Insideotherplaces

Why you never have to leave home in Egypt

Back home, convenience shopping means a major supermarket chain has opened up a small version of their corporate behemoths in your area, putting your local shops out of business by pricing them out of the market. But hey! They’ve got some parking spaces, cheap booze and a cash machine so it can’t be all bad! Although big supermarkets have appeared in Egypt they cater more for wealthier citizens with cars, so, for the moment the local shop remains king of…

Bread is life

In Egypt, bread is so much more than something to eat, it is life itself and plays an essential role in Egyptian culture. Most days on Nasr street you can find a few old ladies begging and they are always polite and grateful for whatever modest offering I leave them. One morning recently, I apologized to one lady I’d given to before that I didn’t have any change to offer, but as I was going to the stall at the…

Egyptian construction fails

Over four thousand years ago Egyptians had advanced to the point of being able to produce some of the most iconic structures the world has ever known, some of which are still standing today. So, you would have thought that their ancestors living today should be able to knock up an apartment block without too much trouble. After all, they’ve had four millennia to perfect their craft. Although there are indeed many buildings that would, at least at first glance,…

An English extremist in Egypt

I have to say I was a trifle surprised to learn that our building manager considered me a potential member of Isis. Given that the number of middle aged, white Englishmen who had left our green and pleasant land to wage violent jihad in the Middle East has consistently hovered around the zero mark, at least no one could accuse him of ethnic profiling. Having already passed a pleasant two months in the apartment with my friend Ziad, that had…

The Egyptian Highway Code

Thinking of driving in Egypt? Don’t! Unless you are considering shortening your life span considerably or have an uncontrollable urge to invest in car body repairs. Don’t take this to mean Egyptian drivers are unskilled: it actually takes great skill to avoid getting killed in the malestrom of automotive chaos that is Egyptian traffic. In fact, they have the lowest road death rate in Africa, not far behind the European average. What you need to understand is that they operate…

An Englishman abroad in the time of Covid and Brexit.

How Coronavirus and Brexit have shaped my travels and plans for the year ahead

Africa in five pictures

Five positive things about Africa in five images. Only a fool would try to summarise the glorious variety of African culture in just five ways but there are some common themes you can find throughout sub Saharan Africa. All too often discussion of the continent revolves around negative issues, so I would like to concentrate on some of the many positive aspects that the media tends to ignore. I’ve left out North Africa from this piece as it’s culturally distinct…

Africa as a destination for history

Apart from North Africa the continent is rarely seen as a destination for lovers of history, that needs to change. Like me you’re probably enduring the interminable state of lockdown, wondering when it will ever end, perpetually scrolling through social media in search of more crumbs of distraction. Well, help is at hand travel fans. The BBC have kindly posted to YouTube a fifteen part documentary on the history of Africa that will comfortably use up over eleven hours of…

Black women travelers and why you should hear their experiences

What’s so important about black, women travelers you might ask? For starters, recent years have seen a lot more of them, either bloggers, journalists, YouTubers or Instagrammers. Irrespective of their identity there’s plenty who are simply good at what they do, covering the whole range of travel styles, from back packing to luxury. Many are westerners but Africans are also adding their own insights into the subject. There’s simply no reason to imagine that what they’ve got to say is…

Love Latin music? Don’t go to Latin America

I’m sure most of you would recognise Latin music when you hear it, even though you might have trouble describing it. “Sounds like salsa”, you might say before some pedant informs you, “actually this is merengue”. Terms like bossa nova and rumba float indefinably in the public consciousness, with echoes of plastic buttons on the rhythm options on cheap, 1970’s electric organs. At least for old farts like me. Maybe these days it comes as a largely ignored, free sample…

Insideotherplaces

Why you never have to leave home in Egypt

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Bread is life

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Egyptian construction fails

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An English extremist in Egypt

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The Egyptian Highway Code

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An Englishman abroad in the time of Covid and Brexit.

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Africa in five pictures

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Africa as a destination for history

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Black women travelers and why you should hear their experiences

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Love Latin music? Don’t go to Latin America

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