Malaysian Student's TikToks Chart Three Years of Falling for Egypt

“Hi, I’m Malaysian, and yesterday I suddenly arrived in Alexandria.” That’s how Hazim Husni opens one of his mini-vlogs on TikTok.

Husni goes by Jimmy, online and to everyone here. He is a Malaysian student content creator spending his 20s in Egypt, juggling his studies with as many side quests as the country has to offer.

"And I want to show you guys the things I did," he adds, before a montage of his time in the coastal city unfolds. Gelatos by the sea, accidentally joining a Corniche marathon he had no idea he was part of, and trust-falling backwards into Alexandria's water.

The once-reluctant student has been turning his TikTok page, @hazimhusniii, into a scrapbook of every reason he fell in love with Egypt. When he first arrived in Sharqia, he wasn't convinced he would last.

"At first I felt like I could never stay here... it was my first exposure to what people call culture shock."

How many unprompted trips across Egypt's governorates, chance encounters and small oddities does it take to go from that to telling you the story behind Alexandria's 1920s Farouk Café like a local?

It started with his first Egyptian friend. They met at a Red Bull skating event shortly after he moved to Cairo in May 2023, and being welcomed into a community he hadn't expected to find, he started treating those events as a way into Egyptian life, turning up to gatherings in Giza, Port Said, Madinaty and beyond.

Three years on, Alexandria has the most pins on his map, holding its own corner of his memory with its old cafés and its sunsets over the wave breakers.

His first spark with the city came while he was performing on its soundtrack.Jimmy is a musician. In his early attempts at finding community he started a small Malaysian-Indonesian band in Nasr City, then played session keyboards with another Malaysian band. His musical life in Egypt properly found its rhythm when he joined a local indie band for a show in Alexandria, as their rhythm guitarist.

"I started to fall in love with Alexandria since then. After that I started going again and again and again."

Music also got him something he had wanted for a long time. "I always wanted to be part of the local music scene in Egypt," he says.

Playing with an independent band led to one of the biggest moments of his time here. Shortly after the Alexandria show, he found himself performing in front of alternative rock band Masar Egbari.

"I performed in front of Masar Egbari in a competition. It was a big moment. We won first place. They gave me first place."

His most recent solo trip to Alexandria involved an unexpected run-in with content creator Marwan Sallam. Jimmy stumbled into Marwan's charity marathon and only worked out he was in a 10km run along the Corniche when he was almost halfway through it.

Almost straight afterwards he headed to Menoufia, which by his own admission seemed like the logical next stop for no particular reason.

He landed in Shebin El Kom on the night Egypt played Australia in the World Cup. Out of every fan zone and screening in the country, a random countryside café in a governorate he barely knew, surrounded by strangers cheering on the national team, was exactly the kind of scene that belonged in the scrapbook.

The match went to penalties. When Hossam Abdelmaguid buried the last one in Dallas on July 3, Egypt had won their first knockout tie in World Cup history, and the countryside erupted.

Streets came to a standstill as people danced in the middle of the road. Pop songs turned into national anthems and an Uber ride became a sing-along.

"I felt just as happy. I felt like I was one of them," Jimmy says.

"I got hooked on these vibes." After that night the football became secondary, and what he was really waiting for was whatever came after the final whistle. "I was looking forward to seeing them again after the Egypt vs Argentina match."

In Menoufia he made his way from Shebin El Kom to Tala by tuk-tuk. A wedding procession passed, and a restaurant owner recognised him and asked him to review the food.

Being recognised by strangers had by then become part of the adventure. Jimmy would argue it is the strangest part of it, stranger than the accidental marathons, the Masar Egbari competition and the countryside World Cup celebrations. It first happened in Alexandria.

"Some people from my small following started to recognise me and they treat me like I'm famous. They were very welcoming."

For every improbable detour, there are a dozen smaller discoveries with their own page in the scrapbook. One of the first was the prickly pear, sold peeled fresh at roadside stalls across Egypt.

"The weirdest thing I discovered in Egypt was teen el shoky," he laughs. The fruit has since become a recurring character in his TikToks, turning up long after the video where he first tried one.

Then there are the everyday things that became second nature. Conversations carried as much through hand gestures as words, and the ease with which complete strangers stop to talk like they have known each other for years.

Asked what first struck him as unusual, it's the small stuff that comes to mind. "Hand gestures. People use their hands a lot while talking," he laughs. "Having a conversation with literally anyone in the street. Everyone can talk to each other like they're old friends."

In one of his TikToks he stops a stranger to ask for directions, and the man clocks that he is Malaysian and answers him in Malay. "I think this is the thing I'd miss the most about Egypt," he says of those street conversations.

Egypt also gave him something he had never had at home. "There's no winter in Malaysia, so for me, that was one of the new things I discovered in Egypt."

He would also miss the cityscape, the call of the robabekia man echoing through the neighbourhood, and the chaos itself. "I love the chaos," he says.

After tuk-tuk rides through Monufia, accidental marathons in Alexandria, Egyptian stages, roadside conversations with strangers, prickly pears and his first winter, Jimmy puts it simply.

"When I first came to Egypt, I was always waiting to leave. And now, I'm afraid to leave it."