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veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Alex is much cheaper than Cairo, and Ma'adi is one of the posh suburbs, so the rents are high...

VS

Sekhmet · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 329 Location: Alexandria, Egypt

The differences between Alex and Cairo in terms of money are staggering!! Your average taxi ride in Alex ios no more than 10-15LE (obviously depending where you're going - never more than 20LE), whereas you'd be lucky to just get a ride down the street for that in Cairo!
Also, flat, food and entertainment costs are considerably more in Cairo. You CAN survive on a 2000LE wage in Alex - not easy but definitely possible. Some flats rent for as little as 400LE a month. I survive (happily) on between 3000 - 4000LE, and depending on how much work I get, sometimes less.

stoth1972 · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:31 pm Post subject:

Maadi and Zamalek-2 places foreigners like to live-will be higher in rent than most places in Cairo, and definitely higher than Alex.

juliagirl · Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 69 Location: California

When working in Alexandria, what about medicines and doctors? Are they easy to find? I found in China that it was (as a foreigner) easy to by anything from the pharmacy. In Korea is was pretty easy to get a doctor to write out a prescription. Please don't think I'm a drug addict or anything, but I know what I need and hate doctors and hospital staff talking needlessly to practice there English. Or explaining a problem to seemingly endless numbers of white coats. Know what I mean?

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

This is one of the simpler things in Egypt. Most pharmacy students in Egypt have learned English through their studies. As long as the medications you use are not the latest newest things on the market, you should be able to find it and prescriptions are not needed. If you can ask for it, you can usually get it. (narcotics are naturally a bit better controlled) Be sure to know the chemical names of your medications... you can't ask for Alleve, you need to ask for naproxin.

Actually most of us tended to use the pharmacists as our doctor... have a sore throat? pharaoah's revenge? Tell them your symptoms and they will suggest treatment... no extra charge either. Medications cost about 10% or less than US prices. This is actually one of the things that I missed most when I returned to the US... cheap efficient medical care at the next corner... no appointments needed.

I think justcolleen talked about the hospitals on another thread... best to avoid them if you can. I'll never forget going into two public hospitals in Cairo and there were feral cats running the hallways... likely kept the rats down. You do try to use the top tier hospitals... Laughing

VS

juliagirl · Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 69 Location: California

Thanks so much, VS!