# Knowing What You Know Now



## kristiandkurt (Feb 16, 2010)

What would you have brought over with you but didn't? Or what would you have left behind?

Were in the middle of packing for our two year gig in Maadi. Looking forward, but also looking for advice.


----------



## achh (Jan 13, 2009)

kristiandkurt said:


> What would you have brought over with you but didn't? Or what would you have left behind?
> 
> Were in the middle of packing for our two year gig in Maadi. Looking forward, but also looking for advice.


books, good toys and clothes-its all available but much more expensive!


----------



## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

Hi there,

There was a previous thread asking the same thing, here's the link for it: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/egypt-expat-forum-expats-living-egypt/42097-what-do-you-wish-you-had-brought-over-but-didnt.html

Good luck!


----------



## AngieH (Feb 7, 2010)

Well, my family just moved to Al Rehab from the US a little over 4 months ago. We shipped our entire household, which I would NEVER recommend to anyone!!! It was SUCH a hassle, and ended up costing us a fortune, thanks to US customs! 

So, my first piece of advice would be that if you have somewhere to store your belongings in the US, do it! Don't even bother with the shipping, everything you need can be found over here! 

If you have kids, I would send toys and their belongings, as it will make the transition easier for them. As achh said, good toys are available here, but you will definitely pay the price for them! I saw in one toy store a pack of matchbox cars selling for 75 Le, which I paid about $4 for over in the states! And pretty much every toy my kids have been given here has broken within less than 10 minutes of it being out of the package. A 2 year old that drops just about everything does the trick, LOL!

Don't bother with any small appliances, as they will not work over here. Well, they will work if you spend about $100 to get the correct voltage converter. Same goes for TVs, if they are large - but the converter will cost even more than that. If you do bring your tv's, one thing my husband and I spent quite a bit of money on back home was getting something that is supposed to switch your tv from NTSC to PAL. Don't bother - the cable boxes here do that easily, it was a total waste of $ for us. 

Get your clothes back home. Good brands are soooo expensive here, it is rediculous!! Before we came, for example, we bought from the Guess outlet near our home. A pair of jeans that we paid $45 for was selling for 1800 Le (about $325!!) here in the mall. A Guess tshirt back home was $10, here going for 450 Le (about $82). So as you can see, things ARE available here, but you will pay dearly.

Hope this helps some!


----------



## Sam (Aug 27, 2009)

Over the years I've brought many things over, but these are the items I have brought from home not here...

Clothes, shoes, bags, potato masher & peeler, kids books & toys, laptop, camera, bed sheets, pork products, alcohol, kids shampoo and bubble bath.

Some of those things you can get here, but I prefer the range, price or quality of UK. There's probably more stuff too that I can't think of right now.


----------



## Tinytraveler (Feb 17, 2010)

AngieH I am so sorry moving things here didn't go well. I was just wondering how did US customs mess with you? I thought you only have to pay when bringing an item into a country not leaving. I would really like to hear more about the process if you wouldn't mind. I would really like to have some items shipped over but I really would like to know exactly what I am getting myself into. 
Where any of your items broke or just missing?


