Greetings!

Hello and welcome to Tripoli !

I'm not yet over there but would appreciate if you could share your first experience. How did you find Tripoli? I'm very hesitate in my decision to accept the offer !

Thank you !

I arrived in Tripoli in early March, while the family were waiting for approvals for their residence permits and I've had a few months to familiarise.

Housing: We live in a newly built single-storey villa in a quiet are of Janzour, about 25km west of Tripoli city centre. The villa has a fitted kitchen, with washing machine, dishwasher, gas cooker and fridge included. Outside is a car parking area under a sunscreen (2 cars) and at the back is a 6m x 3m swimming pool. The construction is of generally reasonable/good quality although we've had a few minor problems as with any newbuild. We employ a gate boy who lives in a small room at the front of the property, who we pay LYD 300 per month. He cleans the yard, mows the grass, cleans the pool and cars.

Transport: Commuting into Tripoli is like driving in "Death Race 2000". Libyan drivers have no road manners and think the speedo is there to tell you how fast you're NOT going!. If you haven't driven before in a similar location, you're advised to get a driver for the weekday commutes and use the weekend to practise on your own. Public transport is limited to black & white taxis who drive with a deathwish. Typical fare from Janzour to Tripoli is LYD 6-7. If you are a fresh fish, many will try and rip you off, so beware.

Money: Pretty much all transactions are by cash only, except airlines and hotels who take Visa or Mastercard. Amex is not generally accepted. ATM's which accept Visa or M/C are widely available (Aman bank has the most)and is the easiest way to obtain cash. You can change money at any of the major banks which also have branches & ATM's at the bigger hotels.

Crime: Very low crime rate, but always keep doors/windows closed when out and it's a good idea to have external bars fitted over ground florr windows. Theft from cars sitting in stationery traffic is becoming more common. Keep valuables in the boot, not on the back seat.

Prices: Generally on a par with UK prices for general foodstuffs and household items. Electrical goods are slightly more expensive and you don't get the choice of brands. Petrol is dirt cheap at 10p/litre equivalent, which is probably why the drivers are so heavy on the loud pedal.

Entertainment: Don't come to Tipoli if you expect all night pubbing and clubbing - there isn't any. Go to Lagos instead! Most expats make their own entertainment and expat parties are held most Thursday and Friday nights. Go to as many parties as you get invites for in your first couple of months, then decide which people you like to hang out with. There are a lot of oilfield families in Tripoli and it can be very cliquey, especially for the wives/spouses. Home brewing is very common here and customs won't harass you for bringing in a few tins of malt concentrate in your hold baggage.

After spending 12 years in Nigeria, Libya seems like a sleepy hollow sometimes!

Hope this helps for a start...

Hi there,
We as a family are thinking to move to Tripoli in late August. You seem to live in a nice house in Janzour. How much does the rent cost of similar houses?
Thanks in Advance,
Ece

lifeisbeautiful wrote:

You seem to live in a nice house in Janzour. How much does the rent cost of similar houses?
Ece

Hi..

Rent is $4,500 per month. No other fees such as agent's fee, commission etc. 12 month contract.

There are plenty of properties available at the moment and you can get very good places for $2,500 - $3,000 per month. My company gave me a maximum budget of $5,000 so I found the best place I could within the budget.

Thanks for the info. One more thing. Did you bring your furniture with you or did you buy new ones? Which one is reasonable? Any idea about the furniture prices?
thanks,
Ece

Your budget is the budget we have for house hunting.  My husband is already there (arrived 3 days ago) and is staying at his company's guest house.  He's in charge of getting us a place to live and letting me know how much of our stuff we can bring.  The movers come in exactly 4 weeks.  ARGH!

We are allowed to ship all of our stuff with us or we can store our funiture. Our shipping choices will be influenced by the house size and whether we can get without furniture.  Frankly, since we'll be there for 3-4 years, I'd rather have our things with us.

Is your place furnished and how hard is it to find unfurnished places in Janzour?  What is the skinny on "the Palms" (or PalmCity)? Would that housing budget get us something larger than a bachelor pad?  Bigger than three bedroom (we must have a guest room and a dedicated home office space) Palm City was blogged about elsewhere on the expatblog; I wrote/replied to them, but have gotten no reply. I understand they are way behind original schedule (which had tenants there by Sept 08).

