Renewing our Visas

At the Cairo airport, you can pick up an Egyptian entry visa for $15. This is a very handy thing to do since it saves you the hassle of mailing a larger fee along with your passport to the embassy in the United States. We always enter this way. The downside is that the visa is only good for 30 days and you must make a trip downtown to the Mogamma, the gray government center building, to then extend the visa.

We had decided to renew our visas on Tuesday. Bad choice of days. It turned out that Tuesday was a national police holiday. This meant that nobody would be working. Worse yet, there were rumors of possible anti-government demonstrations.

So we made the trip down on Monday. Here's a picture of the Mogamma from last year's expedition.


The building lies on the large Tahrir Square. The Egyptian Museum is on one side of the square and the Mogamma is on the opposite end. The Arab League and former Nile Hilton flank another side of the square.


We entered the building through the metal detectors. Linda has to put her purse through the scanner. I walk through the metal detector with my cellphone, camera and keys and set off a large buzzer. No one minds. Westerners don't get much attention at security checks here. Just keep moving.

We have the routine down now. Stop and push your way into the copier line. You need two copies of your main page and visa page from your passport. Up to the second floor. Grab one of the bed-sheet forms on the granite counter and fill out name, residence etc. Oh yes, don't forget to designate your religion. "Christian" will do nicely. Now head to the window marked "Fees and Stamps." This will be 11 pounds for one visa, 23 for two. (No, I am not making that up!) This gets you a handful of stamps. Head to window fourteen. After suitable inspection of all the paperwork, your photo will be stapled to the bed-sheet, stamps moistened and applied and then a signature made. We eagerly awaited the approval and the normal, "come back in two hours."

Not today. We were either too late or business was too brisk. Our passports were marked with a number and handed back. "Come back in two days, please."

Yesterday was Tuesday. The police had their holiday, but they all had to work overtime battling the demonstrators. Downtown was pretty much sealed off.

Today we headed down to finish the visa process. Cairo has a lot of police. Many were found throughout the downtown area with clusters in riot gear. about a dozen lined up on each side of the Mogamma entrance. I wanted to take a picture, of course, and started to line up an innocent looking shot of the Arab League Building. A nearby civilian immediately said, "no photos!" Even the "civilians" were police! Plainclothes types.

We went up to the second floor and presented our passports again at window 14 where we were told to go to window 38. The clerk at window 38 found our applications with the matching numbers and now gave us the pleasant "come back in two hours!"

We meandered around for a while and stopped at a sandwich shop that we had seen many times before. It's only a block or two from the museum.


It has both English and Arabic menus posted outside. Two officer-level police also came in at about the same time with serious looking insignia on their shoulders. One was a "three star" guy and the other an "eagle." I understand that an eagle is the next grade above three stars - maybe a captain and a major? If the sandwiches were good enough for them, they would do nicely for us. And besides, the meat should be fresh, the restaurant is right across the street from a butcher shop. The sandwiches were excellent.


On the way back to the Mogamma, I finally got a picture of a little of the police presence. Look on the right side of this photo at the dark vehicles.


Those trailers are filled with police. Here, let's zoom in so you can see the protective cover over the windows.


There were similar quantities of police on most side streets around the square. Most sidewalks had a line of four or six police taking form as 3:00 approached.

I would like to have stayed around to take more photos but I don't move nearly as fast as I used to. Photojournalism of demonstrators and riots are best left to the younger crowd. Here is a picture I took of the construction equipment in front of what used to be the Nile Hilton which now becoming the Nile Ritz Carlton. On the right is one from yesterday's confrontation by a BBC photographer. It is a great shot. You can tell from the perspective that the photographer used a relatively wide angle lens and was right in on top of the action.


By the way, you may have read that the demonstrations (riots?) continue and that cellphone service and the internet has been cut off here. Not true! I did post this successfully at about 11:00 p.m.

The Mogamma Gets a Facelift

Cairo is a traffic nightmare - but the government thinks it may have discovered at least part of the problem.  There are just too many people headed downtown to the Mogamma to do government business!  With fourteen floors of bureaucrats (Wikipedia estimates up to 30,000 of them) and who knows how many people waiting in line, this can easily be an agonizing experience for the visitor.

