Being a Saudi can be a good gig

[Dirty Sanchez]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/2011318174117916648.html

Anybody notice anything in that picture?

If you like living off the government some of you folks may want to consider moving East. The Royal family is trying to head off the wave of dissent spreading across the Middle East. Now we'll see if throwing cash at the problem can solve it.

I can tell you when I was in Saudi the only folks I saw living in "commoner" kind of housing was the 3rd world nationals that did the menial work such as cab driver, bus driver, etc. They were made up of Pakistani's, Egyptians, etc.

[stikymess]

Royal family tring to head off revolt there. They will just charge more for oil to make up for it.

[FourLengthsClear]

A former colleague of mine lived in Jeddah for nearly 5 years. Visited him twice during that time.

Saudi and Kuwait are two of the most depressing places I could envisage living. Sure the, tax free, money is good for an expat but there is literally nothing to do.

[Dirty Sanchez]

A former colleague of mine lived in Jeddah for nearly 5 years. Visited him twice during that time.

Saudi and Kuwait are two of the most depressing places I could envisage living. Sure the, tax free, money is good for an expat but there is literally nothing to do.

Agreed....if you can consider staying confined to your compound (living villa you're provided) and only venturing out during the day for your living items it's an good moneymaker. You've just got to come with the grips that society is extremely closed compared to what you're used to. Yes there's Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, etc. but that only goes so far. I just remember being in Riyadh when the Hajj began and being downtown on Friday afternoon near chop-chop square was a no-no. I could tell you stories...yikes

http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2009.05-field-notes-chop-chop-square/

[pico]

so the only form of entertainment is watching people getting their head chopped off?

[FourLengthsClear]

Agreed....if you can consider staying confined to your compound (living villa you're provided) and only venturing out during the day for your living items it's an good moneymaker. You've just got to come with the grips that society is extremely closed compared to what you're used to. Yes there's Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, etc. but that only goes so far. I just remember being in Riyadh when the Hajj began and being downtown on Friday afternoon near chop-chop square was a no-no. I could tell you stories...yikes
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articl...p-chop-square/

My colleague was actually the neighbourhood "brewer" for the compound.

We worked for a liner shipping company and he was the office manager meaning yeast and what not could come in via the captain and avoid having to go through customs etc. At any given time he would have 4 or 5 barrels fermenting in his basement.

I actually lived in Bahrain for about a year which was much more liberal, sad to see what is happening now, even if it was inevitable that it would happen one day.

[Dirty Sanchez]

My colleague was actually the neighbourhood "brewer" for the compound.

We worked for a liner shipping company and he was the office manager meaning yeast and what not could come in via the captain and avoid having to go through customs etc. At any given time he would have 4 or 5 barrels fermenting in his basement.

I actually lived in Bahrain for about a year which was much more liberal, sad to see what is happening now, even if it was inevitable that it would happen one day.

I remember those guys....they were really popular with the Grape Juice concoction when they couldn't open the Sand Dune Bar. Ours used to be through the skylight on the roof in those 5 Gallon Plastic bottles,