Am torn between living in an expat only type of development like Palm CIty, or Regatta or an expat concentrated area like Janzour or in an area with much less geographical expat contact if such exists. We've been an expat family before but in a country (the Gaza STrip) where virtually no expat families lived (most expats there were unaccompanied men (families back home or in Jerusalem).  I'd like to balance expat social life with Libyan social life.  As fun as expat life can be, I do want to experience non-expat life as much as possible. 

Our biggest contraint:  our teenage daughter who is not likely to be amenable to the constraints that living as a minority in a conservative Islamic culture will pose.  An expat enclave community will allow her more freedom and independence that she'd otherwise get.   

Decisions.

The teenager preferences will probably outweigh mine.  Tough enough for her to leave all she knows at this age. 

Casey

BTW Sandman,
I love your reference to your trainee terrorist daughter!   

Casey

justice4pal wrote:

BTW Sandman,
I love your reference to your trainee terrorist daughter!   

Casey

The terrible twos will be upon us very soon!

@Justice4pal....

Janzour may be a popular area with expats, but it's certainly not expat dominated. We have Libyan neighbours on two sides and open farmland on the others. Our nearest expat neighbours are 10 mins walk away and that's the way we like it.

Our house came unfurnished, except:

- White goods in the kitchen (ok ish quality but if you have good brands I'd suggest you bring your own stuff;

- Air conditioner units.

There are PLENTY of newbuild villas in the quiet area of Janzour available. Since the oil price dropped back, a lot of Western companies have been scaling down their expat staff levels and supply of good property exceeds demand. I was able to negotiate a lot of extras at no additional cost:

- Burglar bars to all windows and to the back door;

- Had two of the bedrooms knocked through with a partition to make 1 big bedroom / dressing / lounge;

- Had the "Men's" room knocked through to join with the existing smallish lounge;

- A wrought iron fence and gate around the pool area;

- Additional kitchen units.

Regatta and Palm City are pleasant, well maintained developments, but you'll get much better value for money in Janzour or Siraj (Siraj is 5-10 mins drive from Regatta, before Janzour), and get to mix with the local population.

My advice is to bring your furniture with you. Good quality furniture is available (tends to be Italian imported) but is VERY expensive. You can pick up locally made furniture for good prices but it's not always the best quality. Make sure that you itemise any books / CDs / DVD which you bring as the customs will go through them all. If you want to bring in anything a bit naughty, pack it in a box with lots of ladies clothing on top.

White goods and electronics are compeitively priced, I've just bought a 42" Sharp LCD screen for 30 quid less than the best UK online store price AND got a basic DVD player thrown in free of charge! Cash is King by the way, forget about using your plastic to buy goods.

Libya may still be very conservative, but the younger generation (under 25's) are far more liberal. Many of them speak English (learned from MTV) and although Libya is still not an equal opportunities culture, it's not another Saudi or Oman.

If your hubby needs a few pointers, please pass on his number.

Cheers

Mike

Sandman6 wrote:

justice4pal wrote:

BTW Sandman,
I love your reference to your trainee terrorist daughter!   

Casey

The terrible twos will be upon us very soon!

Haha, me too ! I laughed at that part ! :-D

BTW, Sandman, would you mind answering the questions of the "cost of living" ? Or could I use your answers on this thread to complete it ? I believe it's valuable information you're giving here :-)

Jo Ann wrote:

BTW, Sandman, would you mind answering the questions of the "cost of living" ? Or could I use your answers on this thread to complete it ? I believe it's valuable information you're giving here :-)

Yes I will - as soon as I get round to getting as many prices for the criteria on your list. Almost there....

Thank you so very much ! :-)

Mike (aka Sandman)

I'll let my husband know your offer for more info.  He works for Schlumberger. You?

BTW, my daughter, who is 13, is a baby sitter! 

Casey

Related threads:

What to expect: http://www.expat-blog.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=38177

Libyan Laws and traditions http://www.expat-blog.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=32935

A few Q's about Libya these days: http://www.expat-blog.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31176

Is Libya Getting the Worst End? https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=36200

More first impressions https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31678