Category: Travel

I had lunch at Abou Shakra today and so far its the best place I’ve eaten at since I’ve arrived to Egypt (not including the burger I had at Four Seasons).

The place is very clean, the presentation of the food is really great and the prices are pretty cheap. I had the mushroom soup since it was recommended by a reader and surprisingly I liked it a lot. For my main course I had the Abou Shakra kofta and although it wasn’t fantastic it was pretty decent, much much better than the one I had at Al-Rifai.

If you’re in Egypt next time this is a restaurant I would recommend.

I was standing in my hotel lobby waiting for my ride when a van full of Americans arrived. Nothing strange except every one of them was carrying their own box of bottled water. I guess someone told them to bring their own food with them to Egypt it was a funny sight.

Update: In case I wasn’t clear above, it looked like they brought the bottles with them from the US not from a grocery store on the street.

So since I’ve been in Egypt I’ve been extremely disappointed with the food. First day I had Maison Thomas Pizza which was supposed to be the best pizza place in Egypt and it turned out to be very normal. Then I had Lucille’s burger which again was supposed to be the best burger in Cairo and it turned out to be average too.

So last night after work I decided to go all out. I wanted to have Kebab (or kofta whatever they call it here). I was told the best in Cairo was this very local place called Al-Rifai so we took our driver and headed there. We got there around 11PM and it was pretty packed but they quickly cleaned a table for us (with a tissue). When I saw the meat outside and the guy putting it on the skewers I could have puked right there on the spot and the smell of the meat wasn’t helping either. In the end out of 4 of us I was the only one who decided to risk it and eat.

The kofta wasn’t impressive at all. It didn’t have any flavor and I really have no clue why its really popular here. I couldn’t believe I risked food poisoning for something so disappointing. Now I don’t think I am interested in trying anything new, might just stick to fast food which is what I enjoy anyway.

Since I arrived to Cairo on the weekend I hadn’t really experience Cairo traffic until today. It took us around an hour and a half to get to Lucille’s a burger place that was highly recommended by a few readers on the blog while it took only 20 minutes on the way back. If that wasn’t bad enough there was a football match tonight in which the Egyptian team Ahli won and I ended up getting stuck in one crazy traffic jam celebration on my way to the production house.

Anyway finding Lucille’s wasn’t very easy and when I did the place didn’t look impressive. I decided to ignore the location and look of the place and go in and order a cheese burger. I had read a lot of positive stuff about this burger so I was really expecting it to be great, it wasn’t!

For everyone who rated this burger highly you must have had a different burger than the one I had because mine was pretty ordinary. Presentation wasn’t appetizing at all and although the bun was soft and the meat tender the burger overall was just fair. If it was in Kuwait I would have rated it a 3 or 3.5 out of 5 not more so I don’t understand how this could be the best burger in Cairo. The one I had at Four Seasons last night was a better burger than this.

No more burgers for me on this trip, I need to start having more local dishes.

I am having a hard time believing the hotel I am staying in is the second best hotel in Cairo and that its a 5 star. When you first come in the lobby is pretty big and has a luxurious look but as soon as you step into the rooms its as if you’re stepping into another hotel. The rooms are pretty outdated, old, boring, and not very clean. I would give it a 3 star or 4 star tops. I guess the coolest thing about the hotel is the fact that it was in the news a few months back because of the no alcohol policy they activated.

Anyway supposedly Adel Imam comes to the hotel often so I am hoping to catch a glimpse of him before I leave. If you’re coming to Egypt what I am hearing is Four Seasons and Sofitel are the best hotels to stay in. If you are going to stay at the Grand Hyatt then ask for rooms that end with 44 or 45. Best view and the rooms feel cozier.

Speaking of Four Seasons, I had their burger here at the Giza hotel. It wasn’t as good as the amazing one I had in Four Seasons Jordan but still pretty good.

I am now trying to organize a list of things to do here based on everyone’s comments. I am having a hard time organizing the list since there are tons of places that were mentioned. So far I’ve just been to Khan Khalil, the two Four Season hotels and McDonalds which by the way isn’t that good like some people mentioned. The Quarter Pounder here looks like a mutated home made burger and wasn’t that great.

Update: One thing I forgot to mention is the pollution here. Its really really bad. There is like smoke in the air the whole time, like a fog!

Update2: In case my post gave the impression I am not enjoying Egypt that’s not true. I am actually liking it here because of the wackiness and the fact that EVERYONE has a sense of humor!

I feel like I am in a movie.

I am going to Cairo on Friday for 8 days on a work related trip. I’ve never been to Egypt but I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about it but also a lot of bad stuff (supposedly I should only drink bottled water?). I have two days free while I am there so can anyone recommend places to visit or places to eat?

Seems you can take a tour of Chernobyl and get pretty up close to the plant that exploded. This guy went on the tour and took a ton of pictures which you can check out here. Looks freaky. [Pictures]

If you want to tour Chernobyl here is the [Link]

Marzouq has just posted a review of his experience at Atlantis in Dubai. In summary he doesn’t think the hotel is currently ready to handle a large amount of visitors, its also over priced and the quality of the rooms wasn’t up to par. The fact that you can hear through walls gives the impression the hotel was put together on a tight budget with all the money going towards the entertainment. [Link]

Tonight I had dinner at what was Hitlers favorite Italian restaurant, Osteria Italiana. The place used to be called Osteria Bavaria and Hitler used to eat there so often that he had his own armored room in the middle of the restaurant which I got to see. The food was incredible, very authentic and delicious. I heard this story that supposedly happened recently about this girl who came to the restaurant daily in hopes of seeing Hitler. She came in daily for a month and when she got fed up of waiting she asked the waiter if he knew when Hitler would be coming. When the waiter told her Hitler was dead the girl went into a depression and tried to shoot herself. She ended up in a failed suicide attempt and it now paralyzed neck down. Pretty weird.

The connection sucks (thats what the topic title is supposed to say) at my hotel. Its free Internet but I would be willing to pay for a faster connection. Currently its worse than dial up speed and its not like I am in the Sahara Desert or in Antartica, I am in Munich!

I am in Munich on a work related trip but this time around I’ve actually taken a few extra personal days before work starts so that I could try do as many things as I can here in Munich and visiting the BMW Museum is one of them. Last time I came to Munich the BMW Museum was closed for renovation which was very disappointing and I was really hoping this time around it would be open and luckily it was. The place is just incredible and I am glad I got to see it after the renovation because it just looks super futuristic. I got to see a ton of my favorite vintage BMW’s all in factory new condition and I also got to see the concept car Gina which looks better in person than it did in the videos online.

I am definitely going to come back to the museum one more time before I leave. To see some more pictures and videos I took click on continue reading below.

While having breakfast today I noticed the place I was in had Red Bull Cola which I first posted about back in March but still hadn’t had the chance to try. I have to say its the worst carbonated soft drink I have ever had. It tastes nothing like Coca Cola or Pepsi, it was just horrible. After two sips I just trashed it. It was really really terrible, REALLY terrible!

I am flying out to Munich in a few hours and will be back in Kuwait on the 11th. I can’t wait to get out of this nasty humid weather. I am trying to cut down on the electronics I take with me. No particular reason except for the fact that I don’t end up using them half the time. Currently I think I am only taking three things, my new MSI Wind laptop, my iPod to watch movies on and my Sony digital camera. No video games at all this time around, my Nintendo DS and Sony PSP are staying behind.

I am at the Beirut Airport on my way back to Kuwait. My flight arrives to Kuwait at 3AM which sucks but luckily its a Friday so I can wake up late. I really really hate the airport here.