Rapid Cost of Living Increases in Africa and Asia

by Steven McManus
~ it's more expensive to be an expat ~



Cities in Africa and Asia have become more expensive for expatriates relative to cities in the US, says a cost of living comparison of 228 global cities.

The global cost of living comparison conducted by Xpatulator.com shows London is the most expensive global location for expatriates, while 3 of the top 5 most expensive cities are in Asia, with Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong ranked 2nd, 3rd, and 5th respectively in terms of overall cost of living.


In terms of overall cost of living, New York is now the 28th most expensive global city and the 61st in terms of groceries. New York has dropped primarily due to the weakness of the US Dollar as well as the economic slowdown which appears to have slowed the increase in prices relative to other global cities.


The cost of living comparison prices goods and services that expatriates spend their salaries on, and reports indexes for 13 different basket groups using New York (100) as the base.

Overall Cost of Living Comparison – Top 10

The 10 most expensive global cities for expatriates to live, based on overall cost of living (Index is in brackets) as at March 2008 are:

1. London, United Kingdom (126.63)
2. Tokyo, Japan (121.88)
3. Seoul, Republic of Korea (119.54)
4. Oslo, Norway (115.39)
5. Hong Kong, China (113.00)
6. Copenhagen, Denmark (112.63)
7. Moscow, Russia (110.35)
8. Geneva, Switzerland (110.06)
9. Hamilton, Bermuda (109.63)
10.Luanda, Angola (108.51)

This means that overall goods or services that cost USD$100 in New York, cost the equivalent of USD$126.63 in London, and USD$108.51 in Luanda.

Overall Cost of Living Comparison – Bottom 10

The bottom 10 (least expensive) cities for expatriates to live, based on overall cost of living (Index is in brackets) as at March 2008 are:

1. Harare, Zimbabwe (16.44)
2. Phnom Penh, Cambodia (44.89)
3. Sanaa, Yemen (44.95)
4. Dushanbe, Tajikistan (51.24)
5. Tripoli, Libya (53.22)

6. Quito, Ecuador (53.23)

7. Buenos Aires, Argentina (53.25)

8. La Paz, Bolivia (53.54)

9. Asmara, Eritrea (54.49)

10.Tashkent, Uzbekistan (56.06)


This means that overall, goods or services that cost USD$100 in New York, cost the equivalent of just USD$16.44 in Harare, and USD$53.54 in La Paz.

The cost of living varies from one location to another and by type of expense, mainly due to local supply and demand variations in each location. In some cities, groceries are more costly while accommodation is relatively less costly and vice versa.

In terms of groceries Seoul is the most expensive. Africa however has 6 of the 10 most expensive cities, Brazzaville, Accra, Lagos, Abidjan, Kinshasa, and Luanda.

Grocery Cost of Living Comparison – Top 10


The top 10 (most expensive) global cities for expatriates to live using the price of groceries as at March 2008 are as follows:

1. Seoul, Republic of Korea
2. Brazzaville, Congo

3. Ashgabat Turkmenistan

4. Accra, Ghana

5. Lagos, Nigeria

6. Copenhagen, Denmark

7. Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire
8. Kinshasa Congo Democratic Rep

9. Luanda, Angola

10.Oslo, Norway


This analysis shows that when establishing a salary for a global assignment it is essential that the items the expatriate will actually spend their salary on be included in the cost of living calculation. Similarly the items that are provided for the expatriate should be excluded from the cost of living calculation. If the incorrect items are included or excluded, large variations in the calculation of cost of living are likely. As an example London is ranked as the most expensive global location in terms of overall cost of living, but is only ranked 26th most expensive location for groceries.

Cities in Africa and Asia are becoming relatively more expensive than other global cities, in terms of cost of living for expatriates; organisations need to factor this into expatriate pay calculations for global assignments.

The rank of all 228 global cities, in terms of overall cost of living, is on the website at http://www.xpatulator.com/main/locations/

About the Author: Steven McManus has been an Information and Reward Consultant to over 100 organisations for over a decade. Steven runs the most comprehensive global relocation calculator available, an internet service that is used primarily to calculate expatriate salary levels for global assignments, which can be found at http://www.xpatulator.com . This site includes free location overviews, cost of living, and hardship rankings for 228 global cities.

