The Middle East Road Show has reached its next tour stop: Egypt!

It’s Wednesday, 4 September and the world is slowly waking up from its summer holiday. After a relatively short three-hour flight, I land in Cairo in the afternoon, where I initially have a few problems on arrival with my visa. Apparently it can only be paid for in dollars, which is completely new to me, and the ATMs that I find on site only dispense the local currency, the Egyptian pound. It takes a lot of time and persuasion before a bank branch takes pity on me and sells me a Visa in local currency (bank branches actually do this here) and I can finally pass through immigration.

I travel on towards Giza by Uber. My hotel is close to the pyramids of Giza, but I didn’t choose this location because of that, but because some of my appointments are nearby. I finally reach the hotel in the early evening, which is in the middle of a huge conversion area called Newgiza and there is literally nothing here apart from sand, building sites and half-finished buildings plus my hotel. Still, I’m glad I decided against staying in Cairo city, as it takes a seriously long time to get from there to this area.

After unpacking my suitcase and settling in, I go to one of the hotel restaurants, which offers a fusion cuisine between Japanese and Peruvian that is completely new to me, and I round off the evening with sushi and a Peruvian fish dish in pea foam.
Tomorrow morning I have my first appointment with a preform and closure manufacturer.

It’s Thursday and I’m on my way to New Modern Plast in a new Editourmobil, this time another minivan. The company is based in New Cairo, about three quarters of an hour from my hotel. The company manufactures a number of preform and cap types for various applications in the beverage and edible oil industry and relies on equipment from Husky, Sacmi and one Netstal line is also there). The company owns a number of warehouses in the industrial estate and, in addition to the beverage industry, Modern Plast is also active in the manufacture of plastic pallets.

After a tour of the preform production (where I also discover a lone Netstal machine) and the closure production a few hundred metres away, I head back to my hotel. I still have a few open appointment requests that need to be finalised.

As in the UAE and KSA, you have to remain flexible in the region and I would like to plan something extra for this Saturday. Friday and Saturday are also classic weekend days here, where you can rarely plan anything far in advance. Unfortunately, an appointment with the Egyptian branch of Oasis, whose factory I had visited in KSA, cannot take place because the team there has no capacity. So we’ll have to wait and see. In any case, my next fixed appointments are on Sunday.

Both Friday and Saturday are quiet. Unfortunately there are no appointments, so I have a bit of time to write and take care of the rest of the tour planning, because boss Alex is also in the starting blocks for his tour sections in Oman, Qatar and Kuwait and there’s still a bit of organising to do. I’m also planning a short visit to downtown Cairo, as I probably won’t be able to get there otherwise due to time constraints.

On Saturday afternoon I’m finally on my way, first to the Zamalek district, as there’s supposed to be a small record shop here that you have to see (as a collector, which I am), according to the internet.
When I arrive at ‘Sherry’s’, the name of the small shop that also sells ancient vintage music players, I end up buying a few cassettes – old Egyptian vocal and percussion recordings, as well as (on the advice of the very nice older salesman) the soundtrack of a well-known Egyptian movie from the 1970s. I’ve been a big fan of analogue music recordings for decades and always try to add local releases to my collection on my many travels.

After shopping, I make a short detour to the recommendation of a Viennese friend (thanks, Bine!), ‘The Room Art & Space Café in the Garden City neighbourhood. As I’m a bit tight on time, I unfortunately only spend about 30 minutes here before continuing towards the Maadi neighbourhood, where I have an appointment with the owner of the Cairo fashion brand ‘KULT’ to pick up a few t-shirts.

The label has a Berlin influence and makes very cool designs in small editions. Back at the hotel, I sit in the large courtyard for a while, eat frutti di mare and work on emails and this blog.
Let’s see how things turn out tomorrow, as I have two appointments coming up. I have an appointment with the recycler Bariq and the converter Aquah Group.

Your Kay Barton