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Cairo · Downtown
The ahwas of El Borsa
Two pedestrian lanes entirely covered in chairs: Cairo's largest open-air café.
€ Budget
Around the old stock exchange, the cafés took over the street and lost their walls: one house's tables touch the next one's, and you stop knowing which serves what. You come in a group, late, for a shisha and a game of tawla, in a din that is Downtown's soundtrack.
The extra bit
Ask the shisha price before ordering: it varies from house to house though the tables look identical.
Know before you go
Cash. It is fullest after 10 pm, which is the best time; fewer women come alone here than elsewhere Downtown.
