Are you happy in Egypt?

This question should not be asked at all for Egyptians!!

Since the question is addressed to expats, I'll give my answer - yes. I am quite happy here in Egypt. I own my own my home on the beach in Sinai; I'm married to a wonderful man; I'm financially secure and we have our health.

I have been out of my home country for the best part of 35 years (for work). Going "home" for me is like going to a foreign country. I would not be able to afford the type of life I can live here on my relatively small retirement income. I have very few real friends in my home country now and only a small family there. Plus, I'd constantly be subjected to political ads! And I don't know how my Muslim husband would be treated in these days of anti-Muslim hysteria.

Here I am generally treated very well, aside from unscrupulous merchants and taxi drivers, of course. I feel very comfortable with my Egyptian family and Egyptian people in general. I love where I live and enjoy my occasional trips to Cairo.

Of course, there are negative aspects to life here, but that is true for my home country and for all the other countries I've lived in as well.

On the whole, I can say that moving here was a good decision.

Well I have been living here for 18 months and I have to say I am not enjoying it as much as I did in the beginning.
Egypt is an amazing beautiful Country, and with very low cost of living. But the only thing that spoils it are Egyptian Men. Maybe
Its because I am a black woman but the way I am treated has been horrendous. From being sexually assaulted to them shouting at me from Cars, their behavior is disgusting.
And any good Egyptian guy turn out to be very disrespectful, liars and thieves!
I no longer feel happy or safe anymore and plan to travel back to my home country asap.

I'm sorry you've had such bad experiences. One of the few benefits of getting old(er) is that the men don't hassle me anymore.

ARE YOU HAPPY IN EGYPT?
                                As far I'm concerned the answer to that question is "not as happy as I was". My disenchantment with Egypt  began  about two years ago and has  now peaked. At first, I found everything fun, bargaining with the locals , visiting the bazaars, seeing the sights, making friends, eating out, trying  new foods and that sort of thing.
                           After the first Egyptian revolution, things began to get a bit worse in that  I noticed a distinct change in the attitude of the people in  the street – the locals-  They very  quickly became dissatisfied  with the new regime and this was noticeable in their attitudes towards each other. I noticed this change taking also take place when I first went to Russia in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Because of the uncertainty of life at that time,  Russian people began to snarl  at each other and treat each other disrespectfully. I've noticed the same happening in Egypt over the last two or three years and  I have begun to see fighting in the street – sometimes with knives being drawn and a lack of friendliness towards me . I feel  that people now look on me only as rich foreigner - fair game to be cheated and robbed.  I have learned to trust no  Egyptian people at all other than a couple of friends whom I have known over seven years. Hurghada, where I live,  is a tourist town and there are virtually no tourists there  so unemployment is rife
                Like many foreigners living in my little development ,  my policy  is to keep Egyptian people out of our development now   and have as little to do with them as possible. A terrible thing to have to admit to when living in another country where the object of the exercise should be to mingle as much as  possible with the population and to integrate and learn from them maybe.
                    If I could afford it,  I would sell up and get out,  but the situation has gone down the drain too far  as far as tourism is concerned.  Nobody is buying so Iam stuck. If tourism picks up, which won't be for  at least another five years I think,   perhaps matters may change but it will be too late for me

Can I ask you where in Sinai is a safe place to live ?
Trying to sell my place on Cairo and live outside of Cairo 😛

Thank you
Regards

We live not far from Ras Sudr. The biggest danger comes from the drivers on the road to Sharm.

Thank you very much. Is it the way they drive or being robbed ?

Regards

I think many Egyptians seem happy enough, but would they feel the same if they had the opportunity  to travel and see how the rest of the world is?
Myself I enjoyed Egypt has a tourist and later moved here and have been here now 7 years. In those 7 years things have changed dramatically and not for the best, crime has risen and still is, corruption is rife, myself and wife would never go out during the hours of nighttime. Three years ago my wife got sexually attacked, we reported it to the police and the man was put in prison. That's when things got bad for us, the mans family were at our villa everyday threatening us and swearing at us, it got so bad we ended up going to court and asking them to release the man. The threatening behavior stopped, but from then on we have felt insecure. We never see police around our village, and neither of us feel safe to go out by ourselves. We are at the moment looking for another place to live where the law is respected and the police are active and seen. In general Egyptian people are friendly, but is it only when you are doing business with them I ask. It may be because we live in Luxor where you can get anything with money I really do not know, and to be honest I do not want to know. There have been many sexual attacks on women that go unreported due to the reporting factor, we have no police women and everything has to be reported in detail to male officers, this is not at all satisfactory for women who have been attacked. Also I do not know if it's just Luxor but everything takes so long and everything costs bacsheesh no matter who you are dealing with. How these things can be changed I do not know, only those at the top can do anything about it. I don't think they know the word self discipline here at all. The amount of people that get cheated on property deals here is horrendous millions of pounds get stolen or taken from Europeans and the courts are so slow and it takes so long and so much money to get these people to court that many just give up and leave. I can talk from experience I got cheated out of £33,000 within 6 months, 3 years later the case was still going through the courts. In the end we spent a further 40,000le trying to get our money back, in lawyers fees, court fees and maybe half of that was backsheesh. The place is sickening for that. Many European woman are meeting big c-----d local who pusuade them into an Orfi Marriage, these women thing they have got rights, they have none. They are pursuaded to purchase land or property, once they have they then find the Egyptian husband has put it in his own name, using a crooked lawyer. He then kicks her out and moves his first wife and family in. It's bloody disgraceful, and the courts do nothing about it. I could go on and on, but I am sure you all know.