Moving Abroad as an Accompanying Partner

by Rebecca Wells


If you’re an accompanying partner/spouse who is planning to move abroad or who has already taken the plunge you’ll be experiencing some unique feelings and challenges. Having moved myself from London to Sydney as an accompanying spouse I can fully appreciate the nervousness, frustration and anxiety you might be experiencing and would like to share some ideas to help you settle, adapt and start to enjoy your new life abroad more quickly.


1. Overcoming pre-departure nerves
If you’re moving abroad because your partner’s been transferred with work it might mean your own life and career will have to be put on hold momentarily. This is a fairly unnerving experience as you start to think about what your life abroad will be like for you personally. Perhaps you’re moving with children and you’re concerned about how it may affect them. You might be worried about leaving family behind and in some cases they might be unhappy, or even hostile, about your decision to emigrate. Tip: Focus on your positive reasons for moving, reassure family you’re not moving to the Moon(!) and can be contacted at any time, do as much research as you can before you leave and set realistic expectations of what you’ll practically be able to do straight away. Although you may be keen to get a job as soon as possible, it may be necessary for you to sort out a property, furniture, schools etc first! If you plan and prepare as much as possible before you leave, it will definitely help you settle more quickly after you’ve arrived.

2. Conquering feelings of loneliness and homesickness
These feelings affect some people more than others, at different stages and in varying intensities. If you’ve moved as an accompanying partner, and your spouse started working as soon as you arrived, loneliness can be an even more powerful and sometimes crippling sensation.You might experience the feeling of being ‘left behind’ or think you’ve ‘lost control’. You may see your partner making friends through work whilst you’re still struggling to adapt to your new environment. Tip: Accept that this is normal, communicate how you feel to your partner and keep in regular touch with home. It’s all about getting into routines again and being proactive about creating the life you want. I’d also recommend you don’t have a regular day/time when you call your folks back home just in case you can’t make it one week, they panic and call the missing persons bureau or the police!

3. Boosting your confidence
When you move abroad, you might find that things you were really confident doing back home are suddenly really hard to face. Just the thought of going out and meeting new people can be extremely daunting. It’s important to remind yourself that you've done these things before and can consequently do them again.Tip: On the day you’ve arranged to meet new people let the adrenaline that builds up push you towards the fear rather than away from it. Being pushed out of your comfort zone can make you feel a little sick but it’s actually a good thing; it means you’re growing and experiencing new things, which was probably one of your reasons for moving abroad in the first place! If the worst comes to the worst you can always make an excuse to leave early - but nine times out of ten you’ll probably have a great night out, so be brave and go for it!

4. Coming to terms with being financially dependent
Lots of people who move overseas as accompanying partners find themselves being, at least initially, financially dependent on their spouses. This can be really frustrating and make you feel uncomfortable. Tip: The best way to deal with it is to accept it and remind yourself of the positive reasons you both decided on this arrangement to start with. If you still really don’t enjoy it, decide to do something about it before it starts to make you really unhappy.

5. Starting a new career
Lots of accompanying partners find job hunting frustrating and get despondent because they can’t find a job (a) at the right level/salary (b) in the right industry (c) that offers flexible hours or (d) fast enough!

Tip: Stay patient and focused on what you want. Most overseas job markets are favourable towards skilled UK immigrants and there are plenty of recruitment agencies that will be interested in talking with you before you have left the UK.

Just be aware that some newcomers find adjusting to work cultures overseas more difficult than they had expected and it may take a while for you to ‘fit in’ at work.

6. Communicating your concerns to your partner
Sometimes to protect our partners, we are economical with the truth with regards to the extent of how a situation is making us feel. When moving abroad, it’s common to feel unnerved by the fact that familiar tasks and situations suddenly change: your routines, career, family life and financial situation all take a bit of a bashing. Even the simplest of things can become extremely frustrating. Tip: Acknowledge that feeling this way is perfectly normal but also understand that you’re not on your own. If you are finding it tough adjusting to your new life abroad, make sure you discuss it with your partner. Research has shown repeatedly that an accompanying partner’s happiness and ability to adapt effectively has a massive impact on whether or not the expatriation is successful and of a long duration.7. Lastly - set some objectivesBe intentional about how you lead your new life abroad so that it doesn’t just pass you by.

Tip: If it helps you, get some extra support and encouragement from a coach to plan some objectives and tangible actions to help you have the life abroad you’ve always wanted!
I hope you found this article helpful and welcome any views or comments you might have! Good luck!

