with bananas on it. I said I'd buy it just for that. The yard and patio were tiny by US standards but I found it totally charming. There were rose bushes and other vegetation and a lovely marble patio and an outdoor covered kitchen. Who needs to see the inside with all that?!! We were told that it had 2 bedrooms, kitchen, bath and living room. Don't know the price but alas, it's already taken. Can't have that one either.

Guess I'll just stick with what I have.

Posted by Linda

A Visit to the Used Car Lot

The easy of getting around is one of the advantages of our "inner city" location. We mostly walk or take one of the many cheap taxis to our destinations. I have been thinking about buying a cheap car to keep here, though. It would be handy for trips to the supermarket or just to drive over to the pyramids area when we visit friends. Looking over the many old, beat-up cars on the streets, I set myself a goal of finding a $500 car.

Our local friends just laugh when I tell them how much I want to spend. I tell them, "an old Lada, maybe!" They just laugh harder.

One friend volunteered to take us to the used car market on some Friday, so we took him up on it today. The used car market is located in Nasr City, in the Northeast part of the metro area. It's about twenty miles or so, from our apartment. Just follow the ring road and exit left at the marked exit for Nasr City. I would desrcibe the actual location as being "near the water tower, under the power lines in downtown Nasr City," if you would like to go there some time.

And go, you certainly should. Guidebooks describe visiting the Cairo Camel Market as an interesting possibility. The Cairo Auto Market has obviously replaced it as the place to be on Friday morning. As we approached the auto market, I began to see cars parked along the road with their hoods open. Some even had signs with their model years posted in the windows.


We hunted for a parking spot for a while and then walked back to the heart of the market. Now I looked across the street and saw the real auto market. This must be the largest auto swap meet on earth. New Toyotas, old Mercedes. You name it, there was a car, a model year and a color of your choice to be found. Here's a photo showing part of the operation.


Everywhere, there was someone eager to help us.


A little bit of asking questions even directed us to a few Ladas. There were fewer than I expected. The Fiat 128 is the poor man's car of choice now, but I figured the "Rooski" knock-off would be even cheaper. And, we've ridden in a number of them configured as taxis so they should still be repairable.

This 1980 white Lada was offered at 13,500 Egyptian pounds, or about $2,300. That seemed to be the rock bottom price for anything that runs. I also found a 1967 Fiat for a similar price. By the way, if I were advertising this one back in Minnesota, I would say, "no rust, runs good, easy starter!"


And yes, it does say GMC on both the front and back. I don't think many people display a Lada logo proudly. Check this site for one without the doctored grill.

I'd about as soon go up to about twice that price for one of the 1985-88 Mercedes that I saw. So, pure "junkers" are out. My friends were right to dismiss my dreams.

A Big Body Shop

While we were walking back from dinner last night, we passed this automotive body shop along the way.

It sure looks like this is the place to go for front-end repair work. And, maybe, for some new mag rims, too!


It's always easy to identify what's for sale in any shop here. Just look in the window. If you don't see what you want in the window, you're unlikely to find it inside and out of sight. Things don't work that way in Egypt. The new mall stores might use a more "Western" approach but street-front shops display all their wares in plain view.

It's pretty easy to identify what's for sale in these two shops, for instance.

Dinner Time

We were invited over to a friend's home last night to visit. We have learned to always "go hungry" when invited by anyone here. We spent the first few minutes getting updates on the extended family. New babies, children's ages and the like. Then, after a few more minutes, a large serving platter appeared, carried gracefully on the head of our host's wife.


This is typical Egyptian hospitality and typical dinner food. Two large plates of rice, a plate of roasted chicken four bowls of vegetables and three spoons. One vegetable bowl held potatoes in a tasty tomato sauce. The other bowl held a mixture of peas, carrots and potatoes in tasty tomato sauce. If you don't enjoy tomato sauce, you might not want to eat during your stay in Egypt. "Ubiquitous" is probably the best description for it.

The three spoons were for the three people who were expected to eat. Linda and I took two of the spoons, fenced off portions of one rice plate with our choice of vegetables and enjoyed an excellent dinner.

Of course, a plate of flat bread was served along with the meal and a common glass for water from the pitcher. We usually skip the water and wait for tea.

Mass Transit

India's major contribution to urban transit has been the tuk-tuk. This popular three-wheeled vehicle spread to Egypt a few years ago. It's a good fit. Many people here move from place to place via small buses in Cairo, but those buses might drop a passenger off with a half mile or more to go to reach their home or other destination.

Many neighborhoods have found entrepreneurial young men acquiring tuk-tuks and gathering near the bus stops. There they offer a cheap tuk-tuk ride to home or other destination. The fare is usually only an Egyptian pound or two. (15-30 cents) Here is a picture of a group of tuk-tuks gathered at a bus stop near our apartment. That white vehicle in the center is a neighborhood bus that would typically run from near downtown out to this area, about 4-5 miles.


Last night we took our first ride in an Egyptian tuk-tuk and our driver posed with us for a picture. The ride is a bit rough over potholes and speed-bumps but it got us home just fine.


