Dar es Salaam
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Dar es Salaam
I am about to take a contract in Dar es Salaam. Can someone please tell me how it is to live there. Is the quality of life good for expat? I found on google that the city is a high risk zone for Malaria. Does anyone have any experience.
Join Date: Dec 2006
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I have a frend who is based there and he likes it a lot. Travel can be a nightmare with rush hour traffic being chaotic and slow.
It also depends where you will live, proximity to shops or restaurants and what facilities you will have access to and their quality.
Like so many things, it will depend on your initial attitude and whether you are a glass half full or flass half empty person to start with. By the standards of most African cities, Dar has a good reputation from what I hear.
Malaria is big all over the continent, so you would have as much chance of getting it there as you would in Luanda, Malabo or Port Harcourt.
It also depends where you will live, proximity to shops or restaurants and what facilities you will have access to and their quality.
Like so many things, it will depend on your initial attitude and whether you are a glass half full or flass half empty person to start with. By the standards of most African cities, Dar has a good reputation from what I hear.
Malaria is big all over the continent, so you would have as much chance of getting it there as you would in Luanda, Malabo or Port Harcourt.
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Tanzania
Hello Jimmy,
I am reading in one of your posts that you are planning to go to Tanzania. I am actually applying to Precisionair but have no response from them yet. Do you know if they are still hiring? Are you joining this company?
I am reading in one of your posts that you are planning to go to Tanzania. I am actually applying to Precisionair but have no response from them yet. Do you know if they are still hiring? Are you joining this company?
Join Date: Sep 2001
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Jimmy,
I've been living in Dar for 9 months now and overall it's a nice place to be. If you have the chance to come and live here for a while, I'd definitely go for it.
On the downside, the traffic is appalling and during rainy season at the rush hour my journey home was taking more than 4 hours. Yes there is malaria here, but no worse than most of the places I lived in West Africa. I was also unlucky enough to catch Dengue fever earlier this year, which was particularly unpleasant. However, there are a number of very good hospitals in the city. They are quite expensive, so make sure you have good health insurance (I don't
).
If you're renting accommodation yourself, you'll find it very expensive in most of the nice places to live and there's nowhere really nice close to the airport. Electricity supply is not as erratic as many of the places I've lived in Africa, and most houses rented to expats come with a generator, 24 hour security and good water storage.
There are quite a few good supermarkets where you can buy most of the things you'd expect in a European or American supermarket - but rather more expensive.
Buying cars here is very expensive as there's no local manufacturing capacity and most vehicles are subject to 100% import duty. Car spares are also very expensive for the same reason.
Night life is good with some excellent restaurants and bars and good live music venues at weekends. The variety of food is good, from local to Ethiopian, French, Italian, Indian, Japanese and Thai. The local beers are good and there's plenty of (mostly South African) wine available.
The people are very friendly and the fusion of Africa, Asia and Arabia is much different from West Africa. The countryside is beautiful with many game parks to visit and if you just have a day or 2 off, Zanzibar is a great place for a short visit. There are lots of beautiful beaches and good diving is available from many of the little islands down the coast. If you want to know more, feel free to PM me.
I've been living in Dar for 9 months now and overall it's a nice place to be. If you have the chance to come and live here for a while, I'd definitely go for it.
On the downside, the traffic is appalling and during rainy season at the rush hour my journey home was taking more than 4 hours. Yes there is malaria here, but no worse than most of the places I lived in West Africa. I was also unlucky enough to catch Dengue fever earlier this year, which was particularly unpleasant. However, there are a number of very good hospitals in the city. They are quite expensive, so make sure you have good health insurance (I don't
). If you're renting accommodation yourself, you'll find it very expensive in most of the nice places to live and there's nowhere really nice close to the airport. Electricity supply is not as erratic as many of the places I've lived in Africa, and most houses rented to expats come with a generator, 24 hour security and good water storage.
There are quite a few good supermarkets where you can buy most of the things you'd expect in a European or American supermarket - but rather more expensive.
Buying cars here is very expensive as there's no local manufacturing capacity and most vehicles are subject to 100% import duty. Car spares are also very expensive for the same reason.
Night life is good with some excellent restaurants and bars and good live music venues at weekends. The variety of food is good, from local to Ethiopian, French, Italian, Indian, Japanese and Thai. The local beers are good and there's plenty of (mostly South African) wine available.
The people are very friendly and the fusion of Africa, Asia and Arabia is much different from West Africa. The countryside is beautiful with many game parks to visit and if you just have a day or 2 off, Zanzibar is a great place for a short visit. There are lots of beautiful beaches and good diving is available from many of the little islands down the coast. If you want to know more, feel free to PM me.
