Khobar Corniche

A couple weeks ago we made a trip down to Khobar--the city about 90 mins away from us.  While Jubail does have a decent amount of stores for a small town, if you have specific things you are looking for you are much more likely to find them in Khobar.  Khobar feels a little more like home with its big malls (that have some stores with names we actually recognize), Ikea, larger grocery stores, and lots of familiar restaurants.  And every once in awhile it is just good to get out of Jubail.  :-)

We had several stops planned and were going to finish our outing by eating lunch at Taco Bell.  I've probably eaten at Taco Bell less than 5 times in my entire life, but it is strange what feels like 'home' to you when you are far away!  Anyway, we cut things a little too close and ending up barely missing getting in the door before prayer started, so we were locked out for about 45 mins.  Fortunately we were in a good place to wander around for a bit--the Khobar Corniche.

I wasn't familiar with the term 'corniche' before I came over here, but pretty much all of the coastal towns and cities on the Arabian peninsula seem to have one.  From what I can tell, it is basically an area along the beach with a wide sidewalk, parks and grass.  If I had to 'translate' the word, I would choose 'boardwalk'.

As we were wandering around we happened upon an open-air mosque.  I snapped these two pictures since there wasn't anyone around.  But sure enough, people (men) did come over to pray once the 2nd prayer call sounded.

There IS recycling in Saudi!

Here are more pictures that I took of the Corniche (on a previous visit) with my nice camera.  This is the first and so far only time I've been brave enough to use my camera over here outside of a compound.  I had a large-ish purse with my camera inside and I would wait until no one was around, pull my camera out, snap a picture and then drop it back in my bag--not exactly ideal photography conditions.  :-) 

It would have been easy to Photoshop the trash out of the picture, but this is SO Saudi that I left it in.  Sadly the locals don't seem to be overly concerned with taking care of their country and the parks aren't always that clean, despite the army of low-wage workers who are always working to keep things nice and tidy.

It looks like during warmer weather (a very relative term) these may have water running.  We'll have to check it out later in the year.  Overall I have always been impressed at how much work this country puts into making Saudi not feel like the desert that it is.  Tons of irrigation to keep things green (again a relative term) and colorful.

Burger King Dinner

In Saudi eating at a restaurant has a few peculiarities.  The first thing to be aware of is which door you enter through.  There are separate entrances for 'singles' (meaning men) and 'families' (meaning women, children, and men who are with their family).  Most restaurants serve both singles and families, although you will occasionally run into one that serves only singles or only families.

Ben covertly snapped this picture outside of Burger King while we were waiting for prayer to end and the restaurant to open.  I am wearing my abaya (black dress) that I am required to wear whenever I leave the compound.

Once you enter the restaurant you order at a counter just like you would at any fast food restaurant in the States.  The only difference is that the counter has a wall down the middle, so that the singles are ordering on one side, and the families are ordering on the other side.

The eating areas are definitely completely separated--at Burger King the singles eat downstairs and the families eat upstairs.  We happened to be the first ones upstairs so I took the opportunity to snap a couple pictures.

You can see that in the family section there are separate booths that each have their own curtain.  The kids think the curtains are tons of fun.  :-)  In the singles section the tables are just open seating--no booths or curtains.

The booths with the curtains (and the covered windows) allow more privacy--especially for the Saudi women.  They then have the option of taking off their face covering (niqab) to make eating easier while still remaining 'modest'.

The food is basically the same as we would expect.  Although surprisingly the hamburgers are bigger (especially at McDonald's) and often have a type of white Saudi cheese instead of American cheese.  (Not a bad thing, although the cheese has a richer taste so between that and the larger size I have a hard time eating a whole hamburger.)

One interesting thing we've noticed is that the kids meal toys often seem to be old toys--ie having to do with movies that came out quite a while ago.  Although since they don't have movie theaters in Saudi, none of the locals would know the difference.  :-)