Rebecca Wells is a life coach, based in Sydney, who specialises in helping expatriates worldwide settle in their host countries more quickly and be proactive about leading the fulfilling and successful lives they want long term.

The Life of an Expatriate is not All Sweetness and Light

By Donald Saunders


Sitting at home and gazing out across your windswept and rain soaked garden it is easy to picture yourself enjoying a new life in a new country, but just how does this picture in your mind’s eye live up to the reality once you have moved overseas? Well, this is not perhaps as easy a question to answer as you might imagine.

Probably the most significant problem is that there are so many variables to think about and so many factors which are quite simply not known at the beginning. It is very easy, for example, to believe that the fact that you do not speak the language is unimportant as, in the short term at least, you may well be able to get by in your mother tongue and can always pick up the language in the longer term. Just how easy is it however to learn a language and just how easy is it to pick up the language of your chosen country?


You may also be looking forward to all that exotic food, but just how is a perhaps substantial change in your diet going to affect your health? You may very well have experienced some wonderful restaurant food on holiday trips but is this really the type of food you will be eating every day when you are cooking for yourself?



The problems are of course relatively minor when it comes to comparing them to trying to adjust mentally to living in what is not only a different country, but possibly a very different culture. Those things which you have considered both curious and fascinating during holiday trips could well present you with considerable problems when they become part and parcel of your daily life.

Most countries with a sizeable expatriate community develop a large support network, which often includes an expat club which holds regular meetings, organizes events and outings, distributes its own newspaper and considerably more. At first sight this may seem very comforting but it is worth considering why the expats in the region have found it necessary to create such an extensive support network. Indeed, when you see the extent to which the lives of many expats revolve around the expat community you may well find yourself asking why they chose to live overseas in the first place.

In fact many expats find that, once the novelty wears off, they regret their decision but have frequently burnt their bridges and now find themselves with no alternative other than to stay where they are and to make the best of their situation.

Of course this is not the case with all expats and, as an expat myself, I can tell you that there are also many of us who are extremely happy with our decision to move overseas and would not wish to turn the clock back. For many hundreds of people each year the decision to live abroad is the best decision they have ever made and one which they assuredly do not regret. By how can you tell which group you are likely to join before you take your decision?

Regretably, you can never be certain, although there are some things which you can do to increase the chances of your decision being one which you are glad you made.

The most important thing that you can do is to test the water so to speak and this means effectively living in your chosen country for a fair period of time before you cut your ties with home. But the critical word here is ‘living’.

It is no good just visiting your chosen country from time to time on holiday, staying in hotels and dining out in restaurants. Ideally you need to spend at least a year in the country and to throw off any thoughts of being on holiday. You have got to make a conscious effort to live as you would want to live in the longer term, staying away from tourist areas and activities and becoming part of the local community. Live just like a local, doing your own cooking and taking the time to learn something of the local history, lifestyle and culture, as well as making the effort to learn the language.

By steering clear of the expatriate community and integrating yourself into the local community from the very outset you will rapidly find out whether or not you would be making a wise decision to move overseas permanently.

Finding a place (hotel or apartment) to stay in Paris, France

by Chris Pearson

Paris isn’t cheap. We knew that going in, but we were a bit surprised by just how expensive it is to stay in Paris at even the “less expensive” places. So we did lots of research for our Paris trip this coming August, and I will share our findings with you. Perhaps it will save you a few hours in finding a place for, or few hundred Euros on, your next trip to Paris.

There are two main factors that cause Paris to be expensive in our case. The first is that the U.S. dollar is very weak at the moment. If a dollar equaled a Euro (like it did eight years ago) then things wouldn’t be so bad. As I write this, however, a U.S. dollar equals just over .6 of a Euro which means that things are more than 56% expensive in U.S. dollars that they were eight years ago due to the weak dollar. This doesn’t even consider inflation. As recent as 2002, a U.S. dollar equaled 1.15 Euros which means things have actually become more than 70% expensive in just six years (not counting inflation)!

The second factor is that there are four of us. Very few hotels in Paris allow four people in a single room (what are called quad rooms in Paris) which means that we’d have to get two rooms at more than 90% of the Paris hotels. Given that average room rates are near 200 Euro a night, we are talking about more than $600 U.S. dollars a night for something that isn’t all that fancy. Ouch! But there is a better, less expensive way.

Look not for a hotel but an apartment when you want to go to Paris. There are many advantages in renting an apartment in Paris over a hotel room.

