Mid 2012, Liz and I decided we would like to live in Egypt
UK ,
have lived and worked in Thailand ,
Vietnam and Malta , love diving, and have, over the years and
during our many, many excursions into its fascinating waters, fallen in love
with the Red Sea . When circumstances neatly
arranged themselves in such a way that we could please ourselves and live
outside the UK , Egypt
We decided we needed a hotel close to the centre and booked the cheapest we could find. We didn’t expect much and weren’t disappointed, the hotel had a few issues but dealt with them as best it could. In the end, they did right by us, giving us a base from which to work at a good price. We weren’t on holiday, a good thing too, but then I don’t suppose we would have chosen the place had we been. The hotel, The Roma is sited less than five minutes walk from the beginning of the strip of coffee bars, restaurants and souvenir shops that areSheraton Road
We don’t like to eat in hotels,
but prefer getting out and sampling some local colour. This habit was to prove
useful in our quest for a permanent address. On our first night in Hurghada, we
set out along Sheraton Road
We’d had some Facebook contact with a local agent prior to arriving, and got in touch a couple of days after we landed. Jayne arranged to meet us outside the hotel at 11am, and turned up promptly in a swish modern car. She had four flats to show us, the first was by far the best, small, but newly furnished, in a beautifully maintained compound with pool, the one bedroomed first floor apartment, accessible by lift was very desirable. The problem was the location. It was some distance outside Hurghada and there was nothing within popping out range. To live there, really and truly, one would need a car. This is not something we plan on acquiring while here. The rent was a very reasonable 1400LE. The area is question was Mobarak-7, (pronounced roughly Moo-bar-ick 7. The block containing the flat we saw was opposite another similar edifice, separated by a narrowish street, but these two blocks were a lone brace of buildings in an ocean of building sites, the short street at both ends ending in an expanse of grey open land.
Next was a ground floor two bed flat, also in a compound with a pool, but the grounds did not appear well maintained. There were also no patio doors or any method of opening the flat up to the outside. It was a little way out of town, but closer than the first offering. The rent was 1700LE monthly. Thirdly, we were shown a flat that backed ontoAirport Road
Or, they show you four €2 coins and ask how much they are in
Egyptian, then want you to change them. This is definitely a scam, possibly
involving old Italian 500 lire coins that look identical. Whatever they are
actually doing, it’s a con…. We just smile and walk on by…..
Batar ran us around a few more flats, and screeched to a stop outside any block he thought might have a vacancy, would dash inside, and then, occasionally ask us to come and take look at something. This was really a fact-finding mission for him, as he worked out what we were looking for, what pressed our buttons, and how much we really wanted to spend. Nothing he showed us that evening floated our boat and he dropped us at the restaurant, promising to be back in touch.
The flat though swung it. If we wanted a decent flat for our budget something was going to have to give. The flat is brand new, the walls magnolia the ceiling a pleasingly speckled white, sky blue and brown splatter and all the furniture and fittings brand new, the fridge was still in its box. The floors are white flecked marble with black and white insets. The rent is 1500LE a month It’s all very posh and sparkly. We decided to take it and had bought two months rent and our passports with us just in case.
Having confidently written this piece of self-congratulation we are not out of the woods yet. We have yet to pay next months rent and with it the electricity and water charges. These are classically profit centres for dishonest property owners. I’m not expecting this to be a problem, but am aware that I neglected to ask which of the thirty meters in the foyer cupboard relates to our flat. Actually, that’s not quite true, I did ask the caretaker, but didn’t get a sensible reply. Oh, and the numbers on the are in Arabic. Actually, there isn’t a huge problem with printed digits, decoding is straightforward. Reading hand written numbers though is more of a challenge.
A balcony leads off the bedroom, but the only thing we have to put out there is the clothes drying rack. The bathroom has all the necessary offices, toilet, shower, sink, mirror, plug for an electric razor, towel rail and soap trays for the sink and shower and toilet roll holder. There is no shower curtain, so after washing you have to clean up with the floor blade, a broom handle with a window cleaner’s wiper blade on the end, standard equipment in warm countries for that sort of job. The flat’s equipment includes a toilet brush, a broom, a dustpan but no brush, a cup for the bathroom, four knives, forks, dessert spoons, two teaspoons, four melamine dessert bowls, an Arabic coffee making jug, and a set of six tiny cups and saucers on a rack that we have parked on top of the kitchen cupboard. We have a small wastebasket for kitchen rubbish, a filleting knife, a tray, two tiny bowls not quite big enough for one, let alone two shredded wheat, a plastic 2 litre juice jug, two tumblers, a cheese grater, a teapot, an ashtray and a comprehensive set of saucepans including a frying pan that were all wrapped. Two still are. I have already mentioned the five glass mugs on a stand. One cracked the first time we poured boiling water into it.
Batar took us out to Spinney’s at Senzo Mall so we could bring the apartment inventory up to spec. It proved a disappointing trip, the only china mugs they had were chipped and they only had one of each design, odd but true. We needed a baking sheet for the oven but again they only had one on their shelves and it was scratched. Their wooden spoons were expensive and had rubber handles. Why does a non-heat conducting cooking utensil require an insulated gripping point? They had no bowls, their power extension leads were ludicrously expensive, and so on. The next day we discovered the local hardware shop where we managed to get almost all the things Spinney’s hadn’t been able to provide, and at much more sensible prices. I think the only outstanding items are some bowls. We want crockery and the shops are full of Melamine.
