Moving And Shaking With Cairo's Own

Cairo / Uscire
en di Nile-Living /  Sarah A. Topol, 23. apr 2009

April 29 is the International Dance Day. At Momondo we totally support a day dedicated to dancing and we've decided to celebrate the day too. Therefore we’ve asked our city bloggers to come up with their favourite spots to go and dance or watch others do it. So put on your boogie shoes and let our bloggers guide you through the best dance spots in cities across the world.

Let's dance #1: Cairo


Photo: Liber

Aside from historic belly dancing Cairo is not well known for its moves, but the glitz and glamour of Cairo’s upper class has not escaped the influence of Britney Spears, who sometimes moves her stomach, but mostly emanates the kind of sexuality considered ‘haram’ in the more conservative Middle East. Arab pop singers have been known to bust a scandalous move in a music video or two, but you won’t find that kind of dancing on just any street or in any Egyptian bar.

If you feel like letting loose, Cairo offers a few choice spots. I chose to embrace my longing to move at the Cairo Jazz Club, which alternates nights of live music with Djs mixing on turntables.

Inside the lights are dim, music thumps out of stacked speakers, and the crowd sways to the funk stylings of one of Cairo’s better known live bands ‘Wust El Balad.’ The club is decked out with long polished wooden tables, brown/orange burnish walls, cushions on couches and chairs patterned with orange and red zebra stripes that oscillate like they, or you, are on hallucinogens. My favorite feature is the lighting; Cairo Jazz Club is lit by colored glass lights on the ceiling and walls that evoke childhood memories of Mancala chips.

Travelers, ex-pats, and well-off Egyptians (read: burly men who just have to be hitting the gym hopped up on ‘roids’ more often than they should and women dressed quite differently than what you see on the street) literally rub shoulders while dancing or getting through the throng of people mobbed around the stage. Wednesday night is the night to go, but on a Tuesday the bar is crowded, as waiters pass out free shots of some kind of disgusting alcoholic orange fizz.

“Cheers,” I say to a group of Australian backpackers as we knock one back. “Gross,” we agree, “but free!” Everyone wins.

Cairo Jazz Club is not for a shoestring budget; in fact, it’s one of the more expensive places I’ve been, but the ambiance and chance to let loose is well worth the price. After enough free orange fizz is passed around, the night steadily progresses from people swaying in their seats to taking the floor and moving, uninhibited, to the beat.

Last call is at 3:30am and Cairo Jazz Club closes at 4am. Reservations are recommended and the more women you bring with you, the better chance you have of getting in. As we stagger out, we are greeted by a stuffed fox on top of a truck. Perhaps he too wanted to strut his stuff?

CAIRO JAZZ CLUB; 197, 26th of July St. Agouza; Cairo

Go further:

Let's dance #2: Swinging New York: Fancy a shag?
Let's dance #3: Dancing down the Spree
Let's dance #4: So you think you can dance(hall) 
Let's dance #5: Dancing 'til dawn on the booze cruise
Let's dance #6: London's retro dance explosion

 

Pubblicato da
Nile-Living

Anything Goes At The Friday Market

Cairo / Shopping
en di Nile-Living /  Sarah A. Topol, 5. apr 2009

The recent bombing of one of Cairo’s most famous landmarks, Khan al-khalili, did not seem to bother other ex-pats nearly as much as it bothered me. Call it paranoia or a healthy desire to stay out of harm’s way, I haven’t been able to bring myself to go to the souk since the bombing. Luckily, I don’t need to visit the tourist oriented market when Cairo brims with more authentic alternatives.

The Souk el-Gomaa (Friday Market), under the El-Tonsi bridge, in the City of the Dead is by far the best glimpse into shopping in Egypt, the way the locals do it. Hawking everything and anything, the market sells antique furniture, broken computer screens, snakes, dogs, watches, cell phone batteries and probably anything else second-hand (rumored: stolen) you can imagine. Egyptians come from all over the city to buy whatever they need at the one-stop, massive-shop.

The sprawling souk is easily accessible by taxi, the way I reached it on Friday morning with a few friends.  We arrived at 10, piling out of the taxi into the narrow lanes to be immediately surrounded by stalls of t-shirts, jeans, and shoes. The first part of the market sells new clothes for a fraction of the store price, but don’t expect the knock-off designer jeans of Asian markets, instead, this is a front row seat to Egyptian men’s fashion-- tight jeans and flashy neon t-shirts, complete with shiny black belts.

Sellers promote their wares any way they can: drums bang, music blasts from hidden speakers, men yell into megaphones and grab your arm as shoppers flood the lanes. If you don’t hold your ground, it’s easy to be swept away by the hurried mob.

The sprawling market is more organized than it first appears, grouped into sections of similar items. After the new clothes came stands upon stands of used shoes. Then, the highlight of the morning, the pet market. Exotic fish, lizards, and snakes, gave way to cages of parakeets and canaries, who chirped at the passersby, while red-eyed hawks spread their wings in attempts to escape their tiny cages.

Wooden crates crammed with tortoises on lettuce leaves stood one on top of the other. The opening quote on a small tortoise was 50 Egyptian pounds, a canary: 92le and a snake: 30le (1USD ~ 5.5le, this could probably be negotiated down to roughly half the initial price depending on the skill and patience of the bargainer).

When my friend asked who bought the snakes, the seller gave a mischievous grin, “Everyone!” He exclaimed and proceeded to explain snakes were cultivates for their eggs.

After the pet section, it was used-goods city. Stalls of hanging scooters next to toilets sans-seat, across from doorknobs resting on bed sheets alongside dead batteries. Decadent chandeliers suspended above cracked porcelain China.

If you were looking for something, you would find it. If you were looking for nothing, you could find anything. After our 3 hour excursion, I ended up with a broken pocket watch and a wallet. My friends with jewelry, old photographs, a pocketbook, a portrait of Gamal Nasser, and used books. If you are interested in seeing how Egyptians really shop, hunting for unusual bargains, can stand crowds, and have an aversion to bombs, there’s nowhere in Cairo like the Souk el-Gomaa.

**(It is advisable to go to the market early in the morning in a small group. Women should not go alone, and although I never felt like anyone would steal anything of mine, I had been warned to leave my valuables behind.)**

Pubblicato da
Nile-Living