An article in the Washington Post published in 2005 began with this sentence:

If buildings could talk, the Mugamma,  downtown Cairo's hulking government office complex, would say, "Come back tomorrow," with a sneer.

In a move to remake Tahrir Square into a prime tourist destination, the government is moving an obelisk in and moving the bureaucrats out.  The obelisk, moved from Tanis (which we visited last year) is not quite ready for the great reveal - it sits beneath a protective shroud.  But the busiest bureaucrats in the Mogamma have already been moved.

… in mid-2019, when the Passports, Immigration and Nationality Administration, which occupied 215 offices in the first and second floors, and used to attract more than %75 of citizens going to the Mogamma, was moved to its new grounds at Al Abbassia.

 I've blogged about the Mogamma several times previously, most notably our visit on January 26, 2011 as the Egyptian revolution was beginning.

Amid talk or repurposing this monolith in some fashion, the Mogamma is at least getting a facelift.

Here is an older picture of the building


And, with the painters still at work on the lower levels, here is an up-to-date view.  Note the small but colorful accents added in addition to an overall brighter look.


Update, 3/15/2020:
I thought that I didn't have a picture of the obelisk under its shroud, but I found one.  Not a great picture but it shows the construction in progress.


Here is another picture of the obelisk with the Mogamma and the obelisk back in Tanis.
 

Return to Tahrir Square - Part I

It has gotten to be time to renew our Egyptian visas.  I've blogged this process before in some detail back in 2009.  Normally, this has meant a trip down to Tahrir Square and the Mogamma.   Since we first arrived here in early January, it has been a standing joke with some friends to say that we would meet them at Tahrir on the 25th for the anniversary of the revolution.  Everyone has been avoiding Tahrir.  As the month rolled on, the stories in the news got worse.  For instance, this tent burning story.

We wanted to avoid Tahrir and one friend made some phone calls and thought that he had found an alternate location for us.  We went with him to the Giza Governate office yesterday only to be disappointed.  the Mogamma was the only place to extend the visa.  We headed downtown.

The visa extension process pretty well kills two days.  I won't bore you with the details again except to say that we ended up at window 35 today at 2:30, stood in line a densely packed mob with about a hundred other people and finally were handed back our passports at 3:30.  One western lady in front of us muttered, "unbelievable!" after getting hers back.  There were shouts of "mabrouk!" (congratulations) by many.  And a skinny five-footer was lofted by a large stranger to help make his presence known to the clerk.  It makes you really appreciate the DMV back home.  We understand that many of the people in line were from Mali and Syria so we're not feeling too sorry for  ourselves.

So, you may ask, what does Tahrir Square really look like?  The Mogamma itself looked a bit gray and foreboding as we approached it from the distance.


There is a rather extensive "tent city" in place.  It reminds me, of course, of similar encampments in Pensacola and Columbus that we ran into last year.  Trying to get someone to explain just "who are the people in the tents?" is interesting.  The best explanation seems to be that they are people who, if the Morsi government fell, would protest whatever came next.


Both yesterday and today, there was a large group of street merchants lined up in front of the Mogamma displaying their wares.  There have always been a few of these but there are many more now.


The whole area has sort of a 1969-era Cal., Berkeley, feel to it.


And, on Sunday, a local newscaster was doing here stand-up segment from the square.


Tonight, we called another friend who lives about thirty miles outside of Cairo.  He expressed some surprise that we had been downtown today.  He just returned from a few weeks in the U.S. and had watched reports from Egypt while there and thought the place must be devastated.



               

Winter in Egypt, 2024 - Extending Our Visas

I previously blogged about the laborious process of extending a tourist visa here in 2009 and again in 2018.   We normally arrive in Cairo without a visa and purchase one for twenty-five dollars at the bank window in the airport immigration area.  That visa is only good for thirty days and there is a penalty for overstaying, but the penalty is waived for visitors over 60 years of age.  When our friends, Aliza and Alan, told us about the penalty waiver, we quit renewing, eliminating a major hassle each year.