We had never discussed money with Batar. He had done a lot of running around for us and it was evident we needed to come some arrangement. In the end he wanted 250LE for the two days work he had done for us. This tells you a lot about local wage rates. He may be, probably is, getting some sort of commission from the landlord, either a one off payment or a cut of the rent each month but that’s business. We gave him 500LE and still feel we got a good deal. Some agents, but not the ones we had dealt with, charge a months rent for finding a property, so I think this was a win, win situation. Batar was delighted with our offer and we are over the moon with his services. He had been working for a Swiss owned property company before the revolution but the queues of eager Europeans looking for a Red Sea Pied à Terre have dried up and the Hurghada office shut. Every so often you are lucky enough to meet genuine, able people, such encounters an antidote to the gnawing pessimism that is the inevitable result of living in our modern troubled society. Perhaps one day everyone will be a Batar. That would make a great planet.
The 4 ring, no grill cooker, it turns out, is pretty basic, the oven has just two settings, low and high and no thermocouples are fitted. (Safety devices that cut the gas if the flame goes out).
WATER
We did go out to the old town, El Dahar,
and the fruit and veg in the market there are of a much higher quality than the
local greengrocers, and theoretically cheaper. Most of the stalls display their
prices so when we get our head around the Arabic numbering system it should be
easier to get a good price. The market though is a fair way away, about 20-30
minutes on a microbus, and we reckon the fare should be about 40LE each, each
way. We overpaid because we didn’t have change. Frankly given the hassle value,
you might as well buy from Metro. Metro though aren’t at the time of writing
selling strawberries, which are a particular favourite. 80 pence for 1kg of
delicious strawberries. Probably on reflection worth the trouble.
Just around the corner (2 mins) is a local shop we have christened Arkwright’s, it is, it seems open 24 hours and they are scrupulous in not over charging us. This means we go their almost everyday. They sell a wicked pickled veg. concoction at 40p for a big tub, and a local brand ice cream at £1.20 for 1 litre, and as it’s only a 2 minute walk home we can get it back unmolten, it’s also a short carry for the big water bottles we buy.
BACK
STORY.
We are a mature
couple, once ran pubs and restaurants in the
A quick
word about foreign exchange. We use the currency cards from Caxtonfx.
These
are the best way we have found of getting the most favourable exchange rates
and offer a fair level of security. We paid £10 each for global currency cards
but this was refunded the first time we used them outside the UK UK Egypt
The rate on the Global Traveller card is
always fixed at 2.75% below the Interbank rate. You can see all the live
Interbank rates on www.xe.com.
At the time of writing we are getting around 10 Egyptian Pounds
for each sterling pound, sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more, and
it is this rate that should be used to convert the LE prices in this document.
Euros are roughly 15% less than GBP. (10LE = £1.00 = €0.85)
We obtained 90-day visas in the UK UK
We booked a one-way flight with easyJet, Gatwick to Hurghada and
buying in early January for flights mid March meant we paid £159 each including
luggage. I could write several closely typed pages on the inequities of
easyJet’s luggage policy and it caused us some grief, but we managed to work
around it. Later on, we paid to reserve a couple of seats (£3 each) so we could
sit together. The flight was comfortable and on time, so we shouldn’t moan.
We decided we needed a hotel close to the centre and booked the cheapest we could find. We didn’t expect much and weren’t disappointed, the hotel had a few issues but dealt with them as best it could. In the end, they did right by us, giving us a base from which to work at a good price. We weren’t on holiday, a good thing too, but then I don’t suppose we would have chosen the place had we been. The hotel, The Roma is sited less than five minutes walk from the beginning of the strip of coffee bars, restaurants and souvenir shops that are
Our criteria for a flat were: one or two bedrooms, not a studio,
and this requirement led to some confusion during our first days of searching.
To us a studio apartment is a one room living solution, with the bed, kitchen
and lounge occupying the same space, the only other room being the bathroom. We
discovered eventually that in Egypt
We’d had some Facebook contact with a local agent prior to arriving, and got in touch a couple of days after we landed. Jayne arranged to meet us outside the hotel at 11am, and turned up promptly in a swish modern car. She had four flats to show us, the first was by far the best, small, but newly furnished, in a beautifully maintained compound with pool, the one bedroomed first floor apartment, accessible by lift was very desirable. The problem was the location. It was some distance outside Hurghada and there was nothing within popping out range. To live there, really and truly, one would need a car. This is not something we plan on acquiring while here. The rent was a very reasonable 1400LE. The area is question was Mobarak-7, (pronounced roughly Moo-bar-ick 7. The block containing the flat we saw was opposite another similar edifice, separated by a narrowish street, but these two blocks were a lone brace of buildings in an ocean of building sites, the short street at both ends ending in an expanse of grey open land.
Next was a ground floor two bed flat, also in a compound with a pool, but the grounds did not appear well maintained. There were also no patio doors or any method of opening the flat up to the outside. It was a little way out of town, but closer than the first offering. The rent was 1700LE monthly. Thirdly, we were shown a flat that backed onto
One of the guys on Roma Hotels beach showed us a couple of
apartments in the area opposite the hotels front door just up the hill from the
HSBC bank. These were new flats but the furnishings could only be described as
distressed. Neither were particularly aspirational nor cheap. The landlord
wanted 1500LE, too much for what he was offering but an interesting glimpse
into local property. Again getting to these buildings involved a trip across
unfinished roads circumnavigating piles of sand and rubble.
