bigmamma

My husband has been offered a job in Al Khobar in Saudi and I was wondering if anyone could give me some information on what we should expect if we moved there. I have lived in the ME before but not Saudi. I would be particularly interested in schooling, housing and cost of living.

Thanks in advance

Eeyore

As I understand it : religious oppression, extremes of wealth and poverty, no life outside your compound, hypocrisy, and bombs.

NorthernLad

Live in Bahrain, only a short drive.

Amazing Grace

I lived and worked with my husband in Saudi Arabia for 4 years plus. I must admit because our children are grown up and I had my work it made life a little easier for me as a woman. If you are a very independent person who drives, goes shopping etc in other words the normal everyday things and you are not going to be working there then to be honest it will feel very hemmed in. Not sure on the schooling but from friends and colleagues with children where we were it was pretty much good stuff. Housing is as said previously normally in a Western Compound with facilities like a swimming pool, a gym and your entertainment is a lot left to yourselves. When you say Al Khobar are you going with BAe possibly or one of the oil companies. Having said all that we had a great social life with the help of the local rugby club Khamis Quinns with whom we travelled to Bahrain for a rugby tournament which was very good. I wish you well in your travels.

Jangofett

Bigmamma, which company are you thinking of joining in Saudi. There are big differences in the benefits and housing packages offered by different companies. Some are and others could be

Jangofett

Bigmamma here's a link to a Yahoo mailing list, advise you recieve it in "digest" mode.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/expatsinsaudiarabia/

bigmamma

Thanks for all the replies. DH is still undecided about job offer. He lived and worked in Saudi about 16 years ago and the company treated him very well and I was supposed to go then as well but then DH fell ill and came back to UK.
He would like to go back and the company are really pulling out all the stops to get him/us to agree but just feel a bit apprehensive that once we get there things would change (as was the case with the job he has just now in Qatar).

Anyway thanks again

lionheart

Working in Al Khobar and commuting from Bahrain would not be much different from Qatar so go for it...

Jangofett

Forget it, the commute to Bahrain can be 45 mins on a good day but be prepared for 2-3 hours at the end of the week. Also cost of crossing causeway will be 20 SAR each way. Can get annual VIP passes for 20K which gives you easier crossing most times.
Your Saudi employer will also have to aggree to the Multiple exit re-entry visa (not all will) for Saudi.
Rent in Bahrain for simple accommodation will run 500SAR and up per month.

Commuting daily to Saudi from Bahrain will get very old very fast:curse: