Sunrise This Morning

Authentically Saudi!

Now, we've been here for two months now and we realized that we didn't have anything...truly Saudi Arabian as a souvenier. And then I thought...by George! (thats me) Leopard Print! Its everywhere you can get anything in this country in leopard print. From your routine undies to cuttlery to couches and thrones to any clothing you want...including an abaya. So started my mighty mission to tacky it up to the max! and where better to start than my plain hotel looking ensuite! Initially I thought all I needed was a leopard print shower curtain to make my life complete....and then I thought why stop there. Why not have a slightly suspicious slightly arab looking guy to go with it and there I was. It was truly a magic moment...

Chucking a 147

I and another lady here had a run in with a and old arab taxi guy the other day which involved him trying to ram our taxi off the road, then to pull us out of our cab into his. We paid the guy off (extorted 60 riall off us) and told him to bugger off. As of now, throwing a tantrum is chucking a 147 (the number of this guys taxi). Our taxi driver was more concerned at the time to see if Pakistan was beating India in the cricket! (They lost so HA!)

Its party time here at night but people are getting pretty pissy during the day due to the heat and no water especially the taxi drivers. Its just a case of keeping the outings to after the 5.45pm feed when people miraculously chill out.

At night though its just like Christmas. Everyone seems to be gearing up to Eid and people are buying presents like crazy. You can't move in the gold souks for guys buying stuff for their wives. I've been giving the hints but Anthony appears to be miraculously deaf and blind on purpose I think. The antisocial bugger doesn't like large crowds so he hasn't been out and about in the Ramadan crush yet and probably isn't likely too. Although one of the guys down the road Dave, a really funny Texan (just don't mention the death penalty or abortion and we get on juuuuust fine...he calls me a communist) has talked AJ into going into town next week for dinner and to go big MOFO TV shopping. I'm putting in dibs for a decent washing machine cos the one here looks like a mincer and turns out clothes with a delightful shredded look. We're having to dry clean most of our clothes which isn't so bad...only comes to about $5AUD a week but its still a pain in the ass to wait the two days for it every time.

Guess What You're All Getting for Christmas!

These ladies are everywhere over here. Aren't they great! One for every occasion and you're all getting one the minute I work out how to pack em into my luggage. MUWAHAHAHAHA.... ehem...These are Fulla dolls. The Muslim answer to Barbie and they're usually wearing racier undies if you look under the abaya hehe. Mind you you also get Barbie here too. So you can...if your really subversive put Barbie in an abaya and Fulla in a bikini...not that I've tried yet...

Blessed Bogans

This made my day the other night.

Picture this.

You're in a shopping centre carpark and its packed (its also 12 at night but hey its Ramadan) cars parked Saudi style everywhere. Blocking lanes, parked in the middle of major roads...everywhere. You're waiting for a bus with a bunch of people, including a group of young Saudi girls.

In the distance you hear a DOOF DOOF...very familiar sound eh?

Trawling past these Saudi girls comes a Saudi guy in a Holden (Vauxhall) wearing a thobe and a nike baseball cap with the evening prayers recorded to a beat blaring out his window, holding his taspe (prayer beads) out the window nonchalantly counting them off.

He did about 6 rounds of the car park past these ladies, all the while trying to look very very cool.



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA BOGANS are eeeevywhere....welcome to globalization!

Ladies Night out in Al Khobar and the Room of Sin

Haven't written much for a few days. Much dramatic drama has been going on as well as a lot of sleeplessness and a lot of eating. TOOOOOOO much eating! Both anthony and I are developing some pretty impressive love handles and its all because of Ramadan. There's nothing like people not eating and being surly bout it to make to you want to go home and eat a very large cake and lots of butter.

At AJ's work there is a sin room for the non-fasting guys and by the sounds of it they trump down there for their morning coffee and don't move off their asses until time to go home. As a result my previously salad lunching partner is producing some pudge! (He never reads this thing so I get away with this hehe)

The other night, wanting to explore a bit of the nightlife during Ramadan, we corralled a whole lot of ladies (bout nine of us) for a girls night in the Souks downtown at a Thai restaurant. Who would have thought that I would have found a brilliant Thai restaurant in Saudi, run by Filipino guys no less. It was quite an experience. We had a mix of Aussies, South Africans, Kiwis, Americans and Trinidadians oh and lets not forget the Brittish. Half the guys had never tried hot food let alone Thai and the Trinnie girls could have just sat there munching habeneros all night. Try ordering for that lot! GAH! There was a lot of pad thai for the newbies. Very Very authentic Thai dish that:P Turned out pretty good though. We caught the bus into Al Khobar at 7.30 had a one hour bus trip, an hour and a half for eating and a quick run around the souks and had another hour and a half trip home to walk in the door at about 12.30 in the morning. And with no booze we still managed to be raucous most of the way. I tried to get some night snaps but taking photos in this country is a bit of a risky business. I almost got kicked out of a furnature store two days ago for trying to photo a couch for Tracie to show her husband Carl. Mind you I do hear terrorists do try and infiltrate extra overstuffed couches to blow up your backside if they think you're too fat. (Good motivation to eat less butter!) You don't see Saudi women out in the Souks by themselves, always with their husbands so the western ladies get stared at a lot. I think thats why the malls are so popular here, they're a liminal space where women can go by themselves without getting hassed for not having a guy around. (more about this later)

Oh speaking of booze, a guy here blew up his house three times with his still before he was fired and run out of country. And that even took a while. Insane. What was he thinking...Oh well I've not blown up the house for a few years, didn't like the couch the wife bought last week so it must be due time...Mind you a Sudanese guy was beheaded for the same offense in Riyadh not too long ago. Welcome to the class system here. Oh and we live in the very liberal East coast. Riyadh's another story all together. The local 'apple juice' is rocket fuel (meths tastes better) and has been known to give people such serious liver cirocis (however you spell it) that they kick the bucket within five years of being here. Needless to say, not my scene.

Anyways I shall update some more this arvo, I've got an appointment to renew my camp ID so gotta run.

Photos Take 2

These are a continuation of the snapshots I took the other day going to Dhahran and then Al Khobar



This is a rather blurry picture of one of the many bus graveyards on the way to Dharhan...



This picture is of one of the obligatory traffic accidents on the way. This guy just had a blown out tyre but the three guys on the other side of the road (which I couldn't get a good shot of) had completely totalled their cars rubbernecking at the guy with a blown tyre. This is normal. Dodgy tyres are a major problem here and apparently 40 percent of all accidents here are caused by em. Although what the papers fail to mention is that 100percent of all dodgy tyre accidents are caused by the driver going over 150km/hr in very very hot weather. Apparently the speed limits 120 here. Yet to see someone stick to that other than the buses.



If your in the market for dodgy tyres this is where you get them This is a snapshot of one of the many chopshops set up on the road to Dhahran. They line the road for miles. The government's trying to crack down on them but they're like a fungus...

Ramadan Kareem

IIIIIITS RAMADAN!

So nothing (and by that I mean 90 percent of all shops and services) is open during the hours of daylight here so if anyone would be tempted to run down to the shop to find something to nibble Tough! Although could I just say I spent the whole night last night awake with tummy rumbling smelling the caramelizing onions and kabob wafting up from our Saudi neighbours. the smells of food here at night hang in the air because of the high humidity. It feels like you've eaten half a cow from just one walk around the block...Hmmmm beef particles...

Actually, its not so bad. Its pretty fun watching the western Muslim guys here getting all holy and enjoying themselves. I pretty much filled my fridge to bursting a few days ago so the limited food shopping hours (6pm to Midnight) aren't an issue at all. The only worry is that our gardener and all the other guys who do outdoors work here are fasting so theres much dehydration in the streets. People who cotton on just tell the guys to water the plants and leave everything else for the month so they can find some shade and somewhere to have a kip but some of the other expats haven't clicked yet and have their gardeners doing all sorts of heavy labor and its about 40 or so today.

Oh and I shouldn't laugh...feeling the flames n all...the local guy at the mosque who sings out the prayers in the morning randomly gets the hiccups...

We went to a masonic function on the weekend. Could we maybe just leave it at "it was interesting..." Considering the camp's 3/4 non anglo...there wasn't a non-white face in the house...really really weird...all the good ol' boys Canadians and Americans.

Anthony's settling into his new team at work. Its a pretty small one with three Saudi guys and the odd expat geologist. (Nigel down the road's one of em...more on him later...) Working within the Saudi system is taking a bit of getting used to. He spends most of his time working out how to save face for one of the guys he works for.

Oh and a short rant on American 110 voltage. Nowhere else in Saudi Arabia is 110V but Aramco which was set up for the Americans in the mid 20thC so we're buggered. All the appliances you buy here are 220V so you have to rig up these bloody huge transformers to convert the power everywhere. Pain in the ass I tell you! And whatever you do...don't plug a 220 end of the transformer into the 110 power outlet...lets just say I made it go boom...and as luck would have it...it went boom just before AJ got home so he could have a good laugh and then call me an idiot. hmph. not my fault the house is wired up all wrong!

Our shipment hit port today so HOPEFULLY it arrives here in the next...month...I doubt much will happen with Ramadan but ya never know...

Happy Snaps Take one.

Here's a few photos of the landscape between Ras Tanura and Dhahran. So this is pretty much what Anthony sees every morning on the way to work. This photo is of the typical Saudi country landscape. (a big contrast from my photos of the camp eh!)



