Sun, sand and surfing (with a JEEP)

When your almost entire country is covered with sand I guess you will at some point find yourself driving in it. Actually that is not a bad thing. One of the best activities that you can indulge around here is 4WD in the desert sand dunes. It is really a ton of fun.

Our playground :)

I have bought our JEEP specifically to be able to do this. You really cannot spend time here without indulging in a bit of dune bashing. We were fortunate enough to be introduced to some really experienced desert drivers and campers who make it so easy to do this. Our particular guide was a veteran of many of these adventures. His name is Marek and he has been at it for about 15 years. And you can really tell.

Marek taking a group photo

He took a group of us first timers into some gorgeous desert country for a day. He was totally equipped for this business and was able to guide us with both direction and advice. Two weeks ago we met at an agreed point where he checked our cars to make sure that we had the right cars etc. He immediately gave us radios for communications and we set off for the dunes.

Our start-off point preparations

Preparations include many activities

Whilst driving there we saw a 3 truck pile-up in the middle of nowhere. Completely flat, not a shrub in sight and they managed to run into each other head to tail. It looked so funny as you have so much room to swerve and avoid accidents. They must have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Having arrived at our desert take-off point we proceeded to deflate our tires and then took off. I took mine down to 15 PSI and promptly got bogged after a couple of kilometers. It was shovel in hand and dig. Typical male attitude. Power solves everything, Took me a while to get the balance right. All other newbies were stuck as well. So the first hour was spent shoveling sand. Fun, fun, fun.

Down to the axles

All hands to the rescue

We really did not know where Marek was taking us but it was like driving on a cloud. The soft sand makes the driving incredibly smooth. As we drove we spotted a gigantic dune with a very steep face. We all looked around and laughingly exclaimed "Gee, wouldn't want to be going that one, would we now!". But as we got closer there was a sneaky feeling that it was the exact place where we were heading. And so it was. We pulled up to top got out looked down and said "No way".

Launch point on the top of a dune

Ready for descent

And some descent it is!

Just some other photos from the day!

And finally here are some videos from the day. Simply exhilarating.

Diesel, Guns and... Kitchen utensils!

One of the best things about living here in Saudi Arabia is that a lot of expat social life is centered on embassy based events. And so it was that the Coolabah Club attached to the Australian Embassy held a “Community Night” couple of weeks back. It was an ideal excuse to get back to Riyadh again. We also took with us Dr. Bruce Wells who lives on our compound and is a lecturer here at PMU. He is a fellow Ozzie and it was his first trip to Riyadh.

The evening at the embassy was excellent. It was actually held in the ambassador’s residence and was a great opportunity to mix and meet a lot of other fellow Ozzie expatriates. I was particularly impressed by a painting in the Coolabah clubroom of a Ozzie rules footy. It was one of a high mark being taken by no less than a Saints player. These people sure know their football.

Riyadh as usual provided to be a treasure trove of things to see and do but that will be in another post.

On the way to the Edge of the World we had to stop at a petrol station. No big deal you may think. Well you have never been to a petrol station till you have been to a Saudi one. They are an oddest mix of supermarket, army disposal store, music shop, camping and outdoors shop, beauty parlour, general store, hardware store, toy store and anything else that you can think of.

There is an amazing range of snacks, foods, drinks and other travel oriented condiments. But the most fascinating is the range of gun holsters, whips, pummelers, clubs and other assorted assault weapons right next to a great range of kitchen utensils and coffee pots etc. Why not? After all, when one has been hunting, bludgeoning and pulping some poor unfortunate soul one may as well sit down and cook a hearty, nourishing meal to replenish the energy and prepare one for the rigours of the following day.

Here are some examples of what is to be found in these magic places. Oh and by the way, you can also refuel your vehicle here J

Gun holsters and kitchen utensils - A natural item grouping

Of course we should not forget the kids. If they start to annoy with their infantile "Are we there yet??" mind games just get them one of those plastic bikes and send them on their way. Toys galore at these petrol stations.

Now if they still persist with these silly games just try and bribe them with copious drinks and snacks of a mind boggling variety such as these (Only a small sample shown here)

If the bribe and corruption utterly fails then there is still the option of battering them into submission with one of these handy pummeling artifacts. Just what any petrol station needs to sell.

But alas all we did was fill up and get on our way. I have still not overcome the sheer glee of filling up a 79 Liter tank with 95 RON premium petrol for the grand sum of $21.34. Ahhh the guilt of it all.


Even paying for petrol here is different. Gas attendants fill your car and then take cash. No card payments or EFTPOS here. And it is a unique sight. They whip out a wad of banknotes that any crack dealing pimp would be proud off from which they will peel off the change.