I was once in a taxi that got stopped at a check point, the taxi driver was told he would have to pay 90le for having a cracked window, the taxi driver only had 30le on him, he was told that will do he got a slip of paper and told to go on his way. Obviously people did not know I could understand spoken Arabic. I told the taxi driver to report it, he told me, if I did he would loose his license. Disgraceful!

You better off moving to Cairo I guess. 😐

Definitely the way they drive. Haven't heard of anyone being robbed in this area.

When I first came here I was happy and excited and curious. Then, I went through a period of hating it and I couldn't stand the noise, the chaos, or the pollution anymore, as well as some other things that one can find depressing like some of the poverty that you can't avoid seeing depending upon where you go. I was also frustrated by doing anything here because of the they way people do things, and found everything and everyone really annoying. But now, I am used to it. I still like to explore, there's plenty to been seen here, and you can enjoy life here. I'm used to some of the negative aspects of the place and its just life. To what everyone has said here, you have to be tough to get by, with or without money. You really have to watch out, and I understand why people have said the things they've said here. Having to be tough/shrewd/arguing all the time can be exhausting. And it's part of living here. Yet, I really do love this place and all of it's quirks - I feel at home.

Hello,

Food is not a good idea in egypt. Otherwise, it's exciting!

I completely disagree about the food. A lot of it is exciting,spicy and delicious!

Can you tell me if there are any good schools and hospitals where you live ? I'm really excited that an Emerican who's been living in Egypt for over 30 years and lives near Sinai " my fav place in Egypt " and still happy 😍👏👍.

My wife and I are thrilled 😁
Regards

And still on the subject of being happy. If any of you lads (and lassies) want to come fishing on my little (9 meter) boat, contact me.I will be in Hurhgada on 6th November . We go out about 2 times a week if the weather is OK and we usually catch quite a few  fish. Stock up your freezer. We only do day fishing a sour licence only allows that. There is a captain and deck hand and guests are expected to make the tea. We go about 25 km off Hurghada , sometime a lot less

It is a shame to not feel part of the Egyptian community, and I do feel bad for them because of the low Tourism and not much jobs.  But these are very resourceful people and they know how to make money any way they can.  Its the Egyptian Women I really feel bad for, since most of the Jobs are done by Men and the Wifes have to stay home!

Omg....you guys really have had bad experiences! And I understand what you mean about the Property scams, I have heard so many stories about situations similar to yours and also about them marrying Europeans for money not love..... these Egyptians are Professional crooks.  With the Sexual assault I also agree as I found there's no point reporting it as they wont take it seriously and it does need to change.  I have never felt so uncomfortable in a Country as I do here and its just spoiling the whole experience for me.

It can't be that bad. We have thousands of expats that live in Egypt 🇪🇬 peaceful ya feel they love ❤️ every minute of it.  Every country has its good 😊 and bad, over 50% of people in this post iare saying nothing but good things about Egypt.  hope you don't take this personal but it might be your negative 👎🏻 attitude or you could be one ☝️ of those people who just don't see the glass half empty.

Have a great 👍 day 😎

I am a former Expat in Egypt,  I lived in Maadi Egypt from 2005 to 2012... In my opinion Egypt is wonderful place with many warm loving people and if you live there long enough you can accept life there ,however in my opinion I would not be willing to give up on the quality of life I have in Southern California where the weather is the same as Egypt as it is on the same line of latitude on the globe ,  however the quality of life here is far better for many countless reasons that no one there would want to address , tremendously more personal safety , tremendously less cost of living , people are more honest for the most part and a whole lot less stress . Hopefully my honest answer is helpful to all .

Greg

Anywhere east of LA  is lots cheaper purchasing or renting a house as well as any automobile ...your 2 biggest expenses tremendously cheaper ....lots of places across the US is even less expensive

Yes, please do state where in California its cheaper than Egypt! Im from San Diego and currently in Murrieta, and have yet to find cheap- anything!!

Like your response.  We're moving there next August and are now living in Mexico, which is also great. Attitude is everything!

Hey I think you stole my favorite line "Attitude is Everything " lol ....Enjoy your travels !

Dear Madam,

Really describes our attitude after 2011 which was of good intents, but with bad consequences, sorry for seeing us like this. We aim to have better Egypt for our generations and we will struggle and stumble for that for sure.

Thx again.

