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First Mall
If you visit the Orman Botanical Garden and after that the
Giza Zoo, upon departure, you probably will be enthusiastic
about the comparatively small entrance fees for these
attractions. Just 1 Egyptian Pound (LE) together, around 30
cent, will get you into both of that ancient gardens. And if
you are a family of, let's say, four persons, you will have
saved at the end a tidy sum of money, considering the
sometimes exorbitantly high entrance fees of similar Western
facilities.
In case you want to spend your savings immediately, let's
go to the First Mall, just in front of the Giza Zoo. The
mall's building connects the two newly opened towers of
Cairo's First Residence, a housing complex, which includes
the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo (see Hotel Review), a casino
and some of the most expensive apartments in Egypt's
capital. It is rumored that the country's legendary belly
dancer queen, Fifi Abdou, bought an apartment here for 3
Million Dollars, but I don't know if this is true or not.
(If she could only sell all the rumors about her, she would
be the first belly dancer around the world to become rich
completely without dancing.)
The First Mall houses a number of shops of well-known
international designer labels. You will find Versace as well
as Bvlgari or Aigner. Other Egypt-based companies like
Concrete Clothes or Maghrebi Optics having their outlets
here sell their own collections as well as all sorts
of international brands like Hugo Boss clothes or Police
glasses. It may seem to be boring to have shops recommended
which sell the same items as at home, but first of all, not
all the shops there do this, and secondly, sometimes, not
always, these things are considerably less expensive than at
home. Bargain hunters will find good buys.
Egypt is famous for its high quality, long staple cotton,
and the land has become one of the biggest cotton
producers around the world. So it is no surprise that Hugo
Boss and Pierre Chardin, to mention only two, manufacture
their clothes partially in Egypt. But among experts, Egypt
is also well known for its properly trained and
creative fashion designers. Don't hesitate to have a look
into shops whose names are unknown to you. Concrete,
Dalydress, MM - all of them offer first class clothes, often
styled following the latest trends. In the Dalydress
Signature Men shop I found exclusive suits including vest
for between 1,000 and 1,400 Pound ($ 280-400), and at
Concrete's I saw equally elegant, even more trendy suits for
just the half of that money.
Beside all sorts of fashion, men's, women's and
children's, you will find shops for furniture fabrics, perfumes
and cosmetics, watches, gifts, silver, optiques and
antiques. If your children had rather toys than, let's say,
the marvelous copper work, mirrors, chandeliers and chests,
made by the famous Randa Fahmy Metalwork, then you have to
disappoint your dears. No toy shop in the mall. And if they
don't stop to whine, a pharmacy provides you with Rivo, the
Egyptian brand of aspirin.
La Gourmandise Brasserie, a cafeteria in the middle of
the airconditioned mall, surrounds a fountain and a catwalk
for fashion shows, offers cappuccino and fresh orange juice
for LE 6 ($ 1.70), freshly squeezed Mango juice for LE 10 ($
3) and also alcoholic beverages, wine, aperetifs, whiskies
and wine, but, as always in Egypt, much more expensive than
what you are used to at home: as for example beer for 12 to
25 Egyptian Pound the bottle ($ 3.40-7.20). In the cafeteria
you can sit and watch the elevators - of glass and framed in
gold - coming up and down, a very sedative activity.
If the food at La Gourmandise Brasserie seems to be too
expensive in your opinion, then leave the mall and enter one
of the Pizza Hut or Kentucky Fried Chicken branches beside
the building, and your children will appreciate this. The
neighborhood around the mall is one of the places in Cairo
which only recently gained a touch of urban flair, with some
nice terrace cafés along the Nile, a TGI Friday's and a
Fishmarket outlet on the Americana boat ( try the Molokhiyya
at Fishmarket), the especially beautiful by night Pharaos
Floating Restaurant and the large two-story Alfa supermarket
- and not to forget, the gardens, the zoological as well as
the botanical. But I don't want to keep you in the dark:
Neither the Giza Zoo nor the Orman Garden are really
sightseeing highlights, at least not because of their
animals and plants. But if you want to get known to locals,
then I can highly recommend both places. Especially on
Fridays and on public or religious holidays they are
jam-packed with chirpy day trippers of all ages.
In the evening, after sunset, at the end of that eventful
day, please, don't forget to take the Nile Bus back
downtown, these little, quick ferries which have their
landing place 200 meters/600 feet north of TGI Friday's. For
only LE 1 (30 cent) you can't get a better view of the
illuminated city from the river.
First Mall, located at the First Residence building. 35,
Giza Street, Giza, Cairo. |
