I had a business trip in Ein El Sokhna, 100 KM to the east of Cairo. I shared the room with my friend Mahmoud. The resort was excellent with friendly and helpful staff, golf areas, golf cars for moving within the resort, singers with perfect performance, GYM with good equipments, tidy and well-equipped rooms. However, nothing is perfect. The beach is quite far from the rooms and the lobby. There is no water activities/sports to do on the beach. Swimming in their beach is not very enjoyable to many since the depth saturates at ~120 cm. The resort is very empty. We could hardly find two/three other rooms busy. Also, it's far from any other place in Ein Sokhna, making it kind of boring as soon as you get used to the places and activities in the resort.

We spent most of the first day in meetings. Then we had lunch in the excellent restaurant of the resort. We enjoyed the variety, presentation and deliciousness of the buffet so much. Enough to say that selection of the resort was due to recommendation for the restaurant's cheif. After that, we had a number of in-doors team building activities. Then we moved to the beach and practiced more team building activities. In one of the activities, my manager and I were inter-connected by two ropes, and the goal was to get our freedom. I'm not sure which skill is developed by this game, but at least it was fun.

I can't remember the last time I played soccer; it must be a very long-time ago. After dinner, the younger generation of employees got a ball, put the rocks marking the goal boundaries, and let fun begin. As you may guess, I'm not a good (not even a medium) soccer player. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the time so much. It had such a great impact on my morale. It made me feel younger. It made me feel free. I have to find some time for practicing on a regular basis. It wasn't long after playing soccer that I fell asleep.

The next day, I woke up late. My legs muscles were begging me to stay on the bed, but I had to catch the meetings. Fortunately, this time meetings lasted till 2:30 PM only, leaving a couple of free hours before our bus leaves. In a matter of ten minutes, nine of us were already in the swimming pool. It took us more ten minutes to have 18 colleagues fighting to score the ball in the opponent's goal. Water polo is such a cool sport, although it's easy to turn into a fight.

It took us an hour from the resort gates to Carreffour-El-Maadi. And more than an hour from Carreffour-El-Maadi to Cournish-El-Maadi, the destination of our bus. Go Cairo go!

Khan el-Khalili

We have a visitor from Alexandria, my sister-in-law Asmaa, and it's shame to just stay at home. This time, we picked Khan el-Khalili.

The taxi dropped us at Masjid Mohammed Bay Abu'l-Dhahab (first image). We took the pedestrian underground to reach Midan El Hussein; a green square in front of Masjid el-Hussein (which is claimed to host the head of the grandson of our Prophet Muhammad). The Midan is covered by tourism police. Inside the masjid, you shall find people (Muslims call them: Do'at el-Koboor) calling Sayedna El-Hussein and asking him to improve their living conditions ...etc. These activities have nothing to do with Islam, and Islam is not responsible for such ignorant acts.


Khan el-Khalili lies at the west of Masjid el-Hussein. It's a major commercial quarter in Islamic Cairo. It's composed primarily of bazaars selling souvenirs to tourists. Some bazaars exhibit jewellery, antiques, papyrus, oriental clothes, carpets, perfume, spices, musical instruments, masks, or a mix of them (second image). Like Sharm el-Sheikh, many bazaar sellers have the skill to identify the nationality of tourists and talk with them in their languages to grab their attention to the goods.

Khan el-Khalili is also famous for El-Fishawi (third image), an oriental cafe that offers shisha, mint tea, Arab coffee and a variety of other drinks. This famous cafe has been open day and night every day of the year for over two centuries! On the edge of Khan el-Khalili square confronting Masjid el-Hussein, there's a few restaurants popular for offering pigeons on their plates as well as other oriental dishes (fourth image).


At the southern edge of Khan el-Khalili square, El-Muski is a long, narrow, congested street that ties Khan el-Khalili to Midan el-Ataba. The first half of El-Muski street is occupied by bazaars. Halfway along El-Muski street, we crossed Bur Said street, and then El-Muski street turned into a non-touristic market of clothes. El-Muski ends with Midan el-Ataba, which the famous Egyptian writer Yusuf Idris described it in "The Dregs of the City" as "a madhouse of pedestrians and automobiles, screeching wheels, howling klaxons, the whistles of bus conductors and roaring motors".

Khan el-Khalili inspired the Nobel prize winner, the Egyptian novelist, Naguib Mahfouz in several novels (e.g. Midaq Alley, Palace Walk). Khan el-Khalili was named after the prince Djaharks el-Khalili, who built a caravanserai there during the days of Sultan Barquq.

There's a must-have book for explorers of Egypt "The Rough Guide to Egypt". It was yet another wonderful idea from Dr. Nayer (Father of the Youth) to get this book.