1. apartments are usually bigger, in many cases much bigger
2. apartments have a kitchen (not only is this a matter of convenience, but it also means you

don’t have to eat out for every meal–saving yourself some more money)
3. apartments frequently include a free-to-use washing machine (and compared to hotels more

have free cable TV, WiFi, and phone calls)
4. apartment neighbors are usually real Parisians instead of noisy tourists
5. apartments can usually accommodate 4 or more people
6. apartments cost much less than a much smaller hotel room
7. apartments usually have a big price break if you stay for a week or more

About the only disadvantage is you won’t have daily maid service. With the above discovered, we narrowed down our search to three places.

http://www.vrbo.com/171594

http://www.vrbo.com/79965

http://www.vrbo.com/117217

We ended up going with the middle one because the first seemed a little cramped for four of us, and the last one was booked the week we needed it. I’ll provide reviews and recommendations (or not) after we stay there in August.

To look for your apartment in Paris these are the two best sites:

http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/europe/france/ile-de-france/paris

http://paris.en.craigslist.org/vac/

Making It Work in Italy

Live the Dream of Becoming a Resident
Articles and Photos by John Becker

A view of Perugia’s landscape from the author’s bedroom window.

The dream began as a wish, a simple statement of vast, vague longing: Let’s try to live in Italy for a year. It was easy to be overtaken with the romance of it all, for in picturing a year in Italy one thinks only of postcard images and long slow meals in sunny piazzas that exist, somehow, outside the influence of time. But once we decided to actually make the move, we endeavored to somehow find the real Italy, and to truly experience another culture through immersion. Up until the moment we left—stepping on a plane in the Boston airport with one-way tickets in our hands—we still held our original dream intact and unspecified. We landed in Italy with no sure employment, no set destination, and $5,000. Six weeks later we were settled, employed, and immensely content.

The cast of travelers, I should note, were two, Alicia and I. We met our senior year of college, and we had been dating for five years. We were both 26, each having just finished our second year teaching in America. I had been teaching English at a boarding school in Connecticut. Because I was living on campus and not paying rent I was able to put aside a few thousand dollars for the trip. I had been to Italy twice before, both times briefly, and had no knowledge of the language. Alicia, on the other hand, was a bit of an Italophile. She had studied abroad in Siena as an undergraduate and fell in love with the culture and way of life. She returned to school in America the next semester and switched her major to Italian Language and Literature. Two years after graduation she started teaching Italian at a public high school in western Massachusetts and became a dual citizen.

Alicia’s ancestry is pure Italian. Even though no one in her family had lived in Italy for nearly one hundred years (even her grandparents were born in America) she was still eligible to become an Italian citizen, and for years she had considered it. The idea came to her during college when she was thinking of spending a summer volunteering for WWOOF (World-Wide Organization of Organic Farms),www.wwoof.it/gb/about.html, in Italy. A related website mentioned that American citizens with Italian heritage could apply to become dual citizens, Italian and American. The process was actually easier than one might expect: Alicia spent several days at the Italian Consulate in Boston completing forms and finding out what documents she needed. She then called the hall of records in her great-grandparents’ hometown of Anzano di Puglia to get birth and marriage certificates. From the Boston Registry of Public Records she needed certificates of naturalization, marriage, birth, and death, proving that she was, in fact, the descendant she claimed to be. Finally, she asked her grandfather and father to sign notarized statements saying that they had never officially renounced their Italian citizenship. The entire process took less than six months and cost under $200 (including passport fee, phone calls, and postage to Italy, and the cost of obtaining and verifying the American documents—by far the most expensive step). In the end Alicia had a bright new Italian passport, good for 10 years, and the right to live and work without a visa in Italy or any other EU country.

But despite Alicia’s dual citizenship and her résumé packed with teaching experience, she was unable to find a job before we left. She sent out dozens of emails and letters, talked her way through several phone cards, and scoured the Internet for openings and postings. She applied to all types of schools: public, private, language institutes, and department of defense schools. Nothing promising came back. What we learned was that Italian employers place very little value in résumés showing degrees from American universities they have never heard of and letters of reference from people they don’t know. Instead, emphasis is on professional interactions and interpersonal rapport. But while it was nearly impossible to find work before we left America, work offers abounded once we settled in Italy. Ten days after finding our apartment Alicia had two job offers—one teaching and one translating— and several other prospects.

