{"id":35,"date":"2005-03-18T18:42:29","date_gmt":"2005-03-18T18:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alephnaught.wordpress.com\/2005\/03\/18\/why-am-i-interested-in-saudi-arabia\/"},"modified":"2005-03-18T18:42:29","modified_gmt":"2005-03-18T18:42:29","slug":"why-am-i-interested-in-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/2005\/03\/18\/why-am-i-interested-in-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"Why am I interested in Saudi Arabia?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A little background on way back when I worked in
\nSaudi Arabia and a few other things.<\/font><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

You might have noticed that I have a topic for
\nSaudi Arabia….<\/font><\/p>\n

My first full time
\nposition in my chosen career took me to Saudi Arabia for three months. You can
\nfind the one picture I still have from my trip here<\/a>. It was an
\ninteresting experience.<\/font><\/p>\n

I worked
\nin-country from February to May of 1984. I was working on the Royal Saudi Navel
\nBase at Jubail on the east coast, right on the Arabian Gulf (I accidently called
\nit the Persian Gulf to the colonel in command of the base my first day – he
\ncorrected me very sternly and I didn’t forget, even to this day as you can see).
\nWe would drive south to Al Khobar to shop, especially in the gold souks (shops).
\nThe flight was 12 hours to Dammam (my first flight ever – there were so few
\npeople on the plane that I took an entire center row of the 747, put the arm
\nrests up and took a nap).<\/font><\/p>\n

The women
\nreally do wear black, and I mean head to toe. The Saudi women toss a sheet of
\nblack gauss over their heads. The Yemeni women wear a veil that shows their
\neyes with a gold clip over the nose bridge. Other arab women wrap a veil around
\ntheir head.<\/font><\/p>\n

The beaches are split
\nbetween male bachelors and single women\/married couples. In general, men and
\nwomen don’t mix at all – I never spoke with a woman while
\nin-country.<\/font><\/p>\n

Driving was very offensive
\n– if you drove defensively you never got anywhere. And it was dangerous – lots
\nof accidents (we had some near misses but not hits thank
\ngoodness).<\/font><\/p>\n

My girlfriend at the time
\nsent me a Dear Bob letter while I was there, so I decided to have a little fun
\nand leave by way of Amsterdam and Copenhagen, three days each. When the plane
\nleft Saudi air space, two things happened – first, every Saudi rushed to the
\nbathrooms to change clothes, and second the drink cart came
\nout.<\/font><\/p>\n

Last summer, during one of my
\nseven trips to Amsterdam, I read <\/font>The
\nSaudis<\/a><\/b><\/font> by Sandra
\nMacKay<\/a><\/font>
\n<\/b><\/font>; it turns out that she left, at the end of
\nher second trip, right after I did. It was fun to keep pointing at pages and
\nsaying, “I remember that.” Yes, I talk to myself.<\/font><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\nTranslate<\/span><\/a>\"\"\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little background on way back when I worked in Saudi Arabia and a few other things. Translate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t