Shopping in Khobar

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Shopping for Computer Cables in Khobar

We need a bunch of computer cables for the SAC center including a printer cable, network cables, and some spare mice (mouses?). My idea was for Minneapolis to ship this stuff to me. Their idea was to buy it here. Sure, just tell me what Radio Shack is in Arabic. And I’m pretty sure Mapquest won’t work.

Since Glyn had not yet been to Khobar, he wanted to go too. I can’t believe that I seem to know my way around Khobar. I caught myself saying “down this street is the Indian section and markets. Over there are some restaurants. The main street is this way.”

I took my camera, but I’m still really cautious about taking photos that have people in them. Taking a photo with a woman in it is seriously not a good idea. It’s considered merely rude to take photos of men. None the less, I managed a few photos here and there.

And yes, I found a place with all sorts of computer stuff. It actually reminded me of those electronics stores in New York City in mid-town.

Random thing: You know the crossing signs at traffic lights have a picture of a person crossing the street? Well they are animated here. It’s pretty funny and kind of cool.

By the time we were ready for lunch, it was prayer time. Everything shuts down including restaurants, so we wondered the streets. Outside of one store (before it closed) was a rack of T-shirts. The one on the end was a Minnesota Wild T-shirt!! Since it had a Target bulls-eye logo, I’m guessing it was a give-away at some hockey game. I wondered how it made it from the Excel Center to downtown Al Khobar…

Glyn and I finally found a restaurant that met our criteria; it had an “Open” sign. It was right next to the Thai restaurant that Manir and I went to, so I asked Glyn to take a photo of me in front of the sign.

I headed to the SAC Center to setup for the start of Sunday’s assessment center (#5). I wanted to get that out of the way, so I can enjoy the rest of the weekend. I also wrote up a summary report on what we’ve found to date with the new process. It almost seems strange that it’s NOT the weekend for y’all.

Tomorrow is a BBQ at Anthea’s house with the rest of the guys. I don’t think ribs and beer will be on the agenda. I have not seen any Famous Dave’s here!

Please enjoy today’s photos.

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Photos

Ancient Door
This was in the Indian section. Doesn't this door look like it's 300 years old?

Sunny in Khobar
One of the many mosques.

Minnesota Wild
I stumbled across this T-shirt on a rack. Very strange!

Thai Restaurant
This is where Manir and I ate dinner. I'm not sure how to pronounce this.

On the way back to Daharan
Thsi is what it looks like outside of the Aramco compound.

Aramco - Street Cleaner
I liked that he used some sort of palm leaf to sweep the street.

Aramco at Sunset
This is one of the houses I spotted when I was walking back from the SAC center at sunset.

Comments

[Jessica]

Thank you! :)
Finally an entry that didn't make me hungry!

[Ryan]

Wild T-Shirt
Hi Ted! Shannon passed along your link, which has become a daily check, if not read for me - what a great experience you're having! I noticed someone mentioned Daikon to you already - I'm not ashamed to admit that I knew that one from watching Iron Chef... the Wild T-Shirt - and this would be a guess - could have actually come from Target... I read an article on ESPN.com after the Patriots lost to the Giants in the Superbowl that the losing teams 'winning' t-shirts, etc. are typically shipped out of the US and given to other countries in need of clothing... figure if you have some entrepreneurial people that get ahold of several shirts it'd be easy to have them end up in a store. Again, just a guess there. Enjoy your last week there!

[TedTravel]

Wild Shirts and Daikons
Hi Ryan. I'm glad that you are reading the blog. The Aramco compound looks very San Diego and I think you guys would fit right in. Of course, making that trip to Mpls and NoDak would be a lot harder around the holidays! When you mentioned Iron Chef, I can totally picture Alton Brown talking about how to use Diakons and the history of Diakons. Glyn verified that it was a Diakon. Another mystery solved by my friends and family! The T-shirts were second-hand, I believe. So perhaps some ex-Minnesotan decided to trade his shirt for a schwarma sandwich. Wise choice.