In the end, the aspect of our trip that proved most challenging was getting to the point of feeling settled. Because we left America without a set destination, our first few weeks in Italy were spent trying to decide where we wanted to live. We ended up in Perugia, the capital of Umbria. After three weeks of wandering through cities that felt either too touristy or too isolated, Perugia felt just right. The lesson we learned was this: it is best to find your place to live first, and a job second. As we were traveling around the country, we tried certain towns or citiesfor a few days, checking the want ads and making calls, but doing this with a hotel (or even a hostel) as a home base ate up our savings at an alarming rate: €30 to €50 per night for sleeping, €20 to €40 to eat, €10 for internet and phone, plus the cost of travel in between. Once we had our place, though, we could live cheaply: our rent totaled €10 per day and we could now cook for ourselves and spend much less on food. The palpable feeling of stability that comes with unpacking helped us focus all our energy on the job hunt. Additionally, the greatest thing a potential employer can hear is, “I just moved to town and can start immediately.”

Finding housing in a university town was amazingly easy. We arrived in late September, stayed one night in a hostel and were living in our apartment by the second night. We accomplished this by merely going to the student center at the university. There we found bulletin boards that were thickly plastered with housing announcements. We called four and set up visits. We only saw two. At our second meeting our housematesto- be had espresso waiting when we walked in the door. We took one look at our room—15th-century exposed beam ceiling, 18’ x 18’ floor plan, two windows with expansive views of the city church spires, and olive farms on the distant slopes of the Apennine mountains—and accepted on the spot. Our three housemates were students at the university, all in their mid-twenties and each spoke at least some English. In our second week in the apartment they taught us how to make tiramisu and we made them an apple pie.

A glimpse of the author’s apartment, located on the second floor above the arch.

Our landlord, like most in Italy, allowed us to rent month-to-month. And, while we did have to pay our first and last month’s rent before we moved in, this gave us two months of guaranteed residence. Should worst come to worst, we thought, and we are unable to find jobs, we will head back to America after those two months are up, having not succeeded in living in Italy for year, but having enjoyed a lengthy vacation instead.

From the beginning our dream was to live as Italian as possible for one year. We wanted to be residents, not visitors. So much of modern tourism is about exoticism and reduction, about taking a picture and buying something to bring home. We set out to find the Italy that existed beyond Roman ruins and renaissance art, outside of cappuccino and Chianti. To this end, nothing could surpass living with Italians, for I will always consider our first dinner with our roommates to be my most Italian experience. As the sky sweetened to dark blue as the sun went down slowly into the mountains, Dianna, from Abruzzo, brought out a small jar of her grandmother’s pasta sauce. Lara, Sicilian, cut up provolone cheese from her father’s farm. And eating on plastic plates with dub reggae music in the background we savored food that would outshine any authentic restaurant, for we had found just what we came for.

John Becker is a teacher, graduate student, and WWOOF volunteer currently living in Perugia, Italy.

Recent Changes to Be Aware of When Buying French Property

Posted by Overseas Property Mall in Buyers Beware, French Property, Guides and Tips

Buying a property in France, for the most part is no different to buying in the UK or the US, but there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration before making a commitment, especially in light of the recent and continued changes in French Property laws and social security rules.

State Medical Cover. Top of the list has to be the planned introduction of new rules governing National Health care for ex-pats below retirement age living in France. The French social security recently released a statement announcing that inactive people (read retired or unemployed) below state retirement age will no longer be eligible to receive state health coverage. This will affect many thousands of Britons already living in France and is certainly something to take into consideration if you are thinking of buying in France, are below retirement age and have any kind of long term health issues.

French President, Nicholas Sarkozy, still has to push this through the bureaucracy, and already there are rumblings that this proposal is in breach of EU law. Sarkozy seems determined to revamp the French social security system, and this is a good starting point. The only people affected by these proposed changes are expats with little or no voice in the government, so this is a safe place to start. The Telegraph recently ran an article “Loss of health care threatens expats in France.” Although it has to be said, the “case study” they chose to print was at the extreme end of the scale, and is hardly typical. Many expats are likely to be unaffected.

Inheritance tax. Inheritance tax laws have changed recently for the better. The threshold has been raised from 50,000 Euros to 150,000.

Renovation Insurance. It is now required that all completed renovation work be accompanied by a ten-year, insurance backed defects guarantee. What this means, in effect, is that whilst property owners may still do the work themselves, unless the renovations were carried out by a recognized professional, the insurance will likely not be available and may adversely affect the sell on value of the property.