A great deal of Hurghada is a building site and for the sort of
money we want to pay living here would, we realised involve such a location.
There are apartments in resorts though, and once inside the complex’s gates the
world outside disappears. Some caution though needs to be exercised here for
several reasons. One such location we popped into on spec quoted 2800LE for a
1-bed apartment. You do get several pools and a swish environment to live in,
but we wondered, if these places could be noisy with similar flats full of ex
pats living a party lifestyle. We frankly have no idea whether that is the case
or not. We were quoted, by an agent, 2000LE monthly for the same accommodation
in the same complex. We never got into discussions about ancillary charges but
did wonder if when all the costs of living in this way were totted up it might
make life too expensive. The agent I spoke to, just once on the phone, seemed reasonable
and professional, even though he was Scottish. (Please don’t take offence if
you happen to hail from that part of the world, it was a joke!) He works for
hurghadarental.
Looking through the property ads, we spotted some flats at Desert
Pearl Resort, but there a number of cautionary tales on the web about this
place. It seems several of the apartments have been simultaneously sold several
times. We also had a look around a complex near the Roma, called Heliopolis,
which advertises heavily, but the “flat” we were shown was tiny, just about
room for a double bed and a dirty and broken kitchen area. This was a holiday
apartment for a one-day vacation! We never discussed price and the man who
showed us in didn’t seem at all surprised when we told him it wasn’t suitable.
I found an ad on the Egypt/Hurghada pages of www.expat-blog.com
for an apartment in El Kawser, again not far from where I am typing this
missive. We thought long and hard about it, it was a huge apartment, with a
well-equipped kitchen boasting a washing machine and a dishwasher and there was
brace of toilets, surely a luxury for two people! There was no double bed and
the only soft furnishing in the lounge was one two-seat settee. It was tempting,
but at 1700LE felt it should have had a couple of comfy chairs as well, picky
perhaps, but I think we had a point.
A waiter at For You discovered the reasons for our daily
excursions into his empire and showed us a flat a couple of streets down and back
from the restaurant. We were again tempted; it had two bedrooms and was in the
centre of town but we wondered at the noise levels that would generated by the
constant stream of cabs we noticed passing the door. All Hurghada taxis sound
their horns at the slightest hint of a pedestrian tourist. We concluded too,
that we didn’t want to live anywhere near Sheraton Street
As forewarned is forearmed here is an account of two incidents
worth relating. If you are a seasoned traveller, none of this will come as any
surprise.
Around 11 pm as we were approaching the hotel, outside HSBC we
were approached by a Papyrus seller a not uncommon occurrence, so I just
muttered the usual La Shockran, (no thanks) and attempted to move on, but he
was over insistent and barged into me. Liz pushed him roughly away, saying to
me “watch your wallet,” she had spotted him trying to put his hand into my
shorts pocket. Fortunately, he knew when he was beaten and slunk away.
Every day we walked the same route to For You and everyday had
been approached by the same people selling the same goods. One such hustler was
a cute 10 year old touting a barque of strawberries for just 5LE. “When I have
my apartment”, Liz promised him, “I will come back and buy some”. A couple of
days after moving in we passed his pitch and he came rushing up holding out a
packet of cellophane wrapped fruit. “Five pounds” he said. His big brother came
forward when it was evident we intended to buy. I gave him a 5 LE note. “Look”,
said the older lad, “you have given me the wrong money”. It seems I had, he was
holding out a 50 Piaster note, (about 5 pence sterling). Liz plucked my five
pound note from his palm, fortunately we had been dealing with ones of Fagin’s
apprentices. The con is only for 50p, but after scamming the fiver, they up the
price of the fruit to 10LE and don’t seem to understand why you don’t what to
deal with them anymore. They certainly have cheek.
Or, they show you four €2 coins and ask how much they are in
Egyptian, then want you to change them. This is definitely a scam, possibly
involving old Italian 500 lire coins that look identical. Whatever they are
actually doing, it’s a con…. We just smile and walk on by…..
This is not unique to Egypt
and similar or worse has happened to friends and me in Spain England
Life is a funny thing. So much can turn on so little. We were
sitting in For You, enjoying the warm evening breeze and a bottle of Sakara
beer, which I prefer to the other widely available brew, Stella, (completely
unrelated to Artois Switzerland
We swopped phone numbers. Shortly after arriving we had bought a
local Vodafone SIM card and some credit for our unlocked mobile.
The following day he rang and arranged to pick us up that evening.
He turned up in his battered old Peugeot 505 estate, and first took us to a
flat just behind For You. Like the other flat we had seen in the area it was a
little jaded, smaller, but had two balconies, which seemed to be a big plus
point. The asking price was 1400LE a month. The ground floor of this block
housed an internet shop, which meant we could have had wired broadband
installed for something less than £10 (sterling) a month. We never got into the
detail of this arrangement, so have no idea how fast it would have been. For
internet access in Egypt , we
have an unlocked dongle from Three Telecom that we used in the UK Egypt Orange
managed in France
Batar ran us around a few more flats, and screeched to a stop outside any block he thought might have a vacancy, would dash inside, and then, occasionally ask us to come and take look at something. This was really a fact-finding mission for him, as he worked out what we were looking for, what pressed our buttons, and how much we really wanted to spend. Nothing he showed us that evening floated our boat and he dropped us at the restaurant, promising to be back in touch.