The drivers are supposed to be limited to their immediate neighborhood and not travel on or cross major roads. Like all other traffic laws here, those are regarded as "suggestions."

I checked the price of gasoline yesterday. The "good stuff," 90 and 92 octane, is selling for the equivalent of $1.14 and $1.20 per gallon. I haven't found the price on the 85 octane that the cheaper cars run on.

Can I Use My Amazon Kindle in Egypt?

Yes! And that was a sure thing and was the reason that we bought one. (Bonus: it even works in northwest Wisconsin - you can hardly find a cellphone that will do that!)

Just buy the 3G model. Turn it on in Egypt and you can visit the Amazon Store and download new books with no problem. Amazon describes it here with this phrase: 3G Works Globally

Here Linda is holding her Kindle in the sunlight out on the back balcony.


While the advertising notes that the Kindle works Globally, and it does, there is some fine print that you might miss. While you can access the Amazon store and download books for free, just as in the U.S., there is a charge for periodicals. Your subscriptions to magazines and newspapers will require an additional $5 weekly charge. Still, this seems like a pretty good deal. We now have a Kindle subscription to the Wall Street Journal and to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. At around 1 o'clock, local time here, they appear at the top of the content screen and push the previous day's papers off into the "Periodicals - Back Issues" entry at the end of the contents.


The Kindle 3G screen is very readable, even in bright sunlight. This gives it a real advantage over the iPad in spite of its very "klunky" user interface. Linda keeps it in "large print" mode when she reads.


I should add that bringing one small Kindle versus a suitcase of books is another big advantage. We'll probably make fewer trips over to the bookstore at AUC now.

Will My iPad Work in Egypt?

Sure! Just swap out the AT&T sim card for an Etisalat sim!

If that answer doesn't make sense to you, it is probably because you live in a country where sim cards aren't sold on every street corner and installed by every teenager. This little chip is the key to using a GSM mobile phone.


GSM is the mobile phone standard used by 212 countries and 80% of the world market according to this article. It allows phone users to easily change carriers. In the U.S. it is used by AT&T and T-Mobile. U.S. users almost never see a sim, but in the rest of the world, carriers compete aggressively to sell you one and put you on their network with your existing telephone or other mobile device.

I wasn't positive that an iPad from home would work here but I saw and tested one the other day. Etisalat, a major carrier here, makes this sim to replace the usual AT&T sim in a 3G iPad. Head to a major Etisalat store - Carrefour in Maadi has excellent people - and you can get fixed right up.

Googling on an iPad while moving on the Ring Road - now that's modern living!

For a look at what is involved in swapping your iPad sim, check out this link.

As for my own Etisalat sim, it can be found inside this USB 3G stick modem.


An "unlimited" data plan costs less than $30 per month here. Oh, and remember to take your passport with you to the Etisalat store.

Restaurant Review - Porto on Mariotia

We spent our first afternoon in Egypt visiting with friends who live near the pyramids. Our apartment is about a mile and a half as the crow flies from the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids. Although we had taken a taxi over to the area, we decided to walk home and look for a place to eat along the way.

Walking through the neighborhood just east of the pyramids is a great way to experience the Cairo culture. Just move one block off the main streets and you leave the tourist-trap "papyrus museums" and perfume stores behind. We followed this approximate route back from the sphinx area to Mariotia road.


This area has many car repair and service shops. You might see cars out in front of shops or inside a garage bay being worked on by professional and semi-pro mechanics. In many ways, this reminds me of my home neighborhood in the 1950s. It wasn't unusual to see a group of young men pulling an engine out of a car in northeast Portland back then. I had to stop and take a look when I found these four fellows with a chain hoist pulling an engine here.


May I take a picture? (Linda asked for me in Arabic.) Of course!

We continued on past shops and homes until we reached Mariotia in a half hour. "Let's try Porto again," we decided along the way. Porto is a cafe and restaurant almost in the shadow of the new Ring Road connector that was completed a year and a half ago.


We walked in and the Maitre D' recognized us from last year. (They probably don't get a lot of western guests!) After we were seated, the owner, Mustaffa, stopped by and brought out the chef. I've probably mentioned before that local businesses are very friendly!

We discussed options for dinner and soon were served a delicious, tender and flavorful beef kabob meal. We had ordered potatoes (versus rice) which here almost always means french fries. These were excellent.

Highly recommended. We'll be back again during this trip. Here is the banner to watch for if you are passing by:


After dinner, we walked across the street to our favorite bakery and picked out some of the excellent pastries and breads we enjoy. Again we were welcomed back enthusiastically.

Traveling to Cairo, 2011 - Part Two

Our flight from NYC's Kennedy airport left promptly at the scheduled 10:20 p.m. Delta loads by "zones" but allows the front zones on first, then higher and higher seat numbers. That is just the opposite of what used to work well on NWA, loading the rear seats first. Naturally, chaos results as the front row passengers block the aisles while back row passengers try to push through.

The flight attendants helpfully yell out "please sit down and allow other passengers to move past," and suggest just putting one bag in the overhead bin and waiting until later to try to add other items. Yeah, real likely!