Energy diagnosis. Introduced in November 2006, it is now obligatory to produce an energy diagnosis or “diagnostic de performance energetique.” This diagnosis must be carried out by a professional and is an efficiency report assessing the likely energy usage of a property along with a note of the presence of asbestos and lead. It will also include technical recommendations for improving consumption. This is not a legally binding contract, but will give an objective comparison between several similar properties for sale. Of course, there is a fee attached to this service.

Life as an Expat in Saudi Arabia....

- By Ginny Sealey

I am a recent repatriate from Jeddah having lived there for four years.

My husband moved to Jeddah in November 1997 and we followed in January 1998, the vagaries of the visa system causing the delay. The wait was worth it though and we loved our life there - expat life definitely suits us for the moment.

So, what's it really like ... living there as an expat (or at least the 'married with children' expat view!)

Jeddah is a real mixture - the modern, the old; the progressive, the oppressive; culture and tat! It is certainly not for everybody - it can be the easiest place in the world to live yet also the most frustrating. Of all the countries on the Arabian Peninsula - I've lived in Kuwait and Dubai and visited Bahrain a couple of times - Saudi Arabia does not pale into comparison as many would have you believe - it just depends on what your priorities are.

I should get the downsides that everyone asks about out of the way first! Booze is officially banned, women are not permitted to drive and, certainly in Jeddah, women should wear the abaya (all encompassing cloak yet not necessarily black). Cinemas do not exist. It is an Islamic country so Christmas and other Christian holidays are not recognised. (While one could argue the point that as Muslims believe that Islam is a descendant of Judaism, via Christianity, and therefore they acknowledge these as valid religions, the professed tolerance is limited to private gatherings - there are no churches or synagogues. Polytheistic religions are not recognised at all.) While the above can be too restrictive for some people, there are plus points - not being allowed to drive means I travelled by street taxi or compound car, until the advent of Abdullah my driver!! I didn't worry about finding a parking space for four years, there was always someone to help with the children and if my shopping was too heavy for my lady of leisure hands, well ....! And the abaya ... it can sometimes be a blessing - it covers up a multitude of sins!! The booze - well - your liver and kidneys are not going to get the holiday they might expect! Christmas - I had the most fabulously huge fake Christmas tree (and I was a 'chop down the biggest fresh one I could find' person before!!), bought all the decorations there and went to more carol concerts than I ever did at home - including hugely memorable ones in the desert under the stars! I have to say the thing I missed most was not being able to go to the cinema - curling up on the sofa with a huge bowl of popcorn was not quite the same thing but recently the larger compounds have been adding cinemas to their facilities.

Expatriates of all nationalities tend to live on compounds, which range from a collection of six houses around a swimming pool to self-sufficient villages of 500 houses and apartments. We lived on a medium size compound of around 250 'units'. The larger compounds have a mixture of houses and apartments and tend to have facilities such as a supermarket, hairdresser/barber, bowling alley, travel agent, tennis, basketball and squash courts, swimming pools etc. They size down by degree to the smallest which may have as few as ten houses and/or apartments around a swimming pool with no other facilities. Most compounds operate a shopping bus schedule to go to all the shopping malls and supermarkets - the larger ones also have a fleet of cars which you can book for when you need them. You can of course rent stand-alone villas but would not recommend this for anyone unless they have lived here before and have a ready-made circle of friends and, most importantly, have a full-time driver. The rule that expatriates could not buy property at all is slowly changing but at the moment they are only interested in those with GB£1m+ to spend!

Compound life has plus and minus points - there are always people around that can lend a hand should you need it but by the same token, there are always people around!! Some compounds can be more claustrophobic than others so it's wise to look at all those in your price range before making your choice - the most luxurious house may be on the tiniest compound with the least facilities. For the children though it has nothing but plus points - there are always easily accessible friends, it is a secure environment, the constant sunshine and reasonable temperatures from October to May ensure an outdoor life. The bigger compounds have on-site nurseries and preschools which in turn feed into three English-speaking schools (American and two English). Try the following links for further information on accommodation in Jeddah - admittedly they are amongst the most expensive: Arabian Homes, Mura Bustan but they give an idea of the sort of thing available.

