---
type: Tip
title: Carry a foreign eSIM
description: Buy data on your own phone before you arrive — a foreign roaming eSIM walks through the censorship in China and Russia, runs the translate app when there's no guide, and is the one thing sanctions can take away entirely.
tags: [connectivity, esim, censorship, logistics, translation]
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
---

# Carry a foreign eSIM

The most consistently useful piece of logistics in the bundle, and Harry mentions
it in almost every country. Data on arrival, bought before you land, on your own
phone.

The interesting part isn't the convenience. It's that a **foreign** eSIM roams on
a foreign network and is therefore outside the local internet — which turns a
travel accessory into the thing that decides what you can do in three quite
different situations.

*Obs: Harry's eSIM provider is a paying sponsor of most of these videos and is
named in each description. The advice is his and predates none of that, but the
brand is advertising and no provider is recommended on this page.*

## How Harry applies it

**It defeats censorship without a VPN.** In [China](/countries/china.md),
YouTube, Instagram and the Western internet are blocked; locals run VPNs, and
Harry's foreign eSIM simply worked. The same is true in
[Russia](/countries/russia.md), where blocks had recently tightened and a foreign
roaming connection bypassed them entirely.

**It substitutes for a guide.** In [Antananarivo](/places/antananarivo.md) he
spent an entire day with no interpreter, and the day ran on a translate app —
which is a data connection with extra steps.

**It is the thing that fails.** [Syria](/countries/syria.md) is where the advice
breaks and Harry says so: sanctions mean **no eSIM works at all**, and a
foreigner can't buy a local SIM either. He crossed the border and navigated
[Damascus](/places/damascus.md) with no data of any kind, which is the strongest
argument on this page for how much he normally relies on it.

**It is what everyone else forgets.** In [Rio](/places/rio-de-janeiro.md) during
Carnival he keeps meeting people who can't book an Uber or find their hotel
because they have no connection, in a city where the party moves by message.

## Demonstrated in

- [I Rented a Chinese Girlfriend in Shanghai 🇨🇳](/videos/4VzMQYqcZKs.md) —
  the clearest technical case: a Chinese local uses a VPN for what Harry's
  foreign eSIM reaches without one.
- [Solo Entering the New Syria (After the Dictator Fell)](/videos/EhEjNmUEjfo.md) —
  the exception that proves it. No eSIM functions in Syria and no local SIM is
  available to foreigners.
- [The Country Everyone Knows But Nobody Visits 🇲🇬](/videos/zDUHfkqNgg8.md) —
  a full day in Antananarivo conducted through a translate app.
- [Things Got Out of Hand at Rio Carnival 🇧🇷](/videos/Rat94OD4lz0.md) — where
  the failure mode is other people's: no data, no Uber, no idea where the next
  bloco is.
- [Attacked and Arrested in Cameroon's Deadly Protests 🇨🇲](/videos/4CO4s3cNvcA.md) —
  the entry that stops this reading like a convenience. Separated from
  [Kieran](/people/kieran.md) in a hostile crowd in
  [Douala](/places/douala.md), Harry had data throughout: he tracked Kieran's
  location to the police station, spoke to him while he was inside, and reached
  the governor of Douala to get him released from an espionage charge.

## Related

- [Learn the local language](/tips/learn-the-local-language.md)
- [Travel with a local guide](/tips/travel-with-a-local-guide.md)