The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

On the corner of Ismail
Mohamed and Ibn El Nabih Streets in Zamalek is Monte Carlo, a small and bright orange gift
shop that seems to have been there forever.

The great thing about this shop
is their gift wrapping service. They carry a wide variety of wrapping papers
and ribbons in all sorts of colours. Depending on the size of your present, the
whole process shouldn’t set you back more than 20LE.

Once you pick up the paper that
you want, the guy at the shop won’t be content with just wrapping your gift
like a deli sandwich; he’ll go to great extents to make your present look fresh
with coordinating colours, glitter and the whole works.

This little shop stocks
everything cute and colourful from mugs to teddy bears and everything in
between; a better way to describe it would be ‘things that you’d find in your younger
sibling’s room.’

The tiny but elongated shop is
filled with shelves stocked full with merchandise, with the shelves along the
glass shop-front doubling as window display.  

Looking for a gift for your
brother? Well, an extremely cool collection of football club miniatures was
spotted for 30LE, while a not-so-cool collection of model cars was spotted for
100LE.  

If you’re looking for a gift
for your younger sister, you’re out of luck; most of the ‘girly’ toys here are
extremely outdated or damaged. However, they do offer a warm collection of
stuffed toys starting at 40LE.  

The shop also stocks an
ancient collection of Arabic CDs, DVDs and an odd assortment of English DVDs
that aren’t old enough to be considered vintage (with the exception of The Wizard of Oz), and definitely not recent
enough to buy.

While most of the shop’s
merchandise is old and covered in dust, you’ll occasionally find a fascinating ashtray
or lamp that is worth the tedious effort of sifting through the shelves.

Nonetheless, f you’re looking for a last-minute
purchase or you want something quickly wrapped on your way to a birthday bash;
then Monte Carlo is your solution.