A totally different Culture
 Mar 26th, 2005
Advantages:
Weather, People, Tax free
Disadvantages:
No Booze ! Womens rights, nightlife
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Value for Money
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
Family Friendly
more
  giblets46
About me:
Member since:07.05.2003
Reviews:11
Review rated by 17 Ciao members on average: helpful 
I think people who have not been to suadi get the idea of some draconian state.
Yes, women can't drive, alcohol is illegal, and women have to dress up (cover down to the their ankles and wrists). Restaurants are also partitioned with family and batchelor sections (as are buses). Ther e is no nightlife to speak of as we know it clubs bars, cinemas, but the shops are open til late midnight, and later in ramadan when the country seems to shut down during the day. As for the weather, in the summer, it is ridiculously hot 50°C in the shade! But travel October-April , and you will not have a problem!
But the coutnry does have a lot to offer, other than the usual expatriate benefits of 0% tax .
Living in Saudi is also very cheap, petrol is stupidly cheap, food is also very cheap, as is electricity etc. Shopping is also a favorite apstime, again thats all tax free (remember 17.5% vat in the UK too!), with items from anywhere inthe world available openly and cheaply it really is a paradise!
You can also go to the souks where you can buy anything from the usual tat (coffee pots etc) to gold rugs etc, and barter for them (ppitrue the scene in the life of Brian!).
The people are also warm and friendly, ready to welcome you and chat. Saudi food is lovely, and you must eat a schwarma and smoke a shieesha (a hubbly bubbly). The other great thing is the countryside, not just the images of sand dunes, there are those though! Most of hte country is a rocky desert, huge wadi's and escarpments dominate the desert.
Any visit to saudi would be spoilt without leaving the cities to expereience the desert.
Simply drive of the road a couple of km's and you are in the middle of no where, look onthe ground and you are guaranteed to find fossils of long vanished shell fish. Some parts you can find fossilised wood or even sharks teeth.
You can also set up camp pretty much anywhere you please, and will be unmolested for your stay, and for most of the time you will not see another soul! As a kid I used to love camping trips, so much adventure, stuff you could never do in the UK. Further to the north you have the area where lawrence of arabia worked, the trains still lying on their sides.
The south west Near Abha has the mountanous region, with apes and greenery.
The west has the red sea, often thought to be better than Egypt, which has seen so many tourists, in Saudi this is most untaped, and un spoilt. Saudi is a fantastic country, with so much to offer the visitor from the friendly people to magnificent landscapes, and you really feel like you are in a foreign country, so much culture to take in.
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Related tags for Saudi Arabia: General
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by (24%):
by (76%):
21.05.2007 19:51
hey well done you did a good job at representing saudi. i was going to write a review of it myself to show the world what a great place it actually is but i dont think i need to after reading that. once again well done! oo and to the person who asked about the security, embassy take good care of you warning you if there is danger not that there is
26.03.2005 11:44
Never really appealed to me. Not sure where you got your tax figures from though, its not 50%! :-)
26.03.2005 11:42
generally, theres not a place in the world I would not like to visit one day, and id like to go to Saudi for the experience, but im not sure about security. What is that like?