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1. Cairo in a nutshell
2. Getting Uber taxi at Cairo Airport
3. Malaysian guy living in Cairo for over 20 years
4. Used car is expensive here
5. Travelling to Sinai
6. Dahab vibes
7. Tur Sina / Jabal Mousa
8. Egyptian’s opinion on El Sisi and Allahyarham Morsi
9. Visiting graves of prominent Egyptian’s Islamic scholars at Mit Ghamr, Tanta and Alexandria
10. Some Indonesian students work part time to cover living expenses in Cairo
11. Asian students were discriminated by Egyptians during Covid in Cairo
12. Malaysian students struggling to make end meet in Cairo
13. Fell in love with Aish (Egyptian pita bread)
14. Something fishy when visiting an orphanage in Giza

Cairo in a nutshell
Cairo is a very very BIG city. Distance between Giza, downtown Cairo, al Nasr, New Cairo is quite far. e-hailing taxi is cheap and motorcycle taxi is even cheaper but not safe when travelling on the highway because no helmet is provided. I witnessed a guy fell from his motorcycle at the highspeed motorway on my 1st day in Cairo. Some Egyptians are nice to foreigners such as letting me to use other toilet so that i dont have to queue with other follow Egyptians.

Getting Uber taxi at Cairo Airport
i think uber does not pick up passenger at the arrival terminal. i landed at terminal 2 and no uber drivers accepted my order. After googling around, the actual waiting area is at terminal 3 parking area (https://maps.app.goo.gl/xdA9hbnpbfN8r4TMA)

Distance from Terminal 2 arrival hall to Terminal 3 parking area is just few minutes walking. Go to B-5 sign at the parking and call uber there. Trip from airport to city center (al nasr) costs me LE150 (EGP40 for parking fee is already included). No other extra charges from what is stated in the uber. In fact, when exiting the parking, my driver didnt need to pay the parking fee anyway.

Malaysian guy living in Cairo for over 20 years
I hired his team for several tours in Egypt. He’s been living here since 2005, studied at Al-Azhar University, married with 5 kids. When asked why stay in Egypt up until now, he said the islamic studies (tafsir, ulum, etc) is better than in Malaysia. He said some primary students here able to memorize Quran after completing primary school.

Used car in expensive here
Used Toyota Avanza year 2008 costs RM26k where as in Malaysia it only costs RM13k

Travelling to Sinai
I took a RM500 3D2N tour to Sinai managed by Malaysia students in Egypt. The tour includes accommodation and food to Dahab, Jabal Mousa and Israel old fortress at Oyun Musa.

its not easy to enter Sinai peninsular. At the border control nearby to Suez, they have strict border control and you can stuck here for hours waiting for the xray scans and dogs sniffing your luggage. This region is full of polic and army checkpoint. Every checkpoint they will check my passport which is very time consuming and every vehicle need to have special permit to enter this region. Its important to have a good tour guide so that he can negotiate with the police/army to bypass the security check. From Cairo to Dahab it took 8-9 hours and the roads are wide but no cars. In conclusion, its very troublesome to travel here and i wont be coming here again next time.

Before travelling here, bring extra food and snacks in Cairo because not much restaurant along the road to Dahab. The roadside cafes in Sinai paid money to police to obtain permit to do business here and most of the land here are owned by the government.

Dahab vibes
Dahab reminds me of Bali or Phuket. A small coastal city with lots of cafes at the beach area and food is cheap here. You can buy kofta with rice for just RM15

Tur Sina / Jabal Mousa
Before coming here, bring your own water because the bottled water here costs 3 times the price. During winter, bring thick jacket and the camel service costs RM120 per person. The last checkpoint before arriving the summit, there are makeshift cafe offering coffee for LE100 and you can take a quick nap and do fajr prayer in the cafe. The hotel that i stayed costs RM60 per person and they have a decent room.

Egyptian’s opinion on El Sisi and Allahyarham Morsi
While taking Uber ride, i asked the driver about his opinion on El Sisi. He said, “El Sisi brought positive change in the country”, the i asked about the late Dr Morsi, he said “Morsi is so bad”. But the i asked a Malaysian guy who living here, he said there are lots of police/army spies in Egypt and one can get caught criticizing El Sisi. Its being said that the late Dr Morsi died due to being poisoned while in jail.

Visiting graves of prominent Egyptian’s Islamic scholars at Mit Ghamr ميت غمر, Tanta طنطا and Alexandria
The towns outside of Cairo are rather backward in terms of its infrastructure. I visited the grave of imam mutawalli al sha’rawi at Mit Ghamr, sheikh ahmad al badawi at Tanta and Sheikh Abu al-Abbas al-Morsi at Alexandria.

Some Indonesian students work part time to cover living expenses in Cairo
I joined this trip organized by indonesian students which costs LE750. One of the student used his own savings to study here. Before arriving to Egypt, he sold frozen foods to finance the trip here which costs 30 million rupiah. After arriving here, he sells indonesian food in order to cover his living expenses here. What a persistent guy!

Asian students were discriminated by Egyptians during Covid in Cairo
Another indonesian student told me about his experience living here during Covid. Some Egyptian disgusted asian students because being mistaken as Chinese. Some Egyptians thought all asians are Chinese!!! Even the restaurant didnt allow him to enter.

Malaysian students struggling to make ends meet in Cairo
Lately Selangor Zakat Board (LZS) stopped giving scholarship to new Selangor-born students studying in Egypt. Funny thing is that LZS receives one the highest zakat amount in Malaysia. There are about 500 Selangor-born students in Egypt. Some of them do tour & travel business in order to cover their living expenses. Sometimes some of them dont have enough money to pay the rent and had to borrow money from other students.

Fell in love with Aish (Egyptian pita bread)
I paid LE20 for 10 pieces!!! A hefty amount but less than 1/2 the price i paid for a conventional bread in Malaysia

Something fishy when visiting an orphanage in Giza
Visited an orphanage in Giza to provide food donation where they are caring for 10 orphans there. But the number of workers are almost the same as the number of orphans. Maybe the rumors about orphanage being a scammer in disguise might be true after all.