----------



## Tinytraveler (Feb 17, 2010)

If I had an infant again I would have brought my Pac N Play (here they just don't look safe unless you are going to spend $3-400 at Toys R Us), High Chair (we bought a Gracco from Toys R US here for $160 or 900 EL and that was no bells or whistles of a high chair), Basket to wash nipples for baby bottles in the dishwasher, glass baby bottles, disposable changing table pads (for when you go out to restuarants or shopping) If you are lucky you will find a fold down changing station like in the states but normally you have to change inbetween sinks and it is always wet. I had some that had plastic backing and cottony on the side that the baby was placed on. Also Kiddy gates that are pressure mounted that have a door that opens so it is easy to go through and you don't have to take the whole thing down every time. 
Kids shoes and clothes, coloring and craft items (construction paper or scrapbooking materials you will not find here). Pack toys as there is a limited selection here and they are expensive. Bring Fisher Price Little People they don't exist here and Legos are very very expensive, Any electronic toys or board games, wooden puzzles with the nob handles. Barbie items are easy to come by here as well as bicycles. Tricyles are not easy to find! We are looking for one that is similar to radioflyer quality but we have only found cheap plastic ones that don't grow with the child. So you may need to buy 3 different ones before the kid is ready to move on to a bicycle. Pack BOOKS: Even though you can get books in English here as well as some German, French, and Spanish. They are not always proof read well. We bought a scholastic Dora the Explorer book; you are supposed to search for a pipe in the picture and right next to the pipe was a small jar of white rocks (looked just like crack) I was in shock. I know my kid will not know what that is but that would have never been sold in the states. 
Plastic storage containers for the kitchen (everything here looks like dollar store quality but sold at high end prices). Large frying pan with out nonstick black stuff on it. If you are ok with the nonstick stuff you will be happy here. Safe Knife sharpener the kind that you just run the knife in a grove. I haven't seen partchment paper here and cup cake pans are rare. Make sure to pack a good cookbook because you will be cooking from scratch here. 
I would pack an IPOD, and some electronic book reader thing. Download as much as you can while you are still back home because downloading the items here can be a bit of a problem since internet fluctuates and you have a limit as to how many Gigabites you can download each month by internet service providers. We brought a lot of kids DVDs and a DVD player + electric converter. DVD's from the states will not work on the DVD players from here. You can also play the DVD's on your laptop that you bring with you. The way you bring a lot of DVD's is by putting them into those cd carrying cases that look like books. You can find them in the dollar store and they will hold about 30 dvd's each. Yes you can get the Disney DVD's here but they will be in Arabic. 
Definately pack your camcorder, digital camera and chips, and laptop. Printers you can get here and then you are sure you will be more lucky to find the refill ink for it. Wireless router would be good to pack as well. Your Satillite radio will work here and I saw a guy that also brought a thing to turn it into a wireless radio wave so he could listen to it in other rooms as well. One thing we haven't found was an electric alarm clock. If you bring one that your IPOD can dock into make sure it has a battery back up because the electricity fluctuates or just goes off for 1/2 an hour here. Here they use battery operated alarm clocks here for the most part because of the electricity issue. Bring at least 2 plug adaptors so you can recharge your electronic items. You usually don't need a converter as most items are 110/220 you can check you owners manual or on the electronic item, look on the plug. Bring a little flash light with you incase the elec. goes out or if you live in a highrise the stair may or may not have lighting in them. The kind that uses 2 AA batteries is easy to put in a purse, diaper bag or backpack. 
If you take vitamins bring them with you because we have yet to find a place that sells them. Also bring what ever pain killer your kids are accustomed to and something for diarreah. Kids meds here taste awful! I even gagged when I tasted it. Baby toothpaste with OUT floride (floride can perminently yellow new baby teeth). You can find kid's toothpaste with floride easily here for when they are older. If you have any unique health condition I would bring at least 6 mo of meds for it. They may carry it here but it may take you that long to find where to buy it from. Also ask your Dr if there is any other med that you might be able to take if you can't find the exact one you are looking for. Do not wait until you run out of your meds to start looking for them when you're in country!!!!
I would have loved having Nyquil liquid caps and some cough meds from home when I had a cold. As here I was given one liquid for cough, another for decongestent, another thing for pain...it's all seperate here and like I said earlier none of it tastes good. Ow don't forget TUMS for heart burn! 
I wish I would have brought my Goose down feather pillow with me. You can have a cotton pillow made or most often you will find fiber fill pillows ICK! I have found 500 thread count cotton sheets here for a very reasonable price but they don't seem to be holding up as well as the 300 thread count sheets I brought over with me. Oh bring matress protectors as the ones I have found here will not stay on the mattress and shruck up to the size of a hocky puck. Fitted sheets don't exist here either. We brought king size sheets and they worked well for the "King" size they have here (it's smaller then in the states). 
You can get mattresses made to any size you would like pretty easily here for about the same price you would pay for the ready made ones.
Don't forget about your own clothes and shoes. If you are tall or plus size finding clothes here is like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Good quality bras are difficult to find and normal white cotton socks for both adults and kids don't seem to exist here. 
Don't forget cosmetics/make up and nail polish. Nail polish removers are easy to find here. You just never know about the stuff they have here. 
The thing I found difficult when we first got here was not knowing where to buy the stuff I wanted. That is why I suggest bringing anything you might need for your first month here.


----------



## AngieH (Feb 7, 2010)

Tinytraveler said:


> AngieH I am so sorry moving things here didn't go well. I was just wondering how did US customs mess with you? I thought you only have to pay when bringing an item into a country not leaving. I would really like to hear more about the process if you wouldn't mind. I would really like to have some items shipped over but I really would like to know exactly what I am getting myself into.
> Where any of your items broke or just missing?


Tinytraveler, yes, my experience with shipping was absolutely horrible!! We shipped a 20' container with our lives on it! We lived in Minnesota, so the container had to first be brought to the port in New York. We were told that our container would arrive here after 1 month, it ended up taking 2 thanks to US customs. Apparently they randomly select containers to inspect, although I found out during this from someone who used to work at the port our container went to that most containers being shipped to the middle east are chosen. When they do this, they charge YOU for everything!!! 

First, they X ray the container. Sometimes you get lucky and that is the end of it. Not for us. They took our container and took everything out!! If you could have seen how our container was packed, omg, I don't know why they would do it!! The back of the container was all boxes, the front had all our appliances, furniture, bikes, etc. When we did finally get it all, they had opened 90% of our boxes, which we had wrapped in sooo much shrink wrap to keep it dry/clean. They don't wrap them back for you, just put a piece of tape on the box that says it was inspected by us border control. 

