i flew KUL-BKK-AMM-CAI, all flights i flew the other way around in some other threads. here is a karting track leaving amman. i planned to drive it when i was traveling with my helmet and between when i karted all thailand and all UAE, but security held me up 30+ minutes being bigger dorks about the helmet than i am, and it was raining that day anyway. i am flying ex-CAI as buying business class tickets gets you some deals (that route i mentioned was $400) and i'm going to a work even in california next week. i ended up with a few days to kill, i wasn't sure if i should go somewhere else or just sit them out in cairo. i am doing the latter.
i'd say i'm in new cairo, although technically i think i'm more off the reservation than that. cairo is very crowded, so they are trying to expand eastward from the nile. new cairo city is by the airport and has more people in it. i'm in the new administrative capital area, which is hella to the east, has a ton of buildings the government has been spending ENORMOUS amounts of money on, and are largely unused, and i'm out in a hotel here (blue dot)
this area is huge, hugely expensive, and very empty. driving out here i was trying to recover on sleep as we went through at least 3 police checkpoints. once we got here the roads were funny because they are wide and empty, some parts already in need of a little repair. tons of finished seeming buildings on the outside and still going up ones on the outside, but no real activity as it seems like almost no one really lives or works anywhere near here.
this is a nice picture post from last year from the atlantic:
www.theatlantic.com
the middle of the bottom image with all the blue is my hotel and all the pools here.
i think tomorrow i will try to go to that big park. i am assuming that it's less walkable to there than it may look, and that the hotel may call/give me a driver to stick with me as 1. i'm sure as fuck not catching an uber out here and 2. i'm at a fancy hotel. google says it's a 54 minute walk to the middle. anyway the atlantic thread is great giving you aerial and ground views of all these facilities, residential buildings, government buildings, and commercial buildings - including the tallest skyscraper in africa. and all of them are empty, i can't stress enough about how the only activity i appeared to see on the way here and in here was related to construction.
if hotel brands wanted to have locations by the pyramids and elsewhere, my understanding is they were required to build some out here. thus i am staying in part to try and rack up some marriott points/nights, but also because i'm at, as far as i know, the cheapest st regis in the world. and that is because, again, i'm literally out in nowhere. this would be a pretty bad place to stay if you actually came here to see egypt, although since i just did that in december, it's cool with me. i am surprised that anyone visiting egypt ever stays here, but i found some occasional reviews and videos. by my estimate this is like 2 hours from the pyramids, and i think 30 minutes from going to basically anything else. i'm not sure if i can even eat anywhere off property.
i'm paying $686 for 4 nights. all st regis hotels come with a butler service. i didn't see it in the first night walking around, but i saw on a property map that we have a helipad. i did trek out to it today.
i'm trying to gauge how many people are actually here. there's kind of a bar in the lobby, then some restaurants are open and have shisha bars, but i've never seen anywhere with more than 2 tables having people, the only person at the bar was an egyptian guy smoking when i went there for a coffee. the busiest i've seen the dining area by the lobby was my breakfast 10-11 this morning with maybe 10 other people, then the 5pm pic below with a set of tables although mostly muslim appearing women so not sure if they were here for something else either? they sat them all by eachother. i don't think i've seen another obviously white person like myself here yet.
it's like 60s here and every dude working here is either in some kind of uniform or a suit, and they outnumber any guests by far. i'm the only goon as far as i can tell walking around in shorts either, so i stick out like a goofy american doofus.
among other stuff i ate 6 eggs for breakfast then went on a walk outside and to the gym. the property is huge. they are doing something to some of the pools. there is a convention center here, apparently a mall on the property (appeared to have 1 restaurant that probably sees 0 guests a day), as far as i can tell it's like a house/individual area in the back with the helipad. there is this big black diamond but the doors were locked last night when i was poking around, but still today during the day. you can see the construction happening all around outside the property too, you'll hear it out there also.
some pics from last night. one is the mall thing.
i'm curious if i could get away proposing i stay a month for 3k here as i'd like to get lifetime marriott platinum status. probably not worth it though. i have video of my room but no pics. it's pretty nice though. lifetime platty means free breakfast, mine here was 500 EGP so i made sure to get a chunk of protein in (i had 6 eggs, among other things) - then i come to see the pound actually crashed while i slept.
i was going to try and buy gold in malaysia and sell it here to get around the currency controls, as the exchange rate was fixed and bad vs. the black/free market exchange rate. part of egypt's problem has been spending all this money, not having a great economy, and weakening their currency in a severe way. it is one of the weakest in the world now. my worry was i'm not going to be here long enough to spend the cash i'd get selling the gold, and egypt wouldn't want to give me USD for the extra EGP when leaving either. but they just raised their interest rates and ended their fixed currency rate to float, which meant it was pummeled over night.
i woke up paying 179 EGP more for my breakfast than my dinner last night, but when it hit my credit card it cost 28 cents less. my dinner tonight was egyptian lentil soup (it was really good) and some salmon (also pretty good) - this, all in with taxes and service charges and room service, in a st. regis hotel, was $10.21.
