About CasualCairo

Status:

Expatriate  

Currently Lives:

Heliopolis, Al Qahirah, Egypt

Citizen Of:

United States

HR/Relo
Professional:

Provider of Expat-Related Services & Products

Some Forum Posts:

Egypt: Shipping:

Not 2 years! What does your shipping company tell you? They are the ones you should be quizzing about this. No?

Egypt: Relocation to Egypt:

Do you have to pay for it yourself? Are you at risk of needing serious health care? If the answer to the first is yes and the second one is no, then I would seriously evaluate if you need health insurance. Healthough care in Egypt is relatively cheap. I don't know where you are coming from, but if it's America, you will find health care here affordable. Perhaps more affordable than insurance. Medicines; those that are currently available, are also affordable. How long do you expect to be here and what problems do you think you might need insurance for? I'm in my 60s and looking at needing a hip replacement currently. The costs, according to the doctors seem they will be maybe around $6000 USD. From what I'm hearing on the cost of insurance, less than a years worth of insurance payments will more than pay for this operation. Why would I pay for insurance? Now if a company is paying for it for you. ....totally different story.

Egypt: Cairo Festival City, Kattameya, Cairo or New Cairo or 6th October City:

I beg to differ. New Cairo is miles better and of course closer to the sea too. About 60-90 minutes to Ain Sukhna only.

Egypt: Birth Control Pills in Cairo:

Are you here now? If so you may know that many medicines and pharmaceuticals are missing from our pharmacies these days. I believe birth control pills are one of them that is getting harder to find. I don't use them, but have seen discussions on Facebook groups for women where when one woman found them at some specific pharmacy she advised everyone so they could go get them. You don't need prescriptions for most drugs here but again (maybe because of the currency crisis) many drugs are missing. If you are coming on holiday, I suggest you bring enough for your stay. If you are moving here you best go talk to your doctor about alternative birth control if you expect to be sexual active.

Egypt: Coming Soon:

You'll find everything you need in Facebook. Do a search for groups that interest you in Egypt.

Egypt: Oil Painting class for females:

Are you aware that few of the members if this forum actually live in Egypt? You'd be better off advertising on Facebook. Cairo Expats allows ANYBODY to advertise anything. Expats in Egypt is the same. Both pretty sad groups but they allow advertising

Egypt: Visa process help please:

The only thing I'm going to say is DON'T marry him and think you're going to be happy living here in Egypt unless you've been here and seen the place. Actually I'd search for groups on Facebook for women like you in your position. There are loads of them and many of the women live here already so I think you'll get a lot better and practical information there. You'll find women that have a lot of experience with this. Some successful stories and some not. Best of luck but DO have a hack up plan in case things go south in this relationship.

Egypt: RELATIVE COMMUTING TIMES:

Unless your company will provide your wife and kids with a car and driver, living in Kayamayia is the pits, I think. It is nice, if you're a golfer but it's pretty boring unless she likes to hang out with the "oil wife" set - that is who is there. The ONLY shopping and entertainment is a fair distance away that requires a car and driver. I would opt for Maadi of the two until you have lived here a year and experienced visiting people in both areas and understand what it would be like. There are several people I know that live in Maadi that work in Zamalek, and they are happy with their choice. I don't know what your "family" means, but if you have kids, Maadi is a good choice. What school will your company pay for them to go to? Hopefully CAC. It seems to be the only one with an EXCELLENT rating these days. The others - even some of the British schools are not doing as well. If you have no kids, or your kids are older, then you might still consider Zamalek. Zamalek is seriously the Cultural Center of Cairo. I have no idea how old you are, but if you happen to be in your 30s and want a nice social life, Zamalek is the place to live. It has it's down side and that would be seen definately if you have little kids as there just aren't that many nice places to take them. Good luck with your decision.

Egypt: Is it safe?:

I don't know where you are from or why you figure you'd be such a target for kidnappings and such. Are you tremendously well known? Wealthy? High powered and in a high position in a company like an oil company? A journalist with an agenda the government might take issue with? If any of those are true, then it's possible you could be worth kidnapping by the knuckleheads that want money or to stifle your written word. The vast majority of us foreigners here don't fall into those catagories and we are perfectly fine. I live in a compound just a bit further out than Rehab. Once you see Rehab you'll see it is just a calm little suburb. Calm may not be exactly the right word as its pretty busy these days. If your company will consider putting you in Madinaty (where I am) instead, it's even better. It's further from town but quieter and newer. There is a bus to Rehab running every 30 minutes. Both Rehab and Madinaty were developed by the same company so they work well together hand in hand. If you do end up in Rehab, don't be afraid. There are lots of foreigners living there. Rehab has buses going into the city, I think, every 20 minutes so you can always go into town for activities and such. We have Uber taxis if you're nervous about using normal taxis or the bus and you've got a good pay check. Heck if you're really a kidnapping target, no doubt you'll have your own car and driver assigned to you so no worries. Seriously - unless you fall into any of the catagories mentioned above, you'll be fine. Cairo is not Baghdad by any stretch. And thank God Egypt is not Libya or Syria. Let us know when you arrive. ??

Egypt: English native friend in alexandria:

Ahmed, this is REALLY an inappropriate place for you to be looking for "friends" that are requested only to respond to you via "private message". While YOUR intentions might be decent, the forum name is EXPAT EXCHANGE, therefore, you being Egyptian and your first message is asking to meet expats via "private message" makes me (and perhaps orhers) suspect of your intentions. Please consider other ways you might make yourself useful on this forum. Thank you.

Date Joined:

9/10/2003

Total Posts:

195

Posts/Day:

0.04