It was a couple of days before he rang again. Liz was feeling a
bit under the weather so I went off alone to look at, he said “a couple of
places.” Batar had spent the day looking at flats for us and lining up landlords or
caretakers to show us those he had shortlisted, It was therefore evening when
he was ready to take me on the viewing tour. If I did this again I would insist
on seeing everything during daylight hours. I had begun to get a vague grasp of
the geography but in the dark completely lost my bearings. It was difficult
too, to judge the exteriors and even the public areas inside the buildings we
walked around. One building had a decent apartment but the front door was next
to an empty flat without a door, the inside strewn with rubble. In the dark it
was impossible to judge how much of an impact this would have on the niceness
of living there. We ended up looking at about half a dozen flats and I got a
bit lost as to what was what. Should have had a notebook. The analogue ink and
paper variety would have been more than adequate.
I reported back and we decided that the first flat I had seen was
the best of the bunch, and was pretty much what we had been looking for. I
thought then and think now that the flat I had seen was on the first floor. In
the event when we went back, we were shown to a second floor apartment. Liz has
had a new knee recently installed and we were keen to limit stairs to one flight
only, so where there was no lift, the first floor was as far as we wanted to
go. There is in this building a lift shaft, and lift doors, and the vertical
steels to guide the elevator on its travels. There though, is no lift, no walls
around the shaft and presumably no motor. The foyer is a beautifully finished
gleaming homage to the marble layers craft, the stairs are similarly finished,
it’s just that in the stairwell, there is a great gaping unprotected square of
liftless lift shaft.
The flat though swung it. If we wanted a decent flat for our budget something was going to have to give. The flat is brand new, the walls magnolia the ceiling a pleasingly speckled white, sky blue and brown splatter and all the furniture and fittings brand new, the fridge was still in its box. The floors are white flecked marble with black and white insets. The rent is 1500LE a month It’s all very posh and sparkly. We decided to take it and had bought two months rent and our passports with us just in case.
Mr Ali, the landlord produced a contract, a single sheet of blue A4,
printed one side in Arabic. He filled in details from our passport, and the
length of time we wanted the flat. We said we would promise 6 months, but hoped
to stay longer. Batar has told us that if we decide to stay on, we need do
nothing more than carry on paying the rent. The landllord wrote an inventory of
the flat’s contents on the back of the contract, in Arabic and I signed both
sides as instructed. “Do you want a copy?” he asked. I shook my head, I can’t
read it, I can’t even type it into a computer for an automatic translation” I
said. At the end of the day, these things come down to trust, a gut instinct.
So far, we have every reason to believe that this is an honest open and kosher
deal. He really was the landlord, he hadn’t lined up six other people to move
in with us, he wouldn’t be doubling the rent at some random point in the near
future and the contract we signed hasn’t committed us to digging the
foundations for his next project. For our budget, at this level, a short term
contract for £150 a month it has to come down to instinct. Batar says, its all
OK, but of course, he’s only a guy we met in a bar, and the landlord could have
been a mate who happened to have a set of keys to someone else’s property. But
the most we stood to loose was a months rent and the deposit, the same amount
again, and I suppose if we found ourselves evicted, some hotel costs. Are these
fanciful musings? Sadly, not at all, there are many who have fallen foul of
such confidence tricks. We are aware we are foreigners in a land where we don’t
speak the language; the writing is totally undecipherable and as tourists are
seen by some as a natural resource to be ruthlessly exploited. This all means
we could be easily flimflammed, so find ourselves turning down most offers of
assistance, some doubtless genuine. The ones we accept we do so, based on an
unquantifiable logic, perhaps body language, perhaps the nature of the offer,
perhaps our measure of their level of desperation. Whatever our reasoning it
does in the end just come down to intuition. We are not at the level of
involving translators and notaries to interpret documentation and swear
affidavits of authenticity.
Having confidently written this piece of self-congratulation we are not out of the woods yet. We have yet to pay next months rent and with it the electricity and water charges. These are classically profit centres for dishonest property owners. I’m not expecting this to be a problem, but am aware that I neglected to ask which of the thirty meters in the foyer cupboard relates to our flat. Actually, that’s not quite true, I did ask the caretaker, but didn’t get a sensible reply. Oh, and the numbers on the are in Arabic. Actually, there isn’t a huge problem with printed digits, decoding is straightforward. Reading hand written numbers though is more of a challenge.
The fridge was unboxed, plastic was peeled off the cooker, and the
hat rack unwrapped. Yes, this flat is equipped with a five-foot tall dark wood
coat stand. Apparently, the Germans like them. It’s a handy place to hang our
wet suits though. We signed the contract and paid up on a Wednesday. “We need
to install the air conditioning and washing machine, so the flat will be ready
either tomorrow or Friday” we were told. The place was new, we, its first
tenants but it did need a good clean, sweeping out, wiping over, and Batar told
us we could pay the caretaker to do that, “it won’t be done the way you want,
but will make it easier” he told us. We handed over 50LE.