you can explore the area and click around in here, and basically just see all these huge largely unused buildings
www.google.com
the masjid misr mosque on the bottom right looks quite sizable. although so does everything.
i'd say i'm in new cairo, although technically i think i'm more off the reservation than that. cairo is very crowded, so they are trying to expand eastward from the nile. new cairo city is by the airport and has more people in it. i'm in the new administrative capital area, which is hella to the east, has a ton of buildings the government has been spending ENORMOUS amounts of money on, and are largely unused, and i'm out in a hotel here (blue dot)
this area is huge, hugely expensive, and very empty. driving out here i was trying to recover on sleep as we went through at least 3 police checkpoints. once we got here the roads were funny because they are wide and empty, some parts already in need of a little repair. tons of finished seeming buildings on the outside and still going up ones on the outside, but no real activity as it seems like almost no one really lives or works anywhere near here.
this is a nice picture post from last year from the atlantic:
Photos: Egypt's New Capital City Megaproject
Images of Egypt’s new, as-yet-unnamed capital city, under construction in the desert
www.theatlantic.com
the middle of the bottom image with all the blue is my hotel and all the pools here.
i think tomorrow i will try to go to that big park. i am assuming that it's less walkable to there than it may look, and that the hotel may call/give me a driver to stick with me as 1. i'm sure as fuck not catching an uber out here and 2. i'm at a fancy hotel. google says it's a 54 minute walk to the middle. anyway the atlantic thread is great giving you aerial and ground views of all these facilities, residential buildings, government buildings, and commercial buildings - including the tallest skyscraper in africa. and all of them are empty, i can't stress enough about how the only activity i appeared to see on the way here and in here was related to construction.
if hotel brands wanted to have locations by the pyramids and elsewhere, my understanding is they were required to build some out here. thus i am staying in part to try and rack up some marriott points/nights, but also because i'm at, as far as i know, the cheapest st regis in the world. and that is because, again, i'm literally out in nowhere. this would be a pretty bad place to stay if you actually came here to see egypt, although since i just did that in december, it's cool with me. i am surprised that anyone visiting egypt ever stays here, but i found some occasional reviews and videos. by my estimate this is like 2 hours from the pyramids, and i think 30 minutes from going to basically anything else. i'm not sure if i can even eat anywhere off property.
i'm paying $686 for 4 nights. all st regis hotels come with a butler service. i didn't see it in the first night walking around, but i saw on a property map that we have a helipad. i did trek out to it today.
i'm trying to gauge how many people are actually here. there's kind of a bar in the lobby, then some restaurants are open and have shisha bars, but i've never seen anywhere with more than 2 tables having people, the only person at the bar was an egyptian guy smoking when i went there for a coffee. the busiest i've seen the dining area by the lobby was my breakfast 10-11 this morning with maybe 10 other people, then the 5pm pic below with a set of tables although mostly muslim appearing women so not sure if they were here for something else either? they sat them all by eachother. i don't think i've seen another obviously white person like myself here yet.
it's like 60s here and every dude working here is either in some kind of uniform or a suit, and they outnumber any guests by far. i'm the only goon as far as i can tell walking around in shorts either, so i stick out like a goofy american doofus.
among other stuff i ate 6 eggs for breakfast then went on a walk outside and to the gym. the property is huge. they are doing something to some of the pools. there is a convention center here, apparently a mall on the property (appeared to have 1 restaurant that probably sees 0 guests a day), as far as i can tell it's like a house/individual area in the back with the helipad. there is this big black diamond but the doors were locked last night when i was poking around, but still today during the day. you can see the construction happening all around outside the property too, you'll hear it out there also.
some pics from last night. one is the mall thing.
i'm curious if i could get away proposing i stay a month for 3k here as i'd like to get lifetime marriott platinum status. probably not worth it though. i have video of my room but no pics. it's pretty nice though. lifetime platty means free breakfast, mine here was 500 EGP so i made sure to get a chunk of protein in (i had 6 eggs, among other things) - then i come to see the pound actually crashed while i slept.
i was going to try and buy gold in malaysia and sell it here to get around the currency controls, as the exchange rate was fixed and bad vs. the black/free market exchange rate. part of egypt's problem has been spending all this money, not having a great economy, and weakening their currency in a severe way. it is one of the weakest in the world now. my worry was i'm not going to be here long enough to spend the cash i'd get selling the gold, and egypt wouldn't want to give me USD for the extra EGP when leaving either. but they just raised their interest rates and ended their fixed currency rate to float, which meant it was pummeled over night.
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english.ahram.org.eg
i woke up paying 179 EGP more for my breakfast than my dinner last night, but when it hit my credit card it cost 28 cents less. my dinner tonight was egyptian lentil soup (it was really good) and some salmon (also pretty good) - this, all in with taxes and service charges and room service, in a st. regis hotel, was $10.21.
you can explore the area and click around in here, and basically just see all these huge largely unused buildings
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
the masjid misr mosque on the bottom right looks quite sizable. although so does everything.
