How to get a Visa Extension in Cairo Egypt

You go to Mogamma building, at the Tahrir square.                     Sep. 2017

What to take:

• 1 copy of your passport
• 1 copy of Entry-Visa
• 1 passport picture 
• Money... I needed 570le  for a 6 months visa

Go early... at 8am, the queues are smaller.

go to the first floor, security, walk into the right hallway, keep on walking till the end, turn right to the next hallway, there's lots of people waiting. Somewhere in the middle of this hallway, opposite another hallway to the right, there is a desk, get here an application form and fill it in. Don't queue to get the form, just go aside and ask/take the form.

Go to window at the right handsite of window 13. There is no number or description.  Here you present your passport, picture and the copies. You can ask up to 3 months, if you need a 6 months visa or more, you need to get an extra signature first from the police in the corner opposite the office-window (men in white with stripes)

You receive the form back with the bill, you need to pay that at the bank office.
Go to the bank office, go back for that, halfway the hallway, there is another hallway to the left and a little bit further you will find the Bank office.  Pay the bill. Mine was 570le. Last year it used to be 50le

You get a papers with a stamp and a receipt.
Now go to window 13 and they will add information into a book and to your visa.  Be sure you know the address of the place where you live or show a business card from a hotel.
Beware that you need to get your visa extension in the region where you stay. If you stay in a rented flat it can get complicated, you need to prove that with bills from electricity etc... It's easiest to bring a business card from a hotel from downtown.

They will tell you to come back the next morning with your passport at 9am.
window 38

Next morning come back at 9am, give them your passport and they tell you you can come to collect at 1am at window 38

Then at 1am...  wait at the window together with the others, until your name is called. Can take a while. Don't push, no need to be in the front... just arrive at 9 and hopefully you have good karma.

enjoy the process 😀😀

Cairo is a car graveyard...

Cairo, Egypt, has a population of 10 million people and probably about the same number of cars or more. People drive new and old cars. There's almost no public parkings, so they park on the streets, wherever they can. New cars without a scratch or a bump are only seen in the shops. As soon as a car leaves the shop, it gets scratched, bumped. It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when".

When a car stops driving, they park it on the street. And forget about it. Every street has those cars. Flat tires, sinking in the dust, plants growing under, next, on them... It's heaven for the lovers of oldtimers for sure!

But before they are sent to the graveyard, they drive it until it falls apart. There's no sign of any governmental yearly technical inspection. Everything is allowed. A typical sign you notice at night. You want to cross a street and vaguely you see a car approaching at high speed. It's dark and car has no lights. Fortunately you are aware that this can happen and you are prudent. You let the car pass, thinking he forgot to put on his lights. But when you see the car from the backside, there's lights! 

This happens all the time... at least 1 out of 20 drives at night without lights. It's scary.

Welcome to Egypt, formerly known as the land of the camels, today the land of the cars.

Enjoyable driving in Cairo, Egypt

I was visiting my friends in Cairo. I was in Cairo before, februari 2011. Back then, I thought Cairo had the worst traffic in the world. But I was not driving then... it was a perception from the passenger seat.
I found a hotel in downtown Cairo and my friend drove me from the airport to the hotel. Google Maps as a GPS did an excellent job.

Cairo is a big city! There's a metro, that works really well, but unlike London or Paris, it's a fairly small metro system... only 78km, while the city is much larger then Paris or London. So all other traffic happens by car.

The day I arrived, there was a football match. The Africa cup, Egypt vs. Burkina Faso. No need to tell you that the traffic was worse. Unfortunately we had to drive a few times from one part of the city to the center and back. Traffic was really bad. All that time I was observing my friend driving. It was clear that in this heavy traffic you had to go with the flow and take any opportunity to move on, else someone else would. So drive close to the car in front of you, don't give space. Most of the time there's no lanes, and roads that are ment for 2 cars become roads for 3 cars. Basically they fill in the space... More space, more cars next to each other. Give and take 10cm, so the mirrors do not touch. But this is only at very slow speed. traffic is saturated. Get to know the dimensions of your car!
When the traffic flows, there's more space and cars dance over the road. Left, right, everywhere. There seem no rules. You stay left or right or in the middle, as you like. They will pass you at the other side if they want. Most cars are driving at a moderate speed. Only few are fast and furious.

So we were stuck in the traffic for an hour, late in the afternoon. And it was a long day already... I arrived at 3am at night at the airport. No sleep... I noticed however, that my friend was soo tired and I asked: "shall I drive?" We stopped, changed seats and off I went.
At first I had to get used to the car. Automatic gear, I always drive manual gear in my country! Then the breaks, the dimension... But it took only a few minutes to adapt. I had time, traffic was sooo slow. My friend could relax, and strangely enough, I relaxed too, while driving.

My phone, with google maps, was laying down, near the gearbox and while driving, I glimpsed at it to find my way... It's not perfect, not as good as a car-gps but it helped me a lot.

The following days, whenever we went somewhere with the car, I was driving. And I enjoyed it. I discovered that when you relax into it, it is comfortable driving… just follow the flow and do what they do. Don't judge, everything is different, don't compare, see everything in wonder and laugh. It makes the driving a whole different experience. I would every brave soul that is a good driver encourage to do it. You may enjoy it as much as I do.

I have been driving in many big cities and countries… Coming from brussels, one of the worst traffic congested cities in the west, I drove in Mexico city, Bali, Palermo, London, Paris, to name a few…

So let's summarise, what did you see, how to make driving in Cairo, Egypt enjoyable:

• Get a Phone-holder to use your phone as GPS, I bought one to clip on the ventilator
• Get a USB-lighter plugin to charge your phone
• RELAX, dance on the street
• Humor and wonder. Don't compare, don't judge. SMILE.
• When you want to take a lane or a direction and you move from one lane to another, just move slowly into that direction and you will be able to push yourself through, they will allow you and they will accept that. It's normal behaviour.
• Many streets are one direction, sometimes they drive in the wrong direction. So did I. No problem. Just smile.
• Use whatever lane you like, DANCE.
• There's U-turns to go back all the time.
• There's very little traffic lights, when it flows, it flows...
• Bridges are helping you to go through the city quickly.
• Slowly drive over the speed bumps 
• To park, drive around in circles and be creative, there's always something. People will help you park for a few pounds.  
• Be aware that at night some cars are driving with out lights!!! 
• Egyptians do NOT know how to drive! I guess they buy a license and start driving.
• There's no rules, you can do anything, and they do! 
• Look in your right mirror ALL THE  TIME. Cars will pass you by from the right and cut you off. It's not their fault, it will always be yours. Adapt, don't fight it. 

So if you are an experienced driver, enjoy driving and drove in big cities, don't hesitate... It's fun!