I am so sorry for you really

Egypt is the best place in the world
I love Egypt too much
Some people maybe trying to  destroy this country
You can feel safe anywhere you will be
Egypt suffering from toressim now
But will be the tiger of the middle east
All Arab countries trying to corrupt this country gulf &Europe and USA
Because they know what is Egypt meaning

As an egyptian i am so sorry for your bad exoerience.
But you have to know that it is really important where are you in egypt. Because unfortunately it makes a lot of difference in culture and level of education
Even inside any city there is a good part and a bad part.
So you have to be smart and choose right which area you will be enjoying ur life and ur privacy
I am happy to help you in anybdetails if you want

Ahlan. Ana mabsoot or sa'eed to read your experiences here living in Egypt. begad.
I understand your feelings and experiences but remember Egypt is going through a rough time at the moment so it is expected that Egypt will change for the best in the future

Since my first arrival in 2012, I myself went through tough times much corruption but its part of an experience from a third world country.

Now the police and embassies have tighten up the rules for foreigners and are willing to help. I advise like as many say to have patience and the reason why I love egypt - the people that I have met and worked with have welcomed me into their country. Egypt has a wonderful history, culture and language.

Apartments and transportation is a major advantage for foreigners. Also, new contracts from companies in the UK AND USA have joined recently booming businesses in Egypt.

I love Egypt and always will

Shaheer

I am considering retiring in Egypt, my native country by the way although I have lived most of my life in the US.  My wife is also Egyptian by birth.  My Social Security income is estimated to be $ 2000 a month and I have a nice Duplex which is paid-off completely.  I am not counting my 401K which is not much to live on if I retire in America.  It’s probably something like $250 K if the economy doesn’t flip.  Is this something that will allow a 66 year old man to live comfortably in Egypt?  I don’t think Medicare can be used in Egypt, so I am worried about healthcare cost.  Any idea if retiring in Egypt under these conditions is possible?

Hello ama1001,

This topic is quite old so to help you gather more information, you should consider starting a new thread on the Egypt forum.

This way your query will have visibility, and hence the chances of receiving replies from the other members will be higher.

Good luck,

Cheryl
Expat.Com Team

Absoloutely with your income of say  $ 2000 you will live  very very well......I certainly do.....and have far less than you .

The most important thing to remember is ....always think like an Egyptian when it comes to money.....ALWAYS.

This means doing your home work .......on exactly what all the different classes of Egyptian workers are paid .

When you are clear on this .....you go forth with the knowledge that nobody is going to "rip you off " because you are absolutely aware what a local person can afford .......and in turn this is the price that you also should be asked to pay and no more.

So think like the locals .....dont think American & American money........it is important for you to play that down otherwise .........you might as well stick a dollar sign to your forehead.....which will be like a beacon to all and sundry to try and eleviate you of your hard earned money.

Do not keep fliping back in your mind as to how much cheaper everything is than in America....focus your mind in here only.

For me I have more or less no language skill....however I do manage very well with just a few chosen words and a lot of mime ......for  many things this has worked for me .....if I am really desparate I will get out the sketch pad and draw what i want lol.......anyway all attempts will language usually end with good humoured laughter all round.

I am here with a rental  apartment ....absolutely every thing is new plus the building  ......everything is of the highest standard  ( yup i was surprised ) and ultra modern with one large balcony ....two medium sized bedrooms ...small very modern kitchen ...and small bathroom toilet......sitting room nice ...all furnished ......3,500 per month ....utilities ( electric) really 100 L.E last one month .....gas is not piped ....so you can pay 75 to 85 l.E per canister....my location is Kare el Sheikh.......

The locals in whatever city or town you are in will mainly buy fresh from a market ....there you will find high  quality fruits and vegetables.......better than U.S.A.......and indeed better than my UK.

Also from the markets ....wonderful fresh fish ....everything there for us is cheap....learn your prices
know what to pay !!........dont do the rich foreigner thing ......meaning  stuffing your pockets with 100 and 200 l.E notes ....keep these separate when you are out ........and work with ....5, ...10,20's......then you go on to your 50 L.E stash........and very very lastly the bigger notes  just step into the mindframe of the locals .....and yes they are wonderful .......if you are happy and polite  they will be wonderful with you .........however when it comes to money ....and business  as long as you know you are offereing  a fair price ...stick to it ...or walk away ...a;ways always be prepared to walk away.

Medical Yah Allah ....you will learn .....

try not to get sick.....they have a doctor for each part of the body .....different to my country....anyway ....i would always go on a recommendation  from someone who is with good intelligence with medical matters.........

However I warn you the American and my British culture .....are in comparrison very clued up on health and nutrition....here forget it ........sodium chloride is on every household table ........and they love sugar....so that should say it all.

Durring th early months of this year I had a complicated dental problem........really my intention was to hop back on a plane rather than let anyone look into my mouth .....however....i had no choice ....and went to a dentist reccomended by a family member  ( a newly qualified dentist  sadly too inexperienced to go to )  I was immensly impressed by both the dentist and the high tech surgery....so again ask  and get only a good referal......and dont sit in the chaair unless it all looks very good lol

As a final note ......it was mentioned to me that military hospitals were very good ...more than that i cannot say.

Wonderful country .....wonderful people .......the poorer the people  here .....i have found their hearts shine so very very brightly.....as the greatest comodity they have is not money ....but it is simply themselves.

Allah Hafiz

Antoinette   ( Muslim name Sara )