This one's of the random shubbery you get here. I don't know if I've said it already, but the topiary is phenomenal. These bushes are a good ten or so kms into the desert and they're everywhere, All perfectly manicured. An indication of the massive number of Eastern expats employed here for cheap wages. All the roads are bordered by hedges if there isn't any nifty shub workery and that implressive in itself given that all this has to be irrigated multiple times a day.



This is a small snapshot of downtown Qatif, about 15 minutes from Ras Tanura. Or at least a bit of it. Pretty characteristic of the smaller towns round here.



This is a pretty typical Saudi Arabian house. They're huge and while the general idea's the same the architectual styles differ quite a bit.

Need I say more

Mountainy Motivation

I just found our pictures of Anja's house and surrounds from our last trip to New Zealand. This is why we're saving up in Saudi...Check out the view people. Mind you I'd have a lot more photos of here if a certain Australian-South African-Kiwi would get off her ass and email me some more photos:) Oh btw we can get Aussie rules games from here. How excitement is that! Note: Anthony is not really jumping up and down with joy but he's a football philistine.

The Fatness

I saw the funniest form of culture shock two days ago. There's a lovely Nigerian lass just up the road who is well over six foot tall with very broad shoulders. She's got a wee four month old little boy with the most impressive head of hair I've ever seen on a young baby. Its about one and a half inches long all over and feels like lambs wool.

Anyways this lady was out and about the other day when she ran into one of the larger American ladies on camp. After an introduction, she squared her shoulders, gave the toothiest smile and exclaimed (there's no other word for it) very loudly, "you're fat, like me!" all of her body language implying she'd given this lady the biggest compliment because by the sounds of it to be fat is to be successful and rich in Nigeria so its a very very good thing.

Lets just say the other lady look it the wrong way and is probably running on a treadmill neurotically as we speak...

Paranoid? Me?!

Did you know that a bull sharks young eat each other inside their mothers woomby thing and only the ones that survive get born...not that I've been researching sharks or nothing. They apparently patrol these waters.

Oh, and tiger sharks grow to 8 metres. And will eat anything. They also apparently patrol these waters. Both of these sharks like the really really shallow water as well as the deep stuff. GAH. Mind you a lot of Saudi guys go swimming here really late at night...near the reef...and there's been no reported injuries ever.

Conch shells shoot out darts that'll kill you. However we have mighty dive boots.

The scorpions here'll kill you in 10 minutes and are prone to getting in your shoes. (Apparently...this one's from local camp people and they love to exaggerate.) Bear in mind these are people who haven't grown up with all the creepy crawleys we have. (Bar the Africans. My God those guys won the draw when it comes to nasty creepy crawleys.)

Oh and instead of rodents there are lizards and skinks here everywhere. You'll be walking along and they'll be scooting every which way in front of you. We have one that lives in our garage and gets shirty every time we up the door.

Oh and last night when we were walking along the beach we saw little crabs all over the place running so fast we thought they were spiders. They're almost transparent and about the size of a 50 cent coin if not a bit bigger. They look really funny trying to get out to sea through the surf. There are also some really big ones just offshore about a metre or two that would be about a foot and a half across. I've got a talent for stepping on them by accident and getting nipped. They bury themselves in the sand so you can't see them.

Saudi Bogans and The Great Flood, oh and Serial Killer Coffee

If you go out and about in Saudi you’ll soon notice there’s a lot of young guys that like coming up to western women and talking to them (aka trying to chat them up) in English. They’d never do it to a Saudi girl so it’s essentially a major mark of disrespect. They’re the same sort of breed you get in Australia of the bogan variety who drive round yelling out the car window at you or who you’d find in a train station in Sydney asking “what are youse girls doing?” The best response is to ignore them…although some ladies don’t understand the Mickey’s being taken and they try and hold a conversation at which point they don’t understand why all of the guy’s friends are trying to drag him away…looking wildly around to see if there are any Matawa nearby. I’m currently perfecting the phrase “and you call yourself a Muslim?!” It works…although that doesn’t help if you’ve got a bunch of guys driving by in cars yelling out “I love you white lady” at top volume. I shall call this breed the international bogan.

Oh just a note on where we live. You would not believe the irrigation here. The sheer water wastage is the first thing that confronts you as an expat. Especially if you’ve come from a very water conservative country. Sprinklers are left on here all day. In 50 degrees Celsius. Grass is kept alive by essentially creating a rice paddy environment in your garden once a day. It’s really difficult to get used to and to assimilate to. If you turn the taps off, they get turned back on within minutes. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow and post them. Its completely mind boggling. There are a lot of complaints and attempts to get all water conservative. Even Aramco itself is trying to start up a water wise campaign in Dhahran…I don’t think its working yet…We’re trying to get a lot of water wise plants in the garden but I think its not going to make a difference to the guys who run the sprinkler system. I guess at least they’re not depleting underground aquifers to do all this. Its all from their desalination plants but they still have to run those and that costs more money than oil to produce…I really think it’s a pride thing.


