Thobes, Abayas, Sheesha, Prayer Schedule...

Here you see a close up of where I am. The pen points to Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia and the leatherman to the country of Bahrain which is where we fly into. Note the causeway. Also included is the prayer schedule for the year for the city of Dhahran. Dammam, Dhahran and Al Khobar are all part of a hustling eastern Province that thrives on the oil business (like the rest of KSA doesn't ha). Many expatriots live in this part of the country.
This is a quality shot of me smoking some sheesha before dinner. I talk a bit more in depth about this in the post below this.

On the business side, its funny, a lot of the problems we run into stateside with employees and training are similar. For example, sourcing engineers and people that want to work the oil field operations lifestyle. Aramco, the Saudi National Oil Company gets first pic of engineers from schools, just like all the oil majors in the states. We can't compete and the field ops guys are hard to find b/c no one in their right mind wants to work 80 hour weeks in extreme weather in the middle of no-where. So similar problems, different culture.


On traditional dress. Most national men that are not having a western kind of day tend to sport a thobe and muslim woman an abaya. The thobe is what Mohhamed wore, it is a white robe with a variation of collar depending on the country you are from. Saudi do a 2-3 inch straght neck cuff, Bahrainis tend to an actual collar, Dubaians have shorter straight neck cuff (correct me if you know better). Most thobes have pockets for wallet and other stuff on the side seam and you wear a cloth wrap instead of underwear and sport a undershirt if you like. Very uncommon to see a westerner in a thobe, have heard a rumor that it is illegal for westerner to impersonate a muslim national, but it looks pretty comfortable especially considering temps are regualarly above 100 every day now. Sometime you see sharp looking men with cuff links, mind you gold with fancy jeweled inlay, on their throbes; pretty GQ. With the throbe comesthe headware- the hat, headscarf and rope. This varies by nationality as well, but most Saudis stick with a red and white checker pattern head scarp and black rope. Bahrainis and UAE you tend to find white headscarf and black ropes.

The abaya on the other hand is very simple and black. I have seen a couple with studs or ornate colored trim, but this is definately the exception. The abaya is worn by all women when in public, even western woman. Woman are always accompanied to and fro by a man unless maybe at the mall, so I hear (kind of funny). Women do not drive anywhere in Saudi! not even westerners. And wondering eyes are highly discourage as women are traditionally thought of as property, at least thats the way this westerner sees it (I am going to take some heat for that line for sure). Western women tend to cover up in public but shed the layer upon arrival to private residence as long as it is not Saudi. head and face scarves are worn as well by most traditional Saudi women, these too are also black. Westerners or other women tend to just wear the abaya.

I don't have any pics of traditionl wear, because I think it would be offensive for me to take a picture of someone just to take picture of what they are wearing; I wouldn't want someone to do it to me. I also hear that picture taking of a muslim takes their soul or somehting like that, hence it is invasive and frowned upon.

More later. I hope you all are doing well back in the states, I miss ya.