One of my husband’s first shopping experiences was in downtown Al Rahima, a small town near the Ras Tanura compound. He was looking for an electrical appliance and found that he had to walk around a rather large crowd of Saudis who were watching a TV set in the window of the store.
One of the objectives of the increasingly outward-looking nation of Saudi Arabia, set out in the ambitious Vision 2030 document and its plan to create a more diverse and sustainable economy, is to open up the Kingdom to visitors as a destination for heritage tourism.
While the world did slow down in 2021, the interesting tales and photos from Aramco ExPats didn't. View this collection of community favorites from 2021.
Petroleum Engineering Specialist Farooq A. Khan, who retired from Aramco in January 2021, recalls a remarkable trip to Sri Lanka he enjoyed as president of the Dhahran Cricket Association (DCA) in 2018. The following report captures the memorable time that was had by 69 DCA members and their families who journeyed on a beautiful 5-day excursion.
Breakfast is the meal that often commences our day. While doctors emphasize the importance of breakfast for maintaining our physical health and more recently also emotional health, I also believe that breakfast is the first fraction of our day that can be used as a hallmark to build traditions upon.
Our son, Kristofer LeRibeus, was recently involved in a catastrophic car accident in Oman which has left him a quadriplegic. Our family is coordinating his urgent evacuation to the USA for medical care and we need your support. We launched a GoFundMe site to raise funds to get Kristofer home for the treatment he needs. ~Myron Scoggins and Rhonda LeRibeus-Scoggins
If you lived in Dhahran in the early 2000s, you may have encountered the musical group Get Reel performing a blend of Irish, country and bluegrass songs at various venues around Dhahran and Bahrain. Annette Collins, one of the group's founding members and a native of Ireland now returned to the Emerald Isle, has continued to pursue her love of music and Irish dance. She is currently offering a unique opportunity to learn Irish dance online.
In the late 1990’s I was in Saudi Arabia on a consulting contract for a leading tourism company. I was to travel the Kingdom, putting together travel itineraries for the expatriate market. On this nearly month-long expedition, I was accompanied by Mohammed, my Saudi driver assigned to me...
Two a.m., Thursday, May 20, 1965, Cairo, Egypt. A Boeing 720B is in its second landing approach; the first attempt was aborted. The Cairo airport has just installed a new night-guidance landing system. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Flight 705 is inaugurating a new service: Karachi to London with intermediate stops in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; Cairo; and Geneva, Switzerland. The plane is piloted and crewed by the airline’s very best.
It was a windy morning in Boulder, Colorado on December 30th, 2021. I had been woken up by the cacophony of the swaying trees. While the wind usually feels like a refreshing breeze, on this particular day the wind sounded rather ominous.
Dhahran is situated on a low hill a couple of miles west of Dhahran airport which is an enormous military airbase and at that time, a commercial airport. Within hours of President Bush announcing ‘Operation Desert Shield’ a continuous stream of enormous US Air Force transport planes began landing at the airport, depositing men, supplies and weapons.
Christmas in the Kingdom has been in the international news recently, with many stories detailing how more and more shops openly sell Christmas trees, lights, tinsel, and the other decorations westerners want to buy for their festive celebrations.
A mini Aramco Brat reunion was held Sunday, December 12th at Rocco's Tacos on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, Florida. After dinner and drinks, we all went to see the 700 ton Christmas Sandi Tree at dockside. A fun time was had reconnecting with many embellished Aramco stories told.
In this photo essay, Mark Lowey recounts his travels to Syria with his wife and another Aramco couple in April 2011, which inadvertently coincided with the beginnings of the civil uprising in Syria. In Parts 1, 2, and 3, the party of four toured Syria’s capital, Damascus, the ancient Roman city of Palmyra, and Krak des Chevaliers castle.
Heavy-duty canvas, black with cream horizontal stripes, the tent sat on a knoll nestled in a large sand dune. Six or seven irregular, somewhat buckled, knobby wooden posts supported the tent, which seemed to hug the landscape. Sturdy guy ropes pulled it in every direction.
As Christmas approaches, the Holidays are on my mind, especially as it relates to how my holidays used to be. I came across a Charles Dickens quote recently and it made me think so differently about Christmas breaks in Dhahran. It’s now going to be the second Christmas that I am not going to be there [as my family retired].
The 2022 Aramco Hafla Reunion Cruise will be held October 31 - November 5, 2022, departing from Miami, FL. Ports of call are Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. More information to come.
The 2022 Aramco Hafla Reunion Cruise will be held October 31 - November 5, 2022, departing from Miami, FL. Ports of call are Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. More information to come.
Throughout the cooler winter months, the running club would put on a variety of races, typically of five and ten kilometres, in addition to half and full marathons. Barely three months after I had started running, a ten kilometre run seemed nothing out of the ordinary and was completed with relative ease. I was never particularly fast and although my times were respectable...
The town of Layla, located some 330 Kilometers south of Riyadh in the Al-Aflaj oasis, is noted today for the enormous sinkholes and caves that dot the surrounding gypsum rock formations. But that was not always the case.