Our two older girls attended school - Jessica started at 'big school' in September 2000 and Philippa followed in September 2001, having spent one year at a preschool on our sister compound (as did Jessica). There is also a nursery that caters from 6 months to three years which J & P both attended. There is a choice of three schools - Jeddah Prep and Grammar School, the British International School (known as the Continental School or 'Conti') and the American School, although admittedly the American School was never really an option for us as I discovered to my cost as a child that switching between the British system and the North American system can really put one at a disadvantage. The Continental School offers schooling from age two until 18, it has just introduced the International Baccalaureate.

The road systems and shopping centres have an American feel - ie they're huge! A dual carriageway is a minor road here as most roads are three lanes wide with a 'spare' lane for slow coaches to browse the shops from the outside.

Supermarket shopping is very Americanised although there are a couple of supermarkets that seem very 'English'. In all of the bigger chains you can buy everything that a basic English supermarket offers. Improvements are made all the time to the supply chain - towards the end of our time there I didn't rush out and buy a case of Marmite every time I saw it, but Branston Pickle and salad cream tended to fluctuate in their availability! Readymade dishes are not really available apart from a limited variety of frozen.

Many of the UK/American clothing brands are represented - including BHS, Adams, Next, Miss Selfridge, Zara, Osh Kosh, Benetton, Guess, Gerry Weber, Mexx, Max Mara, Mothercare, In Wear etc etc and, of course, all the haute couture designer names. One of the bigger malls, Heraa Mall has its own website. Clothes tend to be about 40% more expensive than in the UK but the sales are incredible - 50-75% is the norm. Marks and Spencer have been rumoured to be opening for at least as long as we have lived here but the rumours are gaining credence with posters on an empty shop window saying 'Marks and Spencer opening soon' ... inshallah!

There are furniture shops galore here - even the ubiquitous IKEA. The Early Learning Centre and Toys R Us have several outlets as well. Every electrical device you can think of (and a good few that you haven't) are available - certainly cheaper than the UK. While British Airways and books about Saudi will tell you that photography is forbidden, this isn't true - just the usual ie no taking pictures of military installations and airports or poking cameras into people's faces because they are 'natives'. The same applies to any other country you go to in the world. A wide range of CDs, videos and DVDs are available - for some reason CDs and DVDs are cheaper here but videos are more expensive!

Medical care is good - I happily had our third darling in Jeddah. Many of the doctors are UK or South African trained and there are about six hospitals that the expats tend to prefer. Medical insurance will soon be mandatory - if you have UK cover then they will fly you out for anything not treatable here. Women do work - and not just as teachers and nurses. The advertising, marketing, PR and legal professions here all have jobs on offer, although bear in mind that they are not 'official'. However, often you can jump in the deep end and learn a completely new skill or trade - just show willing!

The social life is good - the American, British and Italian consulates maintain a high profile amongst their respective flocks with frequent functions of varying formality from 'pub nights' to full blown black tie and posh frock evenings. There are restaurants of every kind, the private beaches offer a haven at the weekend. The diving is some of the best in the world (I am a complete convert!) and you can learn here safely and cheaply. If you're a windsurfer, sailor, waterskier or diver you can do all of these - there's an expatriate sailing club on one of the nicest beaches in Jeddah.

It is surprisingly green - 50 years ago there was one tree in Jeddah, outside the most prominent merchant's house in the old town. Today, occasional glimpses through open palace gates show a tropical paradise and the powers that be are not keeping it all to themselves. Millions of gallons of recycled water (it pongs somewhat!) nourish trees, flowers and grass across the city daily and previously barren waste ground and roundabouts become parkland almost overnight. This is all novel to the local inhabitants and they revel in it - choosing to picnic in the centre of lush roundabouts may be highly amusing to those lucky enough to take greenery for granted but a luxury to be enjoyed to its fullest otherwise!

The day to day life of a full-time mum with three children is not very different to at home in the UK. The school runs for drop off and collection take up most of the morning and the afternoon is spent entertaining them! This is easier from the point of view that most friends live within walking distance and good use of the swimming pool or nearby beach can be made as the weather is always good - if a tad hot from late June to mid-September!

And what else can you do in your spare time - kite surfing, jet biking, netball, softball, swimming (organised national leagues for children), camping, explore art galleries and museums, the old town and travel the wider country. Or just chill out and enjoy the sunshine!

Hope this helps - keep up the excellent work - I hope to be an expatmum again very soon!!

Ginny Sealey