All of our appliances were dented/scratched/broken handles and knobs. Our couches had big black grease stains all over them. Our coffee tables had broken legs/drawers. We had broken dining room chairs, broken mirrors (which we were kind of expecting) broken dressers, our bedroom set had greasy boot prints on it where they obviously didn't care that they had laid it on the floor and walked all over it. Our 50" tv's screen was crushed in (we didn't find that out until AFTER we had paid the egyptian customs on it. It is now useless, as we can't find a replacement screen here) Best of all, our 42" flat screen was SOAKED in water!! It was wrapped with 4 pillows around it and a thick comforter, and then wrapped numerous times in the shrinkwrap. Miraculously it was the only thing in our container that was wet, so wet that by the time we got it everything it was wrapped in was covered in mold. Don't ask me how, but thank god it actually still works! There are a few discolored spots on the screen, but we can deal with it. We think that we must have gotten someone over there that doesn't like arabs inspecting our stuff, and did it on purpose. We also had 2 boxes that were missing - my daughters books and a box that said my things, but I can't even figure out what I am missing. We ended up with 2 extra boxes that weren't ours, they are amusement park prizes - big fluffy pillows and stuffed dogs on leashes (the kids like those, lol)

All in all, on the US side, our container which we originally were paying $3100 for (not including Egyptian customs) ended up costing us over $7000. Three times they booked our container on a ship, and they didn't have it done in time. Guess who pays for all the extra bookings and time spent sitting in port?? We do.

And if you don't have help from someone here in Egypt in the port getting your things, get ready for BIG frustrations! We shipped to Port Said. It ended up taking my husband a week there (with help from high-priority people). They told him that it usually takes up to 3 weeks to get your things out of port. If you send any books, Cd's, or DVD's, they will take them into "quarantine" for a month, to make sure you aren't sending anything forbidden. We got past this with our "help" and a little fudging of the paperwork (SHHHHH!!) LOL. Egyptian customs and the truck to send our things from port to Al Rehab cost us about another 12,000 LE (a little over $2000 USD). So total it was almost $10,000 

So, as you can imagine, it was sooooo stressful and frustrating. We had found an apartment and started paying for it from the date we were originally told our things would arrive, only to have it sit empty for a month while waiting and waiting. Thankfully we have awesome family over here that we could stay with during this time.

I'm sure this doesn't happen to everyone, if it did NO ONE would ever ship over seas. I hope for others' sake we were just truely really unlucky and randomly got picked (oh, which btw, the broker we went with never bothered to even warn us about). It just really sucks that once they pull your container, they couldn't give a damn what they do with your belongings. I don't think having the last name Hussein helped at all, either!! 

If you decide to ship, good luck!! When we eventually move back to the US, our things are staying here and we will start over over there. I am NEVER going through that experience again!!


----------



## txlstewart (Jun 20, 2010)

I have a serious latte addiction--make them at home with my own (inexpensive) espresso machine. Will I be able to get one there that won't cost a fortune? (I live in the US right now.) 

Also, I was wondering about blow dryers with diffusers (the curse of naturally curly hair). Are they readily available there? Once again, I don't want to pay a fortune.

I could bring mine with me, but I had issues with my blow dryer in London (even on low I thought the motor was overworking and would explode at any moment)...

Thank you for any input you may have....


----------



## Tinytraveler (Feb 17, 2010)

Ok I have seen espresso machines here and they didn't look like the kind on steroids but I can't remember what the price was but it didn't shock me as being expensive.

Curling irons, blow dryers, clothes irons, electrical razors, and even elec. tooth brushes are able to be found here and for a reasonable price. If you are going to be here more than a year it pays to buy here. When I took 110 small appliances to Europe they would fry at about the 9 mo marker. The travel converters just don't convert the elec. well enough. You can make the appliance last longer if you constantly unplug after every use but it is just easier to buy it here. Then just sell it before you go home.


----------



## canuck2010 (Jan 13, 2010)

Aside from bringing laptop, ipod, DVDs, and books, I find everything else can be found here for reasonable prices if you have the time to shop around.


----------



## txlstewart (Jun 20, 2010)

Tinytraveler said:


> Ok I have seen espresso machines here and they didn't look like the kind on steroids but I can't remember what the price was but it didn't shock me as being expensive.
> 
> Curling irons, blow dryers, clothes irons, electrical razors, and even elec. tooth brushes are able to be found here and for a reasonable price. If you are going to be here more than a year it pays to buy here. When I took 110 small appliances to Europe they would fry at about the 9 mo marker. The travel converters just don't convert the elec. well enough. You can make the appliance last longer if you constantly unplug after every use but it is just easier to buy it here. Then just sell it before you go home.


My current espresso machine was inexpensive (from Linens N Things--before they went out of business). I just need that caffeine without paying the coffee shop price!

What about prescriptions...is it best to get it here or can I get them there?


----------



## Sam (Aug 27, 2009)

txlstewart said:


> My current espresso machine was inexpensive (from Linens N Things--before they went out of business). I just need that caffeine without paying the coffee shop price!
> 
> What about prescriptions...is it best to get it here or can I get them there?


Most prescriptions you can probably get here, and cheaper. If not then an Egyptian equivalent. But it really depends on what it's for.


----------