We met Batar that evening at For You. He had news, the flat was
ready for us and we could move in the next day. He promised to pick us up from
the hotel at 10 in the morning and take our bags and us to our new home. We
packed that night and after breakfast went to tell the front desk we were
leaving. We then lugged our stuff down to the rear entrance lobby. The security
staff were clearly unused to guests humping their own luggage, unannounced to
an exit point and it was obvious we wouldn’t be allowed to leave until checks
had been made. This only took for a few minutes and we were early anyway so it
wasn’t a problem. We had booked 3 weeks at the hotel and were leaving after 2,
getting out of the Roma was a relief.
Batar loaded some of our bags into the car and some onto its roof.
I have noticed this is common practice. Evidentially the laws of physics
relating to top mounted luggage transportation systems differ from those back
in England
The flat consists of three rooms. The front door opens into the
lounge area and the “American kitchen.” An American kitchen, might be described
by an English estate agent as open plan, it occupies part of the lounge area,
dividing the space with a bar height marble topped counter behind which you
have a cooker width space to operate in. A marble shelf at working height has a
sink at one end, and is set under the counter top creating a space for storage.
The cooker is set at right angles to the counter at the far end; this is the
only place it will go. A single wall mounted cupboard is set on the wall above
the end of the counter. To reach it you need to stretch up over the cooker and
bar top. Some of the cupboard you can access from the kitchen side, some only
from the lounge area but you have to stretch past the fridge. A stainless steel
three-tier plate rack resides in the only place it can go, on the end of the
under-counter shelf, half under the cupboard. When we racked our swish new
dinner plates, we found we couldn’t open the cupboard doors fully. The rack had
been assembled when we moved in, but needed taking apart and putting back
together correctly. The five foot tall fridge freezer can only sit in a corner,
on the lounge side of the counter. A wire rack with five glass mugs hanging
from it has been thoughtfully provided but is about three millimetres too high
to live under the cupboard. The fridge doors open against a wall, which means
getting at one of the two salad drawers is a little tricky. Moving the fridge
to allow its door to open more fully would push the table and chairs out into
the walk through from the lounge to the bedroom. All this seems to sum up the
design philosophy of the apartment. It looks great, but those little extra
details that would transform the design from workaday to inspired brilliance
are missing. Cleary a kitchen area designed by a man with a very straight
ruler, who hasn’t given any thought to operating convenience. None of this
matters a great deal, it’s what you expect in such countries for the money we
are paying. The sad thing is, though, just a little more care, and probably
without any extra cost, the ergonomics could have been greatly improved. Never
mind, these are picky observations.
We have a square table with two dining chairs at which to eat, two
comfy chairs, a three seat settee, a coffee and a side table in the lounge.
These are perfectly adequate for our needs. The 30cm flat screen TV is bolted
to the wall next to the front door and opposite the settee. A metal shelf sits
under the screen supporting the satellite receiver. It isn’t quite level, I
have tried to bend it back up, but so far without success. The flat is equipped
with an intercom telephone, which we could use to summon the caretaker. An
added luxury is the doorbell, which takes the form of a speaker grill set into
the wall. This seems an unnecessary courtesy. What’s wrong with knocking? When
it rings, it tweets, the sound a small bird urgently looking for female
company. The sound from the TV is difficult to hear, a combination I think, of
poor speakers and the acoustics of the flat, hard walls with stern angles.
The bedroom has a double bed with a comfortable mattress. We have
been provided with two pillows, a bolster, a single pillow the full width of
the double bed, all with slips. There is a sheet for the bed and the most
amazing blanket I think I have ever seen. This blanket would keep a Maasai warm
during an Antarctic winter. It’s very heavy, vibrantly emblazoned with a red
rose and lives in its own suitcase on top of the three-door dark wood wardrobe.
We also have a dressing table and one bedside cabinet. A mirror above the
dressing table and headboard behind the bed, both fixed to the walls complete
the bedroom furnishings.
A balcony leads off the bedroom, but the only thing we have to put out there is the clothes drying rack. The bathroom has all the necessary offices, toilet, shower, sink, mirror, plug for an electric razor, towel rail and soap trays for the sink and shower and toilet roll holder. There is no shower curtain, so after washing you have to clean up with the floor blade, a broom handle with a window cleaner’s wiper blade on the end, standard equipment in warm countries for that sort of job. The flat’s equipment includes a toilet brush, a broom, a dustpan but no brush, a cup for the bathroom, four knives, forks, dessert spoons, two teaspoons, four melamine dessert bowls, an Arabic coffee making jug, and a set of six tiny cups and saucers on a rack that we have parked on top of the kitchen cupboard. We have a small wastebasket for kitchen rubbish, a filleting knife, a tray, two tiny bowls not quite big enough for one, let alone two shredded wheat, a plastic 2 litre juice jug, two tumblers, a cheese grater, a teapot, an ashtray and a comprehensive set of saucepans including a frying pan that were all wrapped. Two still are. I have already mentioned the five glass mugs on a stand. One cracked the first time we poured boiling water into it.
That is what was in the flat and that is what we got. It turns out
we needed to give the caretaker whose name, as near as I can reproduce it here
is Sad, 50LE a month. For this, he will ensure our security and deal with our
rubbish. All we need do is put it outside our front door. Sad had made a token
effort at cleaning, Batar had been right, not as we would have done it. Mental
note to self, next time pay half up front, half on moving in day.