For anyone who has ever been in Saudi this will bring a smile to their faces.

All in all these places are truly unique and almost a tourist attraction of their own. Only in Saudi :)

Post Ramadan and Hello Brendan :)

We survived Ramadan without too much hardship – and I must say I did enjoy it better than “normal” times, as we started work 1 hour later and finished 1 hour earlier :) and then there was the six day holiday to mark the end. The shopping was also great as most shops and cafés didn’t open until about 9pm and went through to about 2am.

I really didn’t think that it would have that much of an effect on our lifestyle with us not being Muslim, but I was wrong! If we wanted to eat out we had to schedule to eat late, then we would go and get groceries so we weren’t getting home from shopping until midnight – or later.

There was another bonus that we really enjoyed, and that was that by the time the shops opened at night all the prayers were over so we didn’t have to leave while they shut for prayer or rush to get in to eat before they closed. We both really got used to the changed later hours and it was hard to get back into the normal routine of going midway between the second last prayer and the last – I have gotten to be a master at scheduling. If we get in between these prayers, you can eat in comfort, and when finished, all the shops are open so the shopping is uninterrupted.

After Ramadan, we were really pleased to welcome Brendan into the PMU community. His wife Sarah had come across our blog while trying to Google info on living conditions and what to expect in Saudi, as well as anything relating to PMU. She contacted us and I tried to answer some of her questions and concerns. We are still trying to figure out why he would leave the Guggenheim to come to PMU…lol

We were sitting relaxing, on what for us was a weekend, and the next thing there was a very timid knock at the door, and there was Brendan to say hello. He had a big smile and a big bag of goodies in hand for us –3 “Family” size boxes of Triscuits (we soooooo love Triscuits - all gone now) and some lovely organic coffee from Sarah’s mum. So thank you so much to Sarah’s mum for this - it is very nice and we are enjoying it a lot :)

We weren’t concerned about his jetlag – he is young and can cope – so we bundled him into the car and took him straight to Rashid Mall, first to eat (we also love Fuddruckers hamburgers) and then onwards to the Mobily shop to get his phone and internet organized. We were successful with his phone, but our friend who was leaving at the end of that week wanted to sell him his internet device, and he did take that on but didn’t have a lot of luck with it. He is going to the local Holiday Inn just in front of our compound to Skype Sarah – who he is missing a lot as she is still in the USA waiting for her visa…. :(

He came again a few weeks later and very apologetically told us that his phone was locked – able to receive calls, unable to make them. We got him his phone on the first night, but because he didn’t yet have his resident permit, Jesse put the phone in his own name as we already have two phones & internet with Mobily……..the problem with this was, that we also didn’t have resident permits (Iqama) because Jesse had to renew his passport, which of course has a different number than his passport that he entered into Saudi with. We did manage to get it sorted so Brendan now has a phone back :)

The situation here at the moment is that neither Jesse nor I have our resident permit or our exit/entry visas. He has been told sure, tomorrow – this is 4 weeks ago now……lol but we really are expecting it this week – who knows maybe tomorrow Inshallah.

We have not been able to go to Bahrain to the cinema or to Paul :( or to the Ritz to get my hair done. To top it all off – we haven’t had a car for 2 weeks because he put it in for a service after our desert dunes trek (more coming on this subject) – and they informed him after having it for a week and a half (after he actually went to the Jeep dealer and walked through the workshop to find out why) that they would be almost ready to give him the quote for the brakes…… hahahaha…. can you imagine Pete if you had a customer’s car in for a service for that long and then just informed them after they came to find out, that you were ready to give them a quote….hahahaha

It is lucky that we don’t get too upset and keep a sense of humor for the ridiculous. I must say that I didn’t miss the car that much before we had it, but now we do, it is a total chore to be catching the compound bus to get our groceries….

Ramadan in Riyadh :) Part I

Well it has been quite a while since I last posted, but it all became too difficult when I supposedly "upgraded" the windows live writer to the beta version, which I used to use for writing the blog - it freezes, it closes, it makes the spaces between paragraphs non-existent and it was taking far too long to edit then to top it all off after battling all this it won't post the blog - much too hard basket - shame to windows for producing such a bad and unworkable program in this modern computerized driven world! Now I have had my rant I will get on with what I hope is an interesting post :P

As I wrote last time, we arrived in Riyadh on the first or second day of Ramadan and stayed at an excellent hotel called the Mena, which Jesse assures me means Port in Arabic. The decor had a really Arabian feel to it, and for Ramadan they had erected a tent in the foyer from Arabic design fabric and this had the typical floor mattresses and arm rests and many made use of it for having their very light flavoured Arabic or Turkish coffee - Naturally of course as it was Ramadan it was after the sun went down.

(Hint - if you press on the photo it opens up into large picture)

After checking in - we were lucky with a great summer rate which included brekkie, and Iftar (which is Ramadan Breakfast - 6.30pm) it was a must to go to Jesse's favorite Lebanese restaurant Al Sayira and have our first evening meal, which true to form was way too much but delicious and not expensive :) That was enough for our first night, and the next day we headed out of Riyadh towards Mecca (Makah) as Jesse wanted to show me what he calls the "edge of the world" and it was a really worthwhile trip - this was taken on the dunes outside of Riyadh. As you drive out of the city, there is a major checkpoint and just past this the road declines sharply through a huge cutting to open out on these lovely red dunes and large rock formations - it is really the first time that I have felt that I was actually in the true desert.

We then drove virtually into the middle of nowhere (well I exaggerate as usual as there were small farm holdings and camel farms) to see a tall rock formation that Jesse had visited when he lived over here way back. He was most disappointed that the road to it had been sealed and as we drove closer it was fenced off with a guard post and several quarries had been put in - so we couldn't go all the way up to the base as in the "old days".

Our timing in arriving back at the hotel in time for the 6.30pm "Breakfast" was excellent, and we had worked up quite an appetite with all the dune climbing and running back down hehehehe.... The brekkie was pretty awesome as well - Arabic coffee, dates & dried apricots on all the tables to break the fast, although I passed on the Laban which is a yoghurty thickish drink that Jesse will drink by the gallon if it is there :( and then on to the buffet which was actually pretty impressive - we certainly didn't go hungry!

Ramadan in Riyadh ......... Part II

After our tummies were well and truly over-full, Jesse decided that it was off to the gold souks in an old part of town he knew, and there were so many over-the-top gold pieces that you just would never be able to wear. If you want to see gold this is the place for it. It is sold by weight not craftsmanship, and anything that takes your interest is immediately thrown on the scales and price is given - I must be the only female in the whole souk that was more interested in a shop selling really interesting and lovely mother of pearl and turquoise inlaid walking sticks than the jewellery :P must be showing my age.....hehehehe

Next day we lounged about until late afternoon again because during Ramadan the shops don't open until 8.30pm or 9ish and stay open until about 2-3am,so of course if you are going out late then you are coming home from shopping at about 2am so need your afternoon nanna nap. Jesse then wanted to go to look for Al Musmak the original clay mud castle in the old part of town where Abdul Aziz came and threw his spear into the door and overcame the residents by killing them and proclaimed himself as king of all of Arabia. He went on to unify all the tribes and this created what we now know as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

We wandered around behind Al Musmak and and were truly astounded at the very old gold souk and markets behind it – we thought the souk we had visited the night before was impressive but this one was totally unbelievable there are just so many shops with so many varieties of necklaces and bracelets and rings and beads that I just can’t choose – I become paralyzed and can’t decide…… although a lot of it is too ornate and heavy to wear - it must be for pure investment purposes. The pictures I have put in below are the investment pieces I am talking about – they also have lovely wearable gold as well and I do have my eyes on a few lovely pieces before I come home.

Did I mention that the jewellery shops here in the shopping centres are unbelievable? The gems and diamonds in rings and necklaces range from unbelievably beautiful to the grotesque in over-the-top bad taste in size and design. I have never seen such a huge range of watches and the same description applies to these as to the jewellery. Jesse bought me a beautiful diamond wedding ring and we have another ruby and diamond ring ordered – just waiting to pick it up :) It was then time to go back for our 6pm “Brekkie” then some driving around in Riyadh, then a fairly early night as we had to be up at 6am for the 3.5 hour drive back to Khobar for Jesse to go to work – Lucky for me I had another 2 days of rest :) :)

On yer bike then….

Cycling is something that I have greatly enjoyed over a number of years. At one stage I was really into it and it was nothing to go for a 6-7 hour ride on the wonderful bike trails of Melbourne and Mt. Dandenong fire access roads. I even did some of those multi-day rides all over Victoria. It got me very fit at the time. I developed something close to Jurrasic thighs and calves the size of a cow heart.

I have had some great high-tech bikes including a GT RTS3 which was one of the original dual suspension bikes introduced in the mid-90s. Darius is now exercising the custodianship over that machine. Almost a family hairloom.

So coming to Saudi I thought why not get a bike to re-kindle some of those great riding experiences. Ah but what to get? The choices and the technology are truly bewildering. But the answer was obvious. The prevalent bicyle type here is the quintessential Third World bike that is found by the hundreds of millions in India, China and Africa.

It’s the ultimate workhorse of the planet’s villages, farms and unpaved roads. It would also be an ultimate pose bike on the Boulevards and Corniches of the West. It's so retro it's beyond cool!

I had a choice of either a Hero or Atlas. Both are made in India and are a more-or-less identical in design. Built to take a trashing and ferry mind boggling loads. No precision engineering here. Lightweight components!! Gotta be kidding! These are tanks. Heavy steel tubing, tractor seats with spring suspension, push/pull rod brakes, cattle-horn handlebars, single speed, heavy steel stand, cargo rack.

But you know what? It’s gorgeous. Have a look!

I absolutely love the cheap decals and decorations. It also somewhat ambitiously and optimistically carries a “Export Quality” decal of somewhat dubious credibility. Where is Consumer Affairs when you need them to uphold the truth in marketing?

The high quality plastic ornament. Almost like a Mercedes-Benz

Here are some other details featuring the fine design and perhaps “not so precision” engineering. For example the tractor seat. Laugh if you will but it’s supremely comfortable.

The cockpit :

And what is the price of this fine machinery one may ask. It is all of 270 Riyals. That makes it AUD 82. Since the thing weighs about 17 kilos it makes it about $ 4.80 a kilo.

The added benefit is that it will make me much more suave and manly as can be seen from this marketing illustration where the female is irresistibly drawn towards the alpha male who is displaying his superior breeding qualities by the astute choice of his vehicle.

Oh and BTW I have not gone for a ride as yet. Too bloody hot!!!

New section...

We have just added a new section to our blog titled FAQ Frequently Asked Questions. It is on the link just below our header. Check it out and let us know what you think :)

Almost a Year

We are fast approaching our first anniversary of arriving in Saudi Arabia. Only 1 year ago we were busy packing up our house and arranging for storage, submitting our resignations and waiting for our visa’s to arrive. How quickly a year passes, and in some respects how slowly it seems to go when we think of our families at home and especially our new arrival this year, Hannah – she is growing so quickly.




I just had a 5 day weekend from work :) and how nice it was. The days were owed in lieu from back in April this year when I represented PMU at Seef Mall in Bahrain.

Jesse decided that seeing as I had this time off, that he would also take a day off, and we drove up to Riyadh where we did our patriotic duty and voted at the Aussie Embassy for the upcoming election. His passport was also due to expire so instead of sending it via DHL he could submit that at the same time for renewal and save the money – yeah rite – he had all the paperwork filled out, had his passport pics, the trouble was they were too small so no success with this task.

We took off from our compound on the Wednesday at 9am and arrived safely on the outskirts of Riyadh at about 12.30. It took a full tank of fuel to get there and as we went through the last checkpoint before Riyadh the fuel light was on and flashing – and petrol stations every 500 meters – all on the wrong side of the freeway! We reduced our speed back to use less petrol and safely made it to a petrol station a few kilometers further up the highway.If anyone is ever driving from Al Khobar to Riyadh and when they are about 1/2 way there and running low on fuel – then the last petrol stop is just after the red sand dunes, otherwise it becomes a bit worrying that it won’t be made to the next fuel stop – and it’s toooooooo hot to walk it!

All was going well and on time, as we expected and the car went like a dream. To save battery time on the GPS we didn’t turn it on until after we filled up with petrol. We punched in the Diplomatic Quarter for Riyadh where all the embassies are situated, and it promptly directed us to get off the freeway, do a u turn and go back the way we had come from.

As everyone knows, Jesse is not that good at directions, but even he thought this a bit “wrong” but we put our faith in the good old Garmin and went as directed. It directed us back about 7 km’s telling us to keep to the Dammam/Al Khobar road then once we had passed by virtually the last turn off it was showing as another 300 odd kilometers – back to where we had come from.Jesse very quickly pulled up on the side of the freeway, (sand spraying out from the tyres and back slewing almost sideways) – this was so we could drive through the sand back to the exit road if needed. We turned the GPS off, turned it back on and re-programmed it and as expected it was telling us to go back the way we came – we didn’t have to go through the sand as it was showing us an exit road close by and we came back into Riyadh by the old Dammam Highway.

This was a lot more picturesque than the regular route albeit a lot more bumpier road surface – think of roads in north Queensland back in the seventies. There were goat, sheep and camel markets quite a bit of the way in, complete with their hand built ply wood compounds (humpies)next to the animal pens.

We made it to the diplomatic quarter with no worries. We found an ATM no worries, as the embassy only accepts cash for passports – problem, it wouldn’t accept our Aussie card :( We then tried to find the embassy but that proved to be a bit more of a problem. The fire dept couldn’t tell us, various guards couldn’t tell us – a sweeper at a shopping centre told us it was at circle 8 so he knew a bit more than a lot more “official” type people.

We finally found our embassy and made it in to vote with 3 minutes to spare as the voting closed at 3pm…..lol and luckily found an ATM on the way that accepted our card – so voting done, now to find accommodation I have pics of this and I will post in the next few days of where we stayed and what we saw.

Going to Bahrain via King Fahd Causeway

We have been really enjoying our new car – and have made several trips now to Bahrain where it’s great to go to the cinema (they have hot caramel popcorn), get a great Chinese massage or just enjoy not being hunted out of the shops or sitting around waiting for them to open while prayer is on. You can even try clothes on before buying and are served by women assistants. Jesse especially likes the fact that there is a Nando’s over there but as he said in a previous blog it isn't as good as Chirnside Park.

The thought of going over the Causeway sometimes puts me off, but it is well worth any wait once we get to Bahrain. I think the longest we had to wait, was coming back at 2am on a Thursday night. I was amazed how crowded it was and we didn’t get home until about 4.30 am. It was lucky that it was Thursday as it meant I had all Friday to recover. We have tried different times and thought we would watch the last 12am movie and that it should be a breeze getting across – big mistake.

We later found out that this is the time that all the clubs, restaurants, movies etc etc close and is one of the peak times to come back.

It is fascinating, amusing and scary, as you approach the first checkpoint on the way out of Saudi. There are hundreds of cars, most with drivers who have no obvious sense of fatality or injury to themselves or others, pushing and jostling to get into what should be the uniform lanes leading to a booth with a green light on. They will literally push right in on you, and it is either give way or be hit. The cars will be within 1cm of the car in front to avoid someone pushing in, and it is not unseen to see someone actually touching the car in front or rear ending them.

It is also fascinating that once you get past this first checkpoint, that the lanes are then strictly adhered to and there is no horn honking or pushing and everything becomes orderly – as the driving in Bahrain is. Pure pleasure being driven there. It is very scary being on the roads in Saudi even though there is virtually no road rage even though it could be totally understood if it happened.

Jesse bought himself a sat-nav and it has been invaluable in getting us around especially with Jesse’s directionally challenged sense of location – I am constantly amazed that he managed to get himself around the world successfully before these wonderful machines were invented, as he is totally hopeless at knowing where he is.

I must say though that the brand we bought (Garmin) is just slightly “off” quite a bit of the time and seems to loose itself or send us the wrong way then make us do a u turn and come back. Lucky I seem to have an inbuilt navigation system in my brain and we are usually able to successfully arrive where we planned. I much prefer the Navman we have in Melbourne.

We have been going to Seef Mall in Bahrain as I know what shops are where and it isn’t too big to get around, and we have discovered a great French patisserie restaurant located up one end. It is called PAUL and they specialize in bread and pastries but their actual food is great as well.

We swiped some of the napkins to bring home for my son in-law (his name is Paul). They also make an ok cappuccino, much better than the ones I have had in Saudi. Jesse took a pic on his phone of me standing next to the sign outside Paul, but for some reason it didn't want to dowload.

We will try the newer and bigger City Central Mall next time as everyone tells us this is the one to go to – this one even has a Freedom Furniture store as well as a 20 cinema complex and very importantly a Paul. Getting off the subject we also have Payless Shoes and a Howard’s Storage World in our local Mall of Dharan.

It is so good to have nice bread and coffee – I don’t like any of the cappuccino’s I have had in Saudi, including ones from Starbucks, Costa, Dr. Café, Seattle’s Best, Joffrey or any other café I have tried as most places make it with UHT or it is so weak it is like drinking warmed up milk as well as being so scalding hot it burns everything from gums to mouth, and takes too long to drink. 

There is one decent coffee place in our local Mall of Dharan in a really pretty French patisserie…… but I can’t wait to get back to Melbourne to have some really decent coffee…mmmm and some really nice bread………mmmmmmmmmmm.

We won’t be going across to Bahrain for a few weeks now because Jesse’s Aussie passport is about to expire and it has to be taken to the Aus. Embassy in Riyadh to get renewed. Usually you DHL it to them with the fee, but as we have to go to the embassy to vote for the upcoming election we decided to take a day off work and drive up to Riyadh and put the passport in as well as vote. 

So we will be voting well in advance of all you mob at home . I am also using this as an excuse to have 3 extra days off work as it is owed to me from when I represented PMU in Bahrain back in April….. so roll on next week.