Blogs from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Middle East

50 foto a caso dall'Arabia Saudita....... read more

Very short flight, only one hour. Another visit to Saudi Arabia terriory, and again only Airport neighbourhood seen by aircraft windows. / Króciutki lot, bo tylko godzina. Kolejna wizyta na terenie Arabii saudyjskiej, ponownie jedynie okolice lotniska widziane z okien samolotu.... read more

Last night I ate at a place called Heritage Village in Dammam, which looks like an Arabian castle. Keep in mind that there aren't tourists in Saudi, so this place survives on the locals; most were traditionally dressed. (Just what makes a building qualify as a “village” is another Saudi mystery I cannot solve.) The building is privately owned, which is pretty amazing in itself. It looks like an Arabian castle, complete with turrets and rooftop lookouts. You come in the door and there is a large three-story entry that includes a lake, swans (fake), and parrots (real). We were led into a waiting room and instructed to remove our shoes. The purpose of this room is to welcome people with Arabic coffee and dates. There are carpets on the floor and many Arabic artifacts around ... read more

I need to divide this entry into different sections May 1 Part 1 - Aramco Exhibit: We are Family - Not Let me explain. Aramco has built a museum to showcase the history of the oil industry in Saudi. One assumes they spent a few barrels of oil to build this facility. One might also assume that they would want people to visit it. Not so much. Five of us piled into our rental car, which I think is a converted Yugo. We arrived at the exhibit at about 1:00 pm and found out that it is opened from 3 pm to 6 pm on Fridays (the weekend here). So we turned around and made it back through two of the Aramco security gates (“Why doesn’t your car have an Aramco sticker?” and agreed to meet ... read more

OK... I continue to try and add pics here.... but all attempts ahve failed. Quick update. Great train ride from Riyadh to Hofuf. Giant train station.... empty. Strange 'first class' lounge with free fresh arabic coffee and dates. Plasma tvs... internet access... and a Sony Playstation??. After 3.5 hours of driving across the worlds most uninspiring landscape we were there. Oh... Tom & Jerry Cartoons and Mr Bean played on the video in our train car to help pass the time.... and more dates were passed around. Balance of the day was spent trying to make the most out of our sightseeing schedule. Such a headache... as the places we wanted to see were either closed for renovation or inaccesible. Why did nobody tell me that before. Managed to visit some funky caves and a womens ... read more