But, this year we are dealing with some legal issues (recall that water damage to the ceiling?) and need to have legal status in order to have our lawyer file papers with the court.  So we headed across the Nile to obtain a visa extension.

The good news is that we no longer have to go the Mogamma in Tahrir Square to do this.  The Mogamma is becoming a beautiful hotel (it "could be" finished in 2024)  

 

 The bad news is that the process has not changed much.  Passports are now renewed at the General Administration of Passports, Immigration and Nationality in the Abassiya district.  The building lies just off Salah Salem, the road to the airport.  It is a short walk from the el Abassiya metro station.

The new office has five floors and likely as many "transaction windows" as the old site in the Mogamma.  There is quite a mix of people from around the world applying here and not many appeared to be American.  I wouldn't be surprised to learn that thousands of people pass through the building on any given day.

If I recall the process correctly, it is approximately as follows.  We arrived at about 9:00 A.M. and were directed to take a position in the "European area" line.  Upon reaching the head of the line, we were given a number and told to wait for the number to be called.  Numbers were called fairly rapidly; at our turn, the process was explained by an English-speaking clerk.  We would need to have a receipt for an exchange of $70.00 in U.S. currency from a bank - it could not be from one of the banks represented in the building and also not from an ATM.  With that in hand we would be able to go to another window and pay the necessary fee in Egyptian currency (about $70 worth.)  It was suggested that we could take care of that the next day and then it would take two more days to process our extension.

We headed out to a low-traffic Bank of Egypt office and got a number to change money in person.

 

With two receipts from the bank, we headed back to the passport office.  We returned to the same clerk as in the morning (it was now about 2 P.M.) who immediately gave us a number and told us to have a seat.

 

Numbers were called at a very slow pace as the one clerk had to handle a multitude of inquiries in between numbered clients!  At about 4 P.M. our number came up.  An invoice was prepared showing four charges amongst twenty-eight possibilities and we were approved to pay it at the bank window about ten feet away.

 

With our fee paid, we returned to the clerk's window who assigned us to a different window where we were photographed and fingerprinted.  Somewhere in this process we were given the familiar four-page immigration form where we declare our residence, religion and other vital information.  Back in the Mogamma days, this form was available in a large stack at the entrance to the area and all visitors told each other, "you'll need this, filled out."

At the end of the fingerprinting, we were told to come back in two days, before 9 A.M. and we would be able to pick up our visas after 4 P.M.

Two days later we arrived well before 9 A.M. and were given a number and told to have a seat.  This was another slow moving line.  By about 11 A.M. our number was called.  

 

We gave up our passports to a clerk who flipped through a foot deep stack of paperwork and found our forms, matched them to the passports and applied ticket number 82 to the paper.  He then handed us a second copy of ticket number 82.  We were to return to a different window after 4 P.M.  During the time between 9 and 11 we met a young Welsh man who has been living and working here for several years.  He has to go through this every six months to renew his residency.

We took a taxi back the condo and then an Uber back to the passport office arriving around 3 P.M.  A security man spotted us waiting and took our "82,"  found our passports with extended Visa stamps and handed us our six month residency cards!

Are there any advantages to the new location? Yes.

1. There are escalators between floors.
2. There are plenty of chairs to sit on.
3. There is no mob scene at the end as passports are distributed, with a clerk yelling, "Mr. Amerika!"

If you think your picture taken at the DMV in Minnesota looks bad, just wait until you get one of these:

 

If anyone would like an explanation of the fees and mandatory currency exchange in dollars involved, there is an English language sign at the head of the escalator leading out of the passport building.

We can now stay until mid-August.

A Trip to the Mogamma

We didn't obtain our Egypt visas from their consulate in Chicago for this year's visit.  Our plans were changing up until we left and so we took the more expedient route of buying a 30-day entrance visa at the Cairo airport which we could then renew downtown.

The seat of the Egyptian government's administrative affairs is this imposing building known as the Mogamma, located on the southern edge of Tahrir Square.