Batar insisted we change the lock and bought us a new cylinder
with five keys. (50LE). He told us this was the most secure available as it had
flat dimpled keys rather than the traditional Yale design. It took him seconds
to install. It seems that Mr Ali wanted a key, but Batar talked him out
of it, saying, “It is better for everyone, if no one else has a key, you have a
lot of things.” It was a while before we found a locksmith so we could have a
second front gate key cut. The shop we found is up a side street to the right
(as facing), of the MacDonald’s, in Sheraton
Street
A gas cylinder and hose had been connected to the cooker. I still
don’t know exactly how the process off getting more gas works. Maybe Sad has
some spares, or maybe we just run out and have to wait until we hear a gas man
passing. You can’t miss them. Pick-up trucks, the backs filled with cylinders
ply the streets; a man hanging onto the back rattling a stick around the
jostling cylinders, making an unmistakable sound. We don’t know even how much a
refill is. As we are only using it for the cooker, it should last for at least
a couple of months, if it was full when we got it. We do have a set of those
luggage scales with a hook on, so intend to weigh the next bottle we get.
No means of plugging in the fridge were provided as the short lead
did not reach any of the sockets. Fortunately, I had bought a six-socket plug
board and a pile of adaptors, UK
to foreign and foreign to UK
Batar took us out to Spinney’s at Senzo Mall so we could bring the apartment inventory up to spec. It proved a disappointing trip, the only china mugs they had were chipped and they only had one of each design, odd but true. We needed a baking sheet for the oven but again they only had one on their shelves and it was scratched. Their wooden spoons were expensive and had rubber handles. Why does a non-heat conducting cooking utensil require an insulated gripping point? They had no bowls, their power extension leads were ludicrously expensive, and so on. The next day we discovered the local hardware shop where we managed to get almost all the things Spinney’s hadn’t been able to provide, and at much more sensible prices. I think the only outstanding items are some bowls. We want crockery and the shops are full of Melamine.
We had never discussed money with Batar. He had done a lot of running around for us and it was evident we needed to come some arrangement. In the end he wanted 250LE for the two days work he had done for us. This tells you a lot about local wage rates. He may be, probably is, getting some sort of commission from the landlord, either a one off payment or a cut of the rent each month but that’s business. We gave him 500LE and still feel we got a good deal. Some agents, but not the ones we had dealt with, charge a months rent for finding a property, so I think this was a win, win situation. Batar was delighted with our offer and we are over the moon with his services. He had been working for a Swiss owned property company before the revolution but the queues of eager Europeans looking for a Red Sea Pied à Terre have dried up and the Hurghada office shut. Every so often you are lucky enough to meet genuine, able people, such encounters an antidote to the gnawing pessimism that is the inevitable result of living in our modern troubled society. Perhaps one day everyone will be a Batar. That would make a great planet.
And that really should have been that. I
would like to report that we have moved in and are now living happily ever
after. Sort of. Three weeks in, we are still waiting for the washing machine.
Professional property developers do not it appears, buy white goods here in
Hurghada but ship them from Cairo
UPDATE
Since
writing the last paragraph, and 4 days before the next months rent was due, the
washing machine arrived. Hurrah!! Sad carried it up 2 floors on his back, in
the manner of a Himalayan Porter. We are beginning to understand the builder’s
site schedule and the days there will be noise. On concreting or brick lifting
days they constantly run motorised machinery and shout a lot. On other days
they just shout a lot. The top floor, (we think), is in place now, so things
might quieten down. The dogs are still a pain though. When the washer arrived,
Mr Ali asked for the rent, about four days before it was due, and added the
power and water charges, which with Sad's stipend came to a suspiciously convenient
200LE. We have identified the electric meter and have noted the reading. We
reckon we used 120 units, which should have been 60LE. Water is, we believe 50 Piaster’s
a metric tonne, (1000 litres), so the charge should have been negligible. We
will have to have a chat.
The 4 ring, no grill cooker, it turns out, is pretty basic, the oven has just two settings, low and high and no thermocouples are fitted. (Safety devices that cut the gas if the flame goes out).
WATER
During our stay in the hotel, we heard of someone who had been
hospitalised with Typhoid. We have no details and therefore no idea what she
had been up to, but it has resulted in our being extra careful with the water
here. Really though we are taking no more than the usual sensible precautions
that living in Africa or Asia demand. Our
bottled water is used:- for drinking, (obviously) to wash all vegetables and
salads, boiled, whether in the kettle or on the stove, to brush our teeth and
for ice making. It costs 60p (sterling) for 7 litres and we reckon on using 3-4
containers a week. Bigger bottles are available, 18.9 litre water cooler sized
flasks, but bizarrely at £2.10 (sterling) each they are more expensive, and as
it’s a simple thing to pick up a 7 litre as we pass the shop, certainly easier
than struggling with a bloody great bottle, we are sticking to the 60p version.
GETTING
AROUND
Hurghada is spread
out, 27 miles end to end. Fortunately getting around is fairly simple. There
are taxis, always taxis, most will charge a fairish rate but occasionally you
will get a clever cogs who will try it on, attempting to charge the normal rate
for each person in the cab, or just quadrupling the fare. Taxi fares should be
no more than 50LE for most journeys, and a short hop no more than 20LE. Taxi
bills even at these rates can add up over the weeks and months so we use the
microbuses. These are a very sensible extensive local transport network of
small minibuses, flagged down on demand, much as you would hail a London
ALCOHOL
It’s an odd thing, but while we were apartment seeking and eating every night at For You, we had beer or wine with every meal, but since we moved into the apartment we haven’t touched a drop, honest guv. Booze is available in a lot, but by no means all bars and restaurants and of course in hotels but in none of the bars or coffee shops near to us. If you want alcohol at home bars like For You sell it at take away prices. Supermarkets and local shops do not sell booze. A local company Cheers do deliver, we haven’t tried them….yet, English web site at www.gocheers.com/free-delivery.
