Getting around

Getting around Cairo you have several options. There is a subway system, but its size & area of transport makes it undesirable to bother w/. It also gets just as crowded as the streets, & even more hot since the air circulation is rather lacking.

The way most foreigners may travel is via taxi. Being able to use a generality, the taxis are old models of European cars. Often they have the Egyptian license plated bolted over the old Italian/Greek/whatever one. The cars are welded, strapped, & tinkered w/ continuously to drag the life out to the sheer maximum. Some of them have old meters in them. Since the meter stopped working decades ago, it really just take up leg room for the passenger.


The actual riding a taxi can be sometimes stressful, as you are the one ignorant the actual cost of the ride, & you're also clearly not Egyptian. After a while you get down a general idea of how much rides from one place to another should be, for an American of course. A key mistake a lot of people make is they try to negotiate the price b/f they even get there. All this does is pretty much guarantee you're going to be getting ripped off even more. The proper tactic is just to get out of the cab upon the destination & pay the price you know, say thanks & walk away. Attempting to be nice & over paying on purpose is code for the driver to ask for 5 more pounds. They already know you're paying upwards of 2x(or 3x) for the ride. They also know they may be able to get it out of you.

A truly Egyptian way to get around is the mysterious microbuses. These move about the city, appearing to outsiders in undecipherable pathways. Starting & stopping w/o explanation, they remain used almost exclusively by the natives. I remember seeing these in Jordan, only able to watch, but unable to participate. My teaching partner & I,however, were showed the guarded secrets of how to use them to get out to the place we teach at. One note though, as girls should never sit in the front seat of a cab. For the microbus girls should also sit against a wall & their male friend, or in the single side on the other wall of the van. Once you can start to get an idea of where the microbuses are going, & the connecting stops you use, its a superior way to travel. For example, a 20-25EP cab ride out to the teaching spot turns into a 1.50EP ride on the microbus. Yeah, its that kind of a price difference.