Its labyrinthine corridors curve gently to conceal their true length.  We only are familiar with the second floor which houses the "Administration of Immigration and Passport Control."  The marble corridors are lined on one side with offices, occasionally visible through a partially opened wooden door.  The halls are not only lined with offices, they're lined with hundreds of people waiting patiently for what, we can't even imagine.   A few of the offices have the formal seating you might expect in an upper-class private home, but most appear to contain desks and credenzas covered with tall piles of paper.  The opposite, and outward facing side of the corridors are lined with clerical workstations fronted by numbered windows where the administration grudgingly meets the public. They always make it seem as though we're interrupting their work.


Entry to the Mogamma is through a door near the center section of the bright sunny plaza.  Passing through the metal detectors leads one to the very dim center rotunda, past several security police apparently selected for their unusual tall height and places one at the foot of a dark marble stairway.  No matter what time one enters, the stairs are crowded with visitors both ascending and descending.  Reaching the second floor, another metal detector looms and the obvious westerners are waved quickly through while the swarthier patrons are given a close look - as is the case in almost all security checks here. It was a pat-down for locals here. Purses and bags of all patrons are X-rayed, of course.



Knowing the procedure from past experience, we sought out the visa application forms (window 12) and retreated to the first floor for photographs - no glasses, please.  A fee, a small tip for the photographer, another for the photo-trimmer and we were soon back passing through security on the second floor again.

With applications filled out, and pictures in place, we are directed to go to the bank.  Bank of Egypt has  a branch located conveniently about a hundred yards down the back hallway on this floor.  570 Egyptian pounds (about $30) apiece gets us the necessary paper to return to window 12.  The nice lady returns our passports with instructions to return the next day to Window 16 after 9:00 o'clock.  I repeat the instructions carefully and she confirms them.

This seems like an improvement over the previous experiences we have had - they kept the passports overnight at that time.  We had invested less than two hours and still had passports in hand.

The next day we arrived early and headed for window 16.  Now we're told we need to go to window 12.  At window 12, we surrendered our passports and were told to return at 1:00 to window 38.  (This section closes at 2:00 - don't be late!)

The scene at window 38 as 1:00 approaches is unlike anything you may have experienced, even in a dream.  People of all nationalities are crowded together pushing to be at the head of the line(s).  In total, I would guess there were close to 200 of us.  We were from China, Korea, Philippines, Turkey, Indonesia, Greece, France, Spain, England and various Arab and African countries.  A fellow from Yemen, living in Seattle, remarked that "It's the United Nations out here!"  The scene bore more than a passing resemblance to a mosh pit.

Distribution of passports with newly inserted visas began.  A lady with a soft voice and behind glass would call out an Arabic name, holding up a passport (she usually had her hand over the picture - not helpful.)   If the name was not Arabic, she called out the owner's country.  A man awaiting his visa near the front helpfully called out the country names again loudy in perfect English.  This was quite helpful since there was a different group of names being called out nearby by a clerk with a loudspeaker.

The passports would be passed back from hand to hand through the crowd.  Linda was handed and rejected a U.S. variety.  Those at the front of the crowd said the photo was hers but when she checked, she found it was a different blonde lady.  They all look alike, after all. Several others were similarly rejected by members of the crowd.  It took about 45 minutes before "America - Thomas" was called.  I responded with a loud "Yo!" - in US Army mail call fashion, and received mine.  Linda soon had hers as well.

Our second day at the Mogamma lasted four and a half hour hours.  Allowing for travel, you can pretty much call it a full days work.  Looking back at the experience we said, "It was kind of fun and kind of not fun." We're hoping that we have time for sending the passports to Chicago next year.

More Thoughts on Yesterday's Visit to Downtown

Linda is a wonderful proof-reader and editor. She not only catches my spelling errors but cheerfully identifies my mistakes and omissions. Yesterday when we returned to the Mogamma to pick up our passports with the extended visas, we were, indeed, directed to Window 38. When we arrived, there were about forty people of various nationalities crowded around the window pushing to get close enough to get in on the passport distribution. The general rule for lines here is, "Get in and push." If you are at all standoff-ish, say, at the copy window downstairs, you will never be served.

The lady behind the window was going through the applications, holding them up and hoping someone would recognize their picture. Suddenly, she pulled one out and said loudly, "Mr. America!" People pointed at me and poked me. Sure enough, that was my picture. The application was passed back to me with a request for signature. I picked a blank spot on the form and signed. I passed the form back and soon my passport was passed along to me. Success!

But, what about "Mrs. America," you ask? I stood off to the side allowing Linda to get a look. "Finlandia" was shouted, "Faransa, Chile, Malaysia." This went on for several minutes. Soon, a gentleman joined the woman behind the counter. Let's let Linda finish the story:

Lucky for me the man behind me was from New Zealand so he was not pressing against me. He was so disgusted with the process that he said, "Never again!" He called the process humiliating and disorderly. Yeah, that's Egypt. He and I had plenty of time to chat. Finally a man stood over the woman and he saw me waiting. These govt workers are behind a thick glass window so when they shout those of us waiting can barely hear. This man caught my eye and asked me where I was from--I read his lips. I mouthed, "Amreeka" and he looked through the pile until he found my passport and made the lady do mine next. It's not beneath me to use the "blonde card" here. It works wonders.

With that accomplished, we headed outside and noticed that the police presence had increased. The subway tunnel that we had used to arrive was now closed. We crossed the street easily since traffic was not moving at all. Descending into a different subway tunnel, I was noticing the increased police presence in the tunnels. A group of about eight young men rounded a corner and one took a flash photo of the three or four police standing at that point watching the crowd. Bad idea. The police captain shouted in Arabic, "No photo!" We didn't stop to see how things went but thinking back, I was glad I hadn't tried that.

On Monday, I had taken this picture of the exit sign at the stairs leading up to the Mogamma.


No flash, no attention. Probably wouldn't have been a good idea to take it yesterday, even without the flash.

The best news source I have found locally for what is going on is this English-language edition of the newspaper, Al Masry Al Youm. Yesterday, they published an article titled "Tips for Staying Safe in a Demonstration." The tips include this helpful advice:

Prepare yourself with comfortable clothes, especially shoes which allow you to run fast toward a safe spot when needed. Do not wear bright colors so you don’t stand out in the protest or grab extra attention from the police forces. When picking your outfit, steer clear of hoodies, as anyone can easily grab you by the hood and drag you around while you helplessly try to run away. Scarves are also not a good idea, for the same reason, and long hair should be tied up in a small bun or hidden underneath your t-shirt, not to allow anyone to pull you by it.

Most of this should be familiar to my older readers who remember the '60s. You could find similar advice in "alternative newspapers" from that era, or even the Minnesota Daily. It brings back memories of this photo that I took at the dedication of the LBJ Presidential Library in 1971.


Well, bookmark that link to Al Masry Al Youm, so you can stay in touch with the news. We hear reports locally, from Europe and the U.S. that big demonstrations are planned for tomorrow afternoon following the noon prayers.

Visiting the Abdeen Palace Museums

In all the years we've been visiting Egypt, we have never been to Abdeen Palace.  While we've driven past it many times and were intrigued, we'd had never actually been inside this huge building less than a mile from  the center of downtown, until this year.

We headed across the Qasr El-Nil bridge, through Tahrir Square, pausing for a brief look at the project to transform the old Soviet-era Mogamma building (Egypt's bureacracy central!) into a luxury hotel.  The project appears to already be over budget but they have two years to finish it before it can be called late.

The Abdeen Palace looms large in the windshield as we approach.

Reportedly having five hundred rooms and occupying 25 acres of land, it made a pretty nice home for the ruling family of the kingdom prior to the 1952 revolution.  Depending on the source you speak with, the very elegant upper floors, which were the living quarters of the king and family back in the day, are either closed to all except visiting diplomats, available for tour for $100 by reservation or on a regular tour bus route.