ALCOHOL
It’s an odd thing, but while we were apartment seeking and eating every night at For You, we had beer or wine with every meal, but since we moved into the apartment we haven’t touched a drop, honest guv. Booze is available in a lot, but by no means all bars and restaurants and of course in hotels but in none of the bars or coffee shops near to us. If you want alcohol at home bars like For You sell it at take away prices. Supermarkets and local shops do not sell booze. A local company Cheers do deliver, we haven’t tried them….yet, English web site at www.gocheers.com/free-delivery.
SHOPPING
This is how we are currently managing
this essential task. Our views are ours, others have a different approach, some
people will only shop at Spinney’s, others will never go to El Dahar market,
and so on.
Within 10 minutes walk there is a Metro, a fair sized local supermarket catering mainly to expats. This is where we buy our meat and most of our fruit and veg. There are other greengrocers nearby but their wares leave something to be desired, Metro’s offerings, cost a little more but are worth it. It is the only place we have found to buy meat locally but anyway reckon this is best bought from a “proper shop”. We also buy tinned goods and stuff in jars like mayo. It is a bit pricier in general than Spinney’s and Abu Ashara, (see below).
Within 10 minutes walk there is a Metro, a fair sized local supermarket catering mainly to expats. This is where we buy our meat and most of our fruit and veg. There are other greengrocers nearby but their wares leave something to be desired, Metro’s offerings, cost a little more but are worth it. It is the only place we have found to buy meat locally but anyway reckon this is best bought from a “proper shop”. We also buy tinned goods and stuff in jars like mayo. It is a bit pricier in general than Spinney’s and Abu Ashara, (see below).
Just around the corner (2 mins) is a local shop we have christened Arkwright’s, it is, it seems open 24 hours and they are scrupulous in not over charging us. This means we go their almost everyday. They sell a wicked pickled veg. concoction at 40p for a big tub, and a local brand ice cream at £1.20 for 1 litre, and as it’s only a 2 minute walk home we can get it back unmolten, it’s also a short carry for the big water bottles we buy.
There is also a branch of Abu Ashara, a
local supermarket chain, about 10 mins walk in the opposite direction to Metro.
It is often cheaper than Metro, but as with supermarkets in the UK Sakala Square
The local bakery is opposite Metro,
freshly baked twice a day, 50p for 10 flatbreads.
Tiger stores is the local hardware shop.
Everything is priced, and they too are careful about charging correctly. They
are excellent value, for example power extension leads in Metro/Spinney’s start
at round £9. Tiger sell them for £3.50. We made the mistake of going out to
Spinney’s before visiting Tiger’s.
Spinney’s is an 80,000sq2
supermarket at Senzo Mall (by comparison our local Adsa superstore in the UK
However, buying meat remains a little bit
of a problem. Metro is expensive and when we went to the Sakala Square
Generally, the small local shops are
cheaper than supermarkets, the opposite of the UK, some are fair and honest in
their dealings with we foreigners, others, such as the fruit and veg shop
between our flat and Metro charged whatever he felt like and palmed us off with
his old stock. We have stopped using him. There is a brand new supermarket more
or less next door to the flat but it doesn’t seem to sell much and had a bit of
a hiccup on the charging front too, so we don’t go in there anymore either. We
are trying different shops and sticking with the ones who do right by us.
Living here in Egypt
LE
|
tax
|
Prices in Egyptian Pounds.
10LE = £1.00 = 0.85€ 8th April 2013 |
|||
Strawberries
|
market El
Dahar
|
1 kg
|
8.00
|
overcharged,
but 80p seemed excellent value for 1kg of the most excellent strawberries
|
|
gala melons
|
market El
Dahar
|
3 melons
|
5.00
|
each about the
size of a croquet ball
|
|
jar red
peppers in olive oil
|
spinney's
|
370ml
|
14.99
|
*
|
|
tin sweetcorn
|
spinney's
|
240g
|
6.49
|
*
|
|
tomato paste
jar
|
spinney's
|
300g
|
2.49
|
||
tahina/Hommus
paste tin
|
spinney's
|
400g
|
6.99
|
*
|
this comes
both in ready to eat and a version you need to mix with olive oil
|
sundried
tomatoes
|
spinney's
|
200g
|
14.75
|
||
tin peeled
tomatoes
|
spinney's
|
800g
|
11.99
|
*
|
|
sheet, double
fitted
|
spinney's
|
1
|
64.99
|
*
|
|
pan scrubbers
|
spinney's
|
3
|
8.49
|
*
|
Really thick
good quality extra long. I cut them in half
|
cling film
|
spinney's
|
200 sq ft
|
43.25
|
*
|
good quality
tough stuff, 685/6 yds x 115/8 ins 18.6m2 63m x 29.5cm an essential
|
aerial
concentrate powder
|
spinney's
|
4kg
|
71.99
|
*
|
|
mango juice
|
spinney's
|
1 ltr
|
6.25
|
||
pineapple
juices
|
spinney's
|
1 ltr
|
5.75
|
||
orange juice
|
spinney's
|
1 ltr
|
5.75
|
this version
only 20% OJ
|
|
apple juice
|
spinney's
|
1 ltr
|
5.75
|
||
plain yogurt
|
spinney's
|
1kg
|
10.10
|
||
yellow bell
peppers
|
spinney's
|
5
|
6.99
|
||
signal
toothpaste
|
spinney's
|
75ml
|
15.49
|
*
|
|
t towels
|
spinney's
|
4
|
23.98
|
*
|
Egyptian
cotton
|
spatula
|
spinney's
|
1
|
14.49
|
*
|
|
red onions
|
spinney's
|
½ kg
|
2.92
|
||
cucumber
|
spinney's
|
368g
|
1.47
|
the cucumbers
are the small ones, about the size of a decent sausage, and are stunning
|
|
eggs
|
spinney's
|
30
|
17.99
|
small, some
very small,
|
|
tub olives
|
spinney's
|
1kg
|
10.99
|
drained weight
700g.