One flight attendant repeatedly told an Egyptian gentleman to be seated and let others pass. He told her he would not! Ah, we knew we were well on our way to Cairo. I think he objected as much to being told what to do by a woman as anything. Later in the flight, parents were repeatedly taken to task for letting children run up and down the aisles during meal service. As we barely pulled off the runway and began taxiing on the ground in Cairo, a passenger stood up and started unloading an overhead bin. O, the chaos!

Delta has taken pains to provide good service for Egyptians on the New York - Cairo run. The maps and flight information is provided in both Arabic and English.


A running total distance and direction is also conveniently provided for Mecca:


We were in the air and things were reasonably settled down after an hour so dinner service began. That meant that dinner was actually a midnight snack as Linda's watch shows here:


I had the beef and it was a tasty dish with a good deal more "spicy" in it than I expect from airline food.

Our route brought us over Europe via France. The in-route navigation display quit working shortly after this point so I don't know exactly where we crossed the Mediterranean.


As we approached the northern coast of Africa, interesting cloud formation began to appear. They reminded me a bit of the rock formations in the Egyptian White Desert that we saw last year.



Cairo is a rather monochromatic city. It might even be described as sand-colored buildings set in the sand. Most of suburban Cairo is new-construction high-rise apartments and these examples near the airport are typical.

Traveling to Cairo, 2011 - Part one.

In past years, our winter trip to Cairo was via Amsterdam. Northwest Airlines offered a pleasant non-stop from Minneapolis to Amsterdam. Once there, we had a four or five hour layover and then flew non-stop to Cairo on NWA's partner airline, KLM. This had the advantage of avoiding a stop in New York City. We dislike changing planes in NYC because it usually entails a change of airport and delays seem to be more frequent there.

As Northwest Airlines disappeared into Delta and those distinctive red tails on the planes turned mostly blue, the stopover time in Amsterdam grew longer on our favored route. This year it would have meant an eleven-hour stop.

We booked a flight on a Delta baby-jet (operated by Mesaba Airlines) that flew into Kennedy and left us with a four hour layover there. Sure enough, just before we were to leave for the airport, we got a call telling us that the departure would be delayed for almost two hours. Now we were worried.

At the airport, Mesaba Airlines flights depart from the northern concourse that we hadn't seen for several years. It is a long, long concourse and has been remodeled since I flew from it years back on long-past North Central Airlines. I noticed a Fox News Channel Store.


Surprise! I didn't know FNC was in the retail store business. This will be good news to my sister-in-law who gets more and more steamed each time she has to sit in front of a CNN broadcast in an airport! I was more favorably impressed than these amateur reviewers were by finding my first FNC store. And they had cherry-flavored diet Doctor Pepper! What's not to like!

The next discovery was an art gallery.


Now this was not exactly like the "Old Masters" exhibit found in Amsterdam's Schipol airport. But it was pleasant to view and mostly features art and photography by airport and airline employees. I enjoyed this photograph of the waving flag by a TSA employee, Steve Schneider.


I thought the gallery was a good idea. I even felt better about the TSA after seeing a couple of their works. Other artists came from Compass Airlines, the Metropolitan Airports Commission and Regional Elite Airlines. I wonder who paid how much to set this up? Maybe I really don't want to know that.

Mesaba Airlines flies Bombardier regional jets. I knew that Bombardier made snowmobiles but who knew they were into commercial aircraft, too. Well, a vehicle is a vehicle, I suppose.


As the ground crew began loading luggage, I saw two of our heavy suitcases tossed out onto the icy tarmac. More worries!


I later decided that they were just pulling the connecting flight baggage to put it at the front of the compartment. But I'll keep it in mind the next time I pack a bottle of wine in my checked baggage.

I'll have to give Mesaba credit for great staff. With the two-hour delay, passengers with closer connections than ours were getting concerned and the gate agent handled them very politely. And the cabin crew on the flight was as pleasant as any I've seen in many years. We ended up with plenty of time to make our connection as did a nervous group making an earlier Tel Aviv connection at the gate next to ours.

Leaving Winter in Minnesota

I'm sure that some people wonder why we abandon Minnesota every winter for 3 months and travel to Egypt. Part of it, of course, is that we have friends in Egypt and make more friends each time we visit. But, for another reason, take a look at this picture of mom-in-law's patio:


Here is a nearby house experiencing some icicles.


The problem with snow and ice in Minnesota is that the snow that falls in November doesn't melt a few days later. It just stays on the bottom of the pile as more snow comes down. We adapt our lives to the snow. For example, we learn to live with smaller parking lots as the snow is plowed to the center.


And we tend to own trucks and SUV's so that the driver can see over the snowbank when merging onto a freeway.


And of course, we can always plow a little snow, put down some water and have an ice skating rink where you thought we only had a park.


But, through it all, we adapt. We adopt the nearby fire hydrant, digging it out of the snow.


And, we learn to walk carefully down the sidewalks that are not quite ice-free, even after they are plowed.