Living long term in Egypt

elrasho · 16 Sep 2010 at 09:36

Im going to live in Egypt for a few months. Any advice you guys could give me? I'm going out there to find work, I need to try something different.

I've been planning this for months. I know I can get a tourist VISA at their airport and finding a place to live is a word of mouth game, but I was wondering if any other fellow OCer had done something like this?

tres · 16 Sep 2010 at 09:38

Why Egypt?

elrasho · 16 Sep 2010 at 09:43

Because I've always wanted to go and check it out, also I want to learn Egyptian Arabic

PardonTheWait · 16 Sep 2010 at 10:02

Have you ever been there before?

elrasho · 16 Sep 2010 at 10:05

PardonTheWait said:
Have you ever been there before?

Nope never been, but done extensive research and know I will be able to live there.

paradigm · 16 Sep 2010 at 10:07

Can't imagine ever wanting to live there. In fact I really disliked being on holiday there after a few days.

4T5 · 16 Sep 2010 at 10:13

paradigm said:
Can't imagine ever wanting to live there. In fact I really disliked being on holiday there after a few days.

Look at this smashed pic on the wall Nice English man !!!

O Yer Crap ain't it !!!

You give me 100 piastres !!!

**** OFF !!!

Egypt = Crap hole.

PapaLazaru · 16 Sep 2010 at 10:32

OP, what kind of work are you looking for?

Anything specialised, or just general work?

elrasho · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:00

FortyFive said:
Look at this smashed pic on the wall Nice English man !!!

O Yer Crap ain't it !!!

You give me 100 piastres !!!

**** OFF !!!

Egypt = Crap hole.

What are you talking about? Someone asked you for money just so you could look at a picture? And your saying the whole of Egypt is crap based on this one event?

PapaLazaru said:
OP, what kind of work are you looking for?

Anything specialised, or just general work?

Well I've got 5 years experience in IT and could always teach English

DJMK4 · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:03

Unless you are staying in one of the nice resort complexes, it will be crap, the main parts of Egypt is pretty dire living I thought?

sammo62 · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:03

Take diarrhoea tablets with you - last (and only) time I went to Egypt I lost a stone in 10 days.

Scuba Diving is pretty awesome there though.

4T5 · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:07

elrasho said:
What are you talking about? Someone asked you for money just so you could look at a picture? And your saying the whole of Egypt is crap based on this one event?

You'll know what i mean once you get there & it's not One event it's a Constant barrage of Begging peasant scum bags & that's Me saying that.

elrasho said:
Well I've got 5 years experience in IT and could always teach English

They know all the English they need to know = Give me money !!!

O well at least they haven't destroyed there history though by building markets & slums right up to the greatest land marks in the World.

paradigm · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:12

FortyFive said:
You'll know what i mean once you get there & it's not One event it's a Constant barrage of Begging peasant scum bags & that's Me saying that.

You ride my camel? Only 400 egyptian pound, I give you good price.

Not to mention the fact that you WILL have the 2-bob-bits for the majority of your time there. Utterly filthy hole.

FortyFive said:
O well at least they haven't destroyed there history though by building markets & slums right up to the greatest land marks in the World.

/Looks at Pyramids [turn 180º] /Looks at McDonalds

TheMeekon · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:23

I went for a week and loved it, but I stayed in a tourist resort called El gouna and travelled out for the history attractions. Would not want to live there as the native towns are a bit of a mess compared to our standards. The begging gets annoying and they are always trying to swindle you.

+ in the summer the heat is just too much.

elrasho · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:24

DJMK4 said:
Unless you are staying in one of the nice resort complexes, it will be crap, the main parts of Egypt is pretty dire living I thought?

Which "main parts" are you referring to?

FortyFive said:
You'll know what i mean once you get there & it's not One event it's a Constant barrage of Begging peasant scum bags & that's Me saying that.

They know all the English they need to know = Give me money !!!

O well at least they haven't destroyed there history though by building markets & slums right up to the greatest land marks in the World.

Sounds like your talking about Downtown, there are other areas in Egypt you know. Cairo is massive, there are areas like Maadi and Zamalek which is where the local residents live. Places like this don't have beggers, are much cleaner and try to mirror a "western" town as much as possible. I will be staying in areas like these.

Also there Alexandria and Luxor, both beautiful cities. Cairo is where the tourists go hence the begging and locals trying to rip off foreigners, I assume this is where you went hence all your negative comments.Instead of saying Egypt is crap, try thinking a bit broader and say there are certain areas that are crap (like in all cites in the world).

neoboy · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:27

How friendly would they be outsiders in the local residential areas though? Not a rhetorical question, genuinely asking here.

PardonTheWait · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:32

elrasho said:
Which "main parts" are you referring to?

Sounds like your talking about Downtown, there are other areas in Egypt you know. Cairo is massive, there are areas like Maadi and Zamalek which is where the local residents live. Places like this don't have beggers, are much cleaner and try to mirror a "western" town as much as possible. I will be staying in areas like these.

Also there Alexandria and Luxor, both beautiful cities. Cairo is where the tourists go hence the begging and locals trying to rip off foreigners, I assume this is where you went hence all your negative comments.Instead of saying Egypt is crap, try thinking a bit broader and say there are certain areas that are crap (like in all cites in the world).

Alternatively, consider that your 'extensive research' hasn't yet involved actually setting foot in the country. There are people in this thread that have been to all sorts of places around Egypt, and are just warning you that it is effectively a third world country. You may have an overly romantic vision of what it will be like.

meghatronic · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:35

Lol thread is lol.

Oh, and working on a tourist visa... not so smart. Unless you did mean the credit card due to your capitalisation.

Greenlizard0 · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:35

neoboy said:
How friendly would they be outsiders in the local residential areas though? Not a rhetorical question, genuinely asking here.

Heard lots of 'horror' stories from various tour guides when I lived there. Don't forget that anybody who isn't native to there or even Arabic will stick out like a sore thumb.

Tourism's one of their big three/four raison d'êtres so e.g. Cairo is very friendly.

However venture further afield and away from it all and they're different. Apparently those from Luxor are mad.

a1ex2001 · 16 Sep 2010 at 11:37

elrasho said:
I know I can get a tourist VISA at their airport

Are you allowed to work on a tourist visa? I would be very surprised if thats the case. Egypt is a very poor country so I'm not sure what the expat job market is like I can't imagine just going their and finding work in IT is easy given that they have a massive population good standards of education among the wealthy and you don't speak the lingo.

I admire you for wanting to do this but I think you need to do some serious research and that isn't a thread on OCUK.

Personally if it was me Egypt wouldn't be on my list of places to work abroad but I guess everyone is different!