COWORKING / COLIVING

SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT

Digital Nomad? Looking for a coworking space in Egypt so you can see those pyramids /\ /\ /\ in Cairo at the same time as getting some work done?

We show you the way in Cairo then down to Siwa Oasis for some remote working for a month in the day – hanging out with like-minded digital nomads at night in the hot springs out in the great sand sea.

We believe there are six main elements to a good co-working / co-living space.

COWORKING – Several coworking areas in the house & roof area.

Having reliable fast internet is obviously your base need – and that need and Egypt do not mix right? The big plus for coming to stay with us is we have 10 – 13mb download most of the time and 3G, sometimes 4G back up. Plus a really nice hassle free place to work from with like minded Digital Nomads. Normal travellers are not allowed to stay Somewhere Different, so no interaction from any one in work hours.

The main work areas is a quiet zone from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm at night. That’s “ get stuff done” time. There are several areas in the Siwa Villa where you can take a break and talk with fellow nomads during the day and the Skype room is planned and being built very soon.

We are based in a villa made of mud in a very quiet part of town behind the old Shali fort – yet only 5 minutes from the souk and restaurants and as much siwan cultural experiences as you want. The blacksmith is still here across the street, he is always around with who ever is sitting outside his forge for a chat – if you speak Siwan 🙂

COLIVING – A Villa made of mud in the Sahara Desert.

Somewhere Different co working co living space is based in a house called the Siwa Villa. It is a luxury villa that was built for families wanting high end desert tours and was very successful. That was before the revolution. Now it has been transformed into a coworking coliving space with all the required facilities. There are 4 rooms, one single, one double, one twin and one dorm with 4 beds in it. The rooms surround the main work area so you can work with others or switch back and forth to your room for calls or private work any time.

On the roof we have a fire pit where we gather after work in the evenings to try and not talk about work and plan our weekend trips out into the desert or to a new hot spring we have not visited yet. It has a spit for roasting lambs, goats, chickens… aubergines – whatever you fancy.

I have a jeep, I know my way around the desert and I like to go out there. So when we are all up for it, we can go out for day trips at the weekends when we are not working and even sleep out there. We do full moon walks – it’s pretty amazing to walk for hours with just the moon to guide you. There are then the hot springs – we can visit them too at the weekends or even during the week. The jeep has enough room to take us all and even the odd backpacker we find in town who wants to hang out. If you booked a local safari car to take you to the hot springs and the desert it work out more than your Somewhere Different Egypt membership. If you see our standard coworking coliving offering you will see that this is all included and desk/accommodation starting from €196 so… a pretty good deal all round.

COST – Monthly costs in Siwa, about the same as a few days in London.

You are a digital nomad, or about to become one. You will have heard Chiang Mai is the place for Digital Nomads due to the balance of wow factor, costs and good internet. Don’t take my word for it, see here on the travellers bible for cost comparison Numbeo Alexandria is our nearest big city in Egypt, it’s over 100% more expensive to live in Chiang Mai than Alex. Somewhere Different Blackpool is in England, one of the most expensive countries in the world. The cost to stay in our Blackpool house is the same price as when you stay in the desert or Chiang Mia. A pint of beer in our local here is cheaper than a beer in Chiang Mai . We provide cost effective places to work from, to live and to have fun similar to staying in a hostel or simple private accouncatoin anywhere travellers like to go.

Unless you are a rock star travel blogger or killed it on bitcoins – you want to keep your costs as low as possible. The less you need pay to have a nice standard of living as yuo travel around the world, the more competitive you are when it comes to pitching for work. If you are just starting out, it makes all the difference. Don’t forget when you finally decided to hit the road for a life or work and travel – the idea is to be in a place 5x more interesting than home and 5x cheaper to live. Siwa and Blackpool ticks the cost of living box and the wow box too as you will see.

WIFI - 12mbs and fiber on it's way. Plus 4g back up so pretty good.

We have fast reliable internet with speeds between 13mbs and 10mbs – so it’s fast enough for Skype video calls and hassle free browsing etc. We have a generator for when the power goes to keep the connection live. If the internet goes down, we have Vodafone 3G as back up, sometimes 4G now. It’s fast enough to Skype from and is rarely needed but it does happen – maybe once a month for a few hours. It has taken us around six months to get cables laid to the houses to get a much faster speed. The cable is now installed and I will update here when we have 4x speed than shown above which is the current download when creating this web page. As you can see it is 616% faster than the average speed in Egypt and we will be 4x faster very soon 🙂 Why? Because a coworking / coliving space is first and foremost about about having fast reliable internet.

It has taken us around six months to get cables laid to the houses to get a much faster speed. The cable is now installed and I will update here when we have 4x speed than shown above which is the current download when creating this web page. As you can see it is 616% faster than the average speed in Egypt and we will be 4x faster very soon 🙂 Why? Because a coworking / coliving space is first and foremost about about having fast reliable internet.

WEATHER - It doesn't get any better. Not too hot & sunny every day.

Ok maybe because I am an Englishman that we have this obsession with the weather when we travel. Somewhere Different’s live in co working space in Egypt is based in the beautiful desert oasis of Siwa in the Western Desert and has a pretty amazing climate. Check the weather in Egypt pages here to see what the weather will be like in the months you are looking to stay. One thing for sure – it will not rain when you are here. We get less rain than London gets snow.

Blackpool cannot claim the same. English weather is famous for it’s unpredictability and “four seasons in one day” party trick. The weather in English is for sure weather and not climate. We talk about it as much as we talk about football. Blackpool does not get really hot in the summer staying below 25 degrees and rarely below 5 degrees on even the coldest days in the winter. T

WOW - Berber culture, 100m dunes and hot springs

Sure we are entrepreneurs, we are business focused and we put working as a priority, but we are all travellers at heart or we would be working from the back room in our new house back home. You come to stay at Somewhere Different to get the work environment and community you need, you also come to stay as they name says – Somewhere Different. Experiencing a countries real culture is often hard to do when staying in downtown touristville. You are busy working and don’t have the time to integrate and meet real locals who do not work in tourism, to work out where to go to experience the local life as it really is. We do…. and we share that with you.

You only live once and so weekends Somewhere Different are all about experience the wow of where you are staying in a way you would never be able to if passing through on your own as s tourist. Check out or “wow’sectoins for coworking coliving Egypt and coworking coliving UK and see what we have planned for you to experience when you stay…. Somewhere Different.

SIWA OASIS - WESTERN DESERT - EGYPT

COWORKING / COLIVING

Siwa Oasis

Egypt