Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Dessert - October 2006
I was vary excited when my company informed me I was heading for Saudi to rig up our companies equipment. I have never seen a real dessert up to this point and was not disapointed in my short time I was there. I transited from London to Bahrain a small independant island just off the Saudi east coast by plane and then was driven to my hotel in Saudi at night by car. I got about 4 hours sleep at the hotel before I was dragged out to a land rover at 5am to head off to the oil rig site. It was only then that I got to see Saudi without the blackness of night and was amazed to see the white sandy dessert stretched into the distance with a small scatter of thorny looking shrubs and sand hills.
The drive to the worksite took me along a motorway for 4 hours and that was 4 hours drive into the middle of the dessert away from the neaerest town or village. Where the only nearby inhabitants are other oil workers in the oil rigs darted around the landscape (that can be seen as lit up mini towns in the distance at night). Also I noticed along the way allot of old tyres and even a few cars abondoned on the side of the road. It seem tyre blow outs and breakdowns where common in this area.
As we where getting close to the destination a bizare event occured when we had to stop to let some camels cross the road, this seems a little surreal for a road where cars where doing approximately 70mph. No wonder why everyone in Saudi said its dangerous to travel these roads at night!
Once at the rig site I spent 3 days there setting up and testing the company equipment within this complex that had a tall sand barrier and ditch all the way around it to keep certain animals out and even people. While the main entrance was guarded by armed guards incase of terrorism or kidnap attempts. The midday sun in the dessert produced an incredible heat (around 40 degrees) and blinding light. Forgetting to bring sun glasses and sun protection cream, I had only my hat to try and protect my eyes and neck from the sun. But even the white sand reflected both the heat and light making it hard to work in all the safety gear or to see properally.
So while on this site me and my team decided to work mainly at night to avoid the heat of the day, but this brought a new problem with it, scorpions and snakes. I was told never to lay on the sand and always be cautious of corners, holes, etc while working outside and at night. It was just routine to also check your beds, toilet, shoes, etc to be safe. During this short time I saw a range of giant size insects of all kinds wondering around at night and big flys which have got to be the most annoying I have encountered in my life yet.
With the installation of the equipment complete I and my workmates headed back to town, unfortinately due to a mess up we ended up going back at night (which is considered dangerous!) 3 hours into the drive we where suddenly forced to the side of the road as one of the land rover tyres blew. Now I could see why there where so many old tyres on the side of the road!
Being a land rover the wheels where quite big and the spare was under the car on a winch system and by the time we figured how to get it out and replace the giant wheel it soon took us 30mins to get going again. In an area where we were warned to not be at night or stop on incase of kidnappers or terrorists. Lucky we had no such trouble and soon got back to the hotel.
Once back at the hotel it was about 4am in the morning and i quickly went to sleep, only to be awoken 2 hours later by music. Saudi is a muslim country and such everyone goes to the local mosk to pray 5 times a day, I have much respect for all religions and cultures but was not excatly “amused” when i was awoken after 2 hours of sleep by a giant speaker phone near my hotel window playing prayer music (plays 5 times a day for the duration of the pray times) across town. Other than that i had a nice evening in the hotel before travelling back home.
Saudi Arabia is highly developed and wealth country lots of shopping malls and entertainment and where everyone drives in nice cars and general seem to have a good life. The locals I metduring this time where extremely friendly and the food there was delicious. Saudi is certainly a nice play to pop to if you want to experience the desserts and still have todays luxaries and technology. Just becareful not to wonder the streets allone or at night with the high tension Bush and Blair has caused in the middle east!