Dhahran’s massive golf course is fully greened. Ras Tanura’s isn’t. The reason Dhahran’s is green is because an American official was given the tour around the camp a few years ago and criticised the golf course for being sandy. One of the largest greening projects on the East Coast was immediately put into place to green the course to save face after the guy left. The cost must have been phenomenal. Insane…just go have a look on Google Earth and you’ll see what I mean. Well that’s if it’s up to date to this year.

We had Turkish coffee by the beach this morning to the soundtrack from psycho…I think the coffee guy was in a really bad mood.

I also took Anthony out to see the horses at the hobby farm about five kms into the desert from camp. There are about three purebred Arabians by the looks of it, a number of crosses with thoroughbreds and a gorgeous grey purebred thoroughbred stallion. All very friendly until they realise that you don’t have a carrot…One of em tried my hair but apparently it didn’t like my shampoo. I will also get some photos of them for people. Preferably with them stomping on Anthony to create pictorial interest. The stables are all sand but are kept meticulously clean and the horses all look in good nick. They even get their own sprinkler system to walk under. (nuts!)

Once you pop you should stop and the Camel Scourge

Anthony worked out how to get skype running on the weekend thank god! Hopefully we can now talk to people without costing us and them a ridiculous amount of money. He spent the whole afternoon on Friday (our Sunday) calling people, unfortunately by the time he got the the final call he really wanted to make to his dad for fathers day the bloody system was so choppy he couldn't have a propper chat. He was so shirty he had to eat an entire packet of pringles. (it was carnage...seriously...for anyone out there who can't hack the sound of someone munch food right near to your ear I'm sure you can relate.) I think this photo perfectly sums it up. You may assume from the facial expression that he's had too many pringles... However I who know better can safely say the aliens in the satelite had infiltrated his brain by this stage and I am now sharing a house with a smelly space creature named Rufus the Galactic Sock Snorter! Also because my program is not working for me at the moment...he is currently sideways which we shall just have to pretend is a condition brought on by too many pringles...once I get my computer working properly I might...if he's nice...put him the right way up!

On another note I am so over camels. I mean...how many camels can you seriously see in gift shops and furnature shops before you go insane! I'm tempted to go to the local Rahema butcher and order a roast of camel (yes they have them) just to be contrary. "Excuse me butcher can I have a kilo of camel hump please?"

You would not believe how seriously expats here take their collection of camels. There's camel tables, camel toothpicks, camel humps, camel chairs, camel paintings, camel t-shirts, camel camels...All made in India...because we all know camels come from india!

The Mighty Steed

This is a picture of the beast! Otherwise known as my mighty steed. I've yet to name her but I know she's going to be called something ballsy like Brunhilde or Blossom. She was last seen touring past the security gates here at Ras Tanura followed by a large delivery truck full of plants from a nearby nursery with the Guards pissing themselves laughing as she went by. Her stalwat driver waved magnanimously at her audience and then proceeded to drive home at 25 kms an hour followed by three wallies who couldn't understand how to read a sign in the visitors office enough to find our house number. The following conversation is becomming common.

Miscellaneous Delivery Man (Otherwise known as MDM): MA'AM! Security! We are at security gate. Meet us Now!
George: Go in to the visitors centre and they will let you through...understand...v-i-s-t-o-r-s c-e-n-t-r-e, do you know where it is?
MDM: (Offended) Of Course Ma'am! No Problem No Problem Visitors Centre.
George: So I'll see you in a few minutes, find out house on the map and come through the gates.
MDM: No Problem.
George: See you soon?
MDM: No Problem.

(Hangs up....15 minutes later)

MDM: MA'AM! SECURITY! MA'AM
George: Where are you? (Somwhat shirty by now)
MDM: MA'AM Security, meet us at gates?
George: Have you been to security?
MDM: No Problem. (Hangs Up)

(15 minutes Later)

MDM: MA'A---
George: HOLD IT! I'm coming down there
MDM: No Problem.

(10 minutes later riding about 6 kms or so in a golf buggy)

George to Security Guy: Where are they?
SGuard: Over there, you didn't have to come down they've already been processed and have been told where to go.
George: GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
MDM: Ma'am we don't know how to find your house. (With facial expression that implies its my fault my house hides from view when it sees delivery trucks bearing down on it even though they haven't moved the truck from security parking lot.)
George: Follow the mighty steed then!
MDM: No Problem.
Guards: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You can see my house from here!

For anyone who is interested this is where we live. As you can see, everything looks scarily the same. I still get lost every now and then because other than trees and plants in people's gardens there is not much else to orient yourself with.