Earthdrifting - Saudi Arabia

By David Bunyard

Photos and adventure traveling Living in Saudi Arabia between 1996 and 2001. This was made over a period of 3 years. Including several trips in the Northern and Southern Hejaz, the Hejaz Railway, Jeddah, Taif, Camel Races, Red Sea, Hot Springs, Medain Saleh and others

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312514317

Book preview

Earthdrifting - Saudi Arabia

Earthdrifting – Saudi Arabia

May 1996 through April 2001

By David Bunyard

Introduction

I arrived in Saudi Arabia as a contractor civilian on May 1, 1996.  My fat days had begun.  The time for adventure, travel, exploration and making some decent money had begun.  The time I spent there changed my life forever.  New rules, restrictions, freedoms and new cultures opened my eyes to international ways of life and some universal truths.

To the Western mindset, Saudi Arabia is a different world.  Saudi Arabia has been on my mind since I left there.  There have been times that I missed the country and way of life.  And there have been times that I wish I could be doing more with what I have learned.  But I have always remembered my promise to tell my story.  This is my story and these are my photos.

One of the first things I learned was that this was NOT my country.  I had to accept things as they are, it would have been foolish not to.  The key to my long stay, was the ability to surrender the freedom that I once knew.  Once I did that, I discovered a whole new world of freedoms that I did not expect.

This book includes a series of short adventures within Saudi Arabia.  Most were a weekend long, some shorter, some longer.  They were always an eye opener.

The First Year

Flying in on British Airways, I was to work with a Saudi owned company as a computer instructor.  My new senior instructor, Reid Purvis assigned me a seat next to him from London to Riyadh.  He was arriving into the country for the first time as well, coming in from Vancouver, Canada.

In most Western countries, there is a Green line and Red line for customs when coming into a country.  The green line is for nothing to declare and the red line is for something to declare that you are bringing in.  In Saudi Arabia however, everyone went through the same line.  Everyone’s bags had to be opened and looked through. 

No alcohol, no pornography, no drugs, no illegal substances of any kind will be tolerated in this country.  The customs card that you had to fill out on the plane indicated very plainly that bringing drugs into the country is a capital offense.  I heard a story about 4 folks who each came into the country with oversized Korans.  Inside these fake Korans was a special place to hold a bunch of drugs.  They insisted that the customs officials could not touch the Korans because their hands were unwashed.  The officials wised up after the second oversized Koran came through.  These four folks did not live much longer after that day. 

They scrutinize everything in your luggage.  However, their broken English can be a mixed blessing as you come through with something that may be questionable.  Sometimes you can get away with things, sometimes you can’t.  You just never know.  I know of people who got in trouble for bringing in a pair of handcuffs, a vibrator and even a Christmas tree.

Another couple came in with their wedding photographs.  It was taken from them and censored.  When they finally got their pictures back, the pictures that were found offensive (women’s bare shoulders, etc) were marked up with a Black Magic Marker.  These photos were their only copy.

As for myself, I once brought in a Bible that a friend gave me to read.  I was coming in about 3 weeks before Christmas.  Since Christmas is forbidden in this all Muslim country, I guess they were all gung-ho about finding Christmas related items.  He kept asking me if this or that was Christmas.  He got to the Bible and asked me if it was Christmas.  I said it wasn’t.  He didn’t believe me and said that he could verify it.  I called his bluff and told him to check it.  He didn’t. 

Reid and I spent the night in a nice hotel in Riyadh.  The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then I lit up a cigarette to have with my coffee.  After I started to smoke, I noticed that there was a No smoking sign on my table.  A waiter then came up to me and I quickly told him that I did not realize I was in the non-smoking section.  He said that it was OK and took the No Smoking sign and moved it to another table. 

We took a local flight from Riyadh to Al Khobar.  A few guys from our new company met us at the airport and Bob gave us the dime tour of the city. 

The next six months were spent on the East Coast city of Al Khobar, near Dhahran.  I first lived in a compound for men only. 

I found myself living and working with men.  There were no women in the office to speak of.  I would occasionally see one out shopping, but almost none to be social with.  Since the women are covered from head to toe in black, it is clear that a foreigner should not be mingling with these women.  I learned very quickly that this was not America.  This was not my country and I had to respect that. 

On June 25th, 1996, a large explosion went off about 10 miles away from the compound I was living in.  The windows at my compound shook due to the blast.  I thought it was a thunderstorm blowing through.  I looked out my window and saw only another man looking out his window from across the quad.  There was no rain or storm. 

We found it to be the famous bombing of Khobar Towers where 19 Americans were killed.  I visited an Indian friend I was working with.  He lived about ½ mile from it.  His front door on his apartment was dead bolted shut.  The blast knocked the locked door wide open.  I saw the devastation of the building and there was glass strewn on the street a half mile away. 

The day after the blast, it was surprisingly business as usual.  A week later, no one even talked about it.  It was later found that it was a Hezbollah attack.

After 6 months of living in Al Khobar, I was sent to Jeddah to teach a class.  Seeing the nearby mountains of Jeddah from the plane was a nice change from the flat sands of the Eastern Province. 

After arriving, I found out that the company had not yet paid for the class.  I had to wait in Jeddah before teaching it.  Rich, the current manager of the Jeddah office knew I was waiting.  He said he had to go to Mobil Oil and take care of