|
|
red bell
peppers
|
spinney's
|
400grams
|
4
|
||
plug in liquid
filled mosquito killers
|
spinney's
|
2 machines
|
111.98
|
*
|
Essential
|
mince
|
spinney's
|
1.05kg
|
52.59
|
Aus. Shoulder boneless. very lean, no
fat at all.
|
|
dolmades
|
spinney's
|
1.05kg
|
18.19
|
These were
uncooked, which was a bit of a surprise. Ended up throwing them away
|
|
tub white
cheese
|
spinney's
|
750g
|
13.65
|
istanbuli cheese, very similar to Feta not sure what the difference is
|
|
coat hangers
|
spinney's
|
10
|
20.25
|
*
|
|
salt
|
spinney's
|
700g
|
3.25
|
||
funnels
|
spinney's
|
Set
|
12.99
|
*
|
essential for
decanting big water bottles. Set of 3 different sizes.
|
tomatoes
|
spinney's
|
1kg
|
7.49
|
||
frozen chicken
pane
|
spinney's
|
1kg
|
37.75
|
breaded
chicken, each piece about the size and shape of a decent hash brown
|
|
black pepper
|
spinney's
|
125g
|
12.75
|
||
colander with
bowl
|
spinney's
|
22.49
|
*
|
brilliant
concept, colander comes nested in matching bowl
|
|
electric
kettle
|
spinney's
|
1850 watt
|
85.00
|
*
|
Cordless
|
gas lighter
wand
|
spinney's
|
25.75
|
*
|
essential for
bottled gas cooker. Gas powered is better than piezzo electric, but will need
refilling
|
|
chicken
breasts
|
spinney's
|
0.532kg
|
19.15
|
||
beef koftas
|
spinney's
|
0.456kg
|
20.97
|
||
dinner plates
|
spinney's
|
4
|
91.90
|
||
According to the receipt, we bought
42.226 items from Spinney's. Tax of 56.30LE was included. It was levied on
the items marked with a star and works out at near enough 10%
|
|||||
water
|
local shop
|
7 litres
|
6.00
|
||
ice cream
|
local shop
|
12.00
|
Egyptian
brand.
|
||
pickled veg
|
local shop
|
4.00
|
a spicy
melange of carrots, olives, onions, chillies etc. 4LE buys enough to half
fill one of the ice cream tubs
|
||
kofta Kebabs
|
Metro
|
0.6kg
|
24.41
|
10 pieces
|
|
tin sweetcorn
|
Metro
|
340g
|
8.25
|
drained weight
250g
|
|
tahina/Hommus
paste tin
|
Metro
|
400g
|
9.95
|
||
tin Tuna in
Brine
|
Metro
|
185g
|
9.25
|
drained weight
70% of net weight
|
|
flatbread
|
local baker
|
10 pieces
|
5.00
|
||
plain yogurt
|
Abu Ashara
|
3kg
|
28.10
|
big, big tub
|
|
glass drink
coasters
|
Tiger Stores
|
4
|
3.50
|
these are
frosted glass squares with a Pilsner Urquell logo
|
|
clothes pegs
|
Tiger Stores
|
20
|
3.50
|
||
Nescafé
|
Metro
|
small jar
|
20.22
|
all in Arabic
but it looks like a 100 gram jar
|
|
3 socket power
cable
|
Tiger Stores
|
1
|
35.00
|
||
Lux shower gel
with puff
|
Abu Ashara
|
250ml
|
9.00
|
one of their
special offers came with a body puff
|
|
Sunsilk
Shampoo
|
Abu Ashara
|
400ml
|
8.90
|
one of their
special offers
|
|
cartons juice
|
local shop
|
1 ltr
|
7.00
|
Price varies
with fruit, from 6LE, the OJ is 50% juice, good value and no distance to
carry
|
|
lettuce
|
Metro
|
big one
|
2.2
|
Yes, you've
read that correctly, a titanic iceberg for 22p English pennies.
|
|
Mayo light
Heinz
|
Metro
|
210gms
|
9.5
|
||
Mosquito
killer refills
|
Local pharmacy
|
each
|
20
|
From Metro
22LE each, cheaper from the pharmacy next to Tiger. Looks like the bottles
supplied with the machines were not full as they only lasted 2 weeks. The new
ones have a life of 300hrs
|
|