The ground floor, however, once the servants' quarters, is now a series of museums that are readily accessible via a ticket office just around the corner from everyone's favorite Hawawshi restaurant, El Rifai (on El-Shaikh Rihan Street).

We joined the ticket line at the palace where a modest number of tourists were paying their entrance fees.  Notice that not only do foreigners pay a healthy premium for entrance, so do their cameras!  Needless to say, I bought my camera a ticket.

  

 

There is something for everyone at the palace.  A Hunting Hall, Arms Museum, Gun Museum, Medal and Decorations Museum, Presidential Gifts Museum and a Silver Museum.

Entries and exits throughout are large wooden doors marked with a very ornate letter "F."  According to Wikipedia, King Fuad reportedly gave each of his six children names starting with the letter F after an Indian fortune-teller told him names starting with F would bring him good luck.  (Yes, it does look like a P and not an F - but everyone swears it is an F)

The central courtyard shows a marked contrast to the concrete and stone that marks most of Cairo.  A large Banyan tree, known locally as a Bengal Fig, stands near the entrance.

The first museum room encountered is the Hunting Hall, with a nice collection of rifles and shotguns,  including these English .303 Enfields.

 

 

In the Hunting Hall we were greeted by an English-speaking docent who introduced us to the history of the palace, to the King Fouad/Farouk family and the other key players associated with the past couple of centuries of Egyptian history.

  

 

 

Linda studies the family tree, with particular emphasis on the King Fouad era.

  

Here is an English language version.

 

 

I didn't notice the "copper periscope" prominently displayed until after our docent had moved along.  I thought the reason for its presence would become obvious later but still have not discovered one.

 

 

The Armaments Museum features typical displays of daggers, battle-axes, armor and the like.

  

 

 

The Gun Museum offers plenty of variety to the enthusiast who might not be familiar with the world-wide marketplace.    King Farouk was the gun collector in the royal family.

  

 

This Union automatic pistol with a 35 round magazine is probably not legal to carry in California.

 

Entering the Decorations Museum, we find that Farouk collected a wide variety of items, and this sword is certainly one of the most decorous. Those are real gems in-bedded in the sheath.

 

 

 

Other interesting items in this room include pencil sketches from around 1916 by Prince Fouad during his education at an Italian military academy and a jewelry box with a deadly surprise inside.

  

 

 

Next up is the Museum of Decorations holding ribbons and medals from a large number of countries.  Both the Vatican and the United States are represented.  Note that the U.S. purple heart is labeled as "Medal of the carminic heart."

 

  

 

 

Moving on to the Presidential Gifts Museum, a rather recent addition to the palace museums, there is quite a variety of gifts from foreign nations.  There are some significant Islamic mementos such as this representation of the Prophet Mohammed Mosque in Medina

 

 

and an interesting golden aircraft from China from 2015.

  

 

 

Egyptian children are likely to be most fascinated by the signed football jersey from Mohamed Salah, an Egyptian player known all over the world.

 

 

I was impressed by the gold plated Kalashnikov from Bahrain.

 

 

The Historical Documents Museum presents, among other items, the Imperial Ottoman firman, or decree, which established the rule of Muhammad Ali and his family.

 

 

Playing on a video screen during our visit was a short video showing the wedding of King Farouk's sister, Fawzia, to the Shah of Iran, in 1939.  There has been much written about this arranged marriage and its unhappy outcome but it certainly seems to have been lavishly celebrated in Cairo at the time.

 

 

Moving on to the Silverware Museum we found an extensive collection of designs, but the highlight is certainly the huge goblet holder.

  

 

 

 NOTE:  Clicking on almost any photo will take you to our Flickr photo album of the palace visit with additional photos and larger images.

Additional links:

Wikipedia article for King Fouad.

Wikipedia article for King Farouk. 

An interesting article on the excesses of King Farouk.

Wikipedia article for Fouad II describing the family in the aftermath of the 1952 revolution.

Obituary for Princess Fawzia Fuad from the U.K. Independent in 2013.

The Rifles of Egypt 1922 - 1958.  Useful background if you visit the gun museum. 

A YouTube video of a visit to Abdeen Palace.