Casual_Cairo

Lisa, I live in Heliopolis. Who does your husband work for?

lisa1420

Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. He is the VP Egypt and GM of the Nile City Fairmont. They are still trying to get his hotel opened. He was originally at the Fairmont Heliopolis when he moved there and then moved over to Nile City.

Casual_Cairo

I had heard there was going to be a hotel at the Nile City buidlings, but was seeing really no evidence of it. So it will be a Fairmost, when it opens, hummm. Interesting.

When you come this summer, maybe we can meet up.

Casual_Cairo

Fairmont, not Fairmost....sorry

lisa1420

The hotel is situated between the 2 towers at the Nile City Buildings. The have the Gold dome roofs. Hopefully opening in oct 2009.
It would be fun to meet up with you. He lives in Zamalek and I have 2 teenagers a boy 18 and a girl 16.
Do you work in Cairo and are you an Egyptian or an ex-pat? The more we visit the more people I get to know!

My personal email is [email protected] so email me on that and hopefully we can get together for a coffee.

jenmakin

Casual_Cairo -- I think that I will head off to the tent makers bazaar first. Will the cab driver know what I'm referring to? How easy is it getting a cab in Cairo? Thanks!

Casual_Cairo

Getting a cab to Cairo shouldn't be too difficult. It may be expensive as you are stuck using hotel taxis, and have no other choice.
NO, he will have NO idea what you want if you call it the Tent Makers Market, and sorry, I don't know what the Arabic is for it either, but then there is a good chance he wouldn't know what that is either. They all aren't going to know some of these more obscure areas.
I'd suggest you take him to the Khan el Khalili (Midan Hussein) and follow the instructions above to walk to the Tent Makers if you think you can find it....over the Green Bridge etc.
Warning, Will Rodgers! Warning! As soon as your driver knows you want to go to the Khan el Khalili he will know you want to shop and he will try to offer taking you to other markets where he can take a commission.
Take a business card with your hotel name on it and address in Arabic so you can get back to your hotel without having the driver wait for you unless you want to pay him to do so.

Good luck.

jenmakin

You're a huge help, thank you so very much!!

Grcxx3

jenmakin - I think I have a map a detailed map of the Khan that might include the Tent Makers Market. I'll check when I get home. If so, I could make a copy and send it to you.

Grcxx3

I can't find the map I was thinking of - but I have several others that might help. If you are interested, let me know how I can contact you and I will make copies and sent them.

Casual_Cairo

The one land mark that is close that many people may understand when you ask is BAB ZOO WAY LA (I wrote that out as phonetically as possible).
That is one of the remaining ancient gates. If you make it to the Bab Zuweila, the tent makers market is across the perpendicular steet to the one you are standing on under the gate (to the south) and inside the covered area you see about 50 meters away +/-.

Casual_Cairo

To be clear - the tent makers market is south of the gate. Khan el Khalili is to the north of the gate.

jenmakin

Thank you to both for your help - can be reached at [email protected]

Grcxx3

I'll get those scanned this afternoon and try to email them to you. If that doesn't work - we'll go the snail-mail route.