still.unsure

hiya flash, not sure about month-to-month type accommodation, but give some of the compounds a call about their 'hotel' type arrangements...

eid villas -> 01 249 3400 (have a chat to Girish) http://www.eidvillas.com.sa/
or for (off compound but maybe better for short term)
al-showaier -> 01 474 8888 http://www.alshowaier.com/

there's plenty of others but these are the first to come to mind, am sure others from the bored will contribute other/better options

Nic1

Kingdom Compound guest houses are full - checked yesterday for someone else. If you do a search for compound riyadh you'll get quite a few websites that you could check.

Good luck
N

The Dean

Hmmmmmmm.......

......."Flash Gordon"............. "used to live on Najd".............. bells are ringing.....

A PM is in order I think........... the word 'reunion' is hammering into my brain.......

flash_gordon

No bells ringing here, but that's not to say I don't like reunions
A PM would definitely be in order.

By the way everyone thanks for the tips. I've settled for Seder Village - they've got a motel-serviced apartments type of a thing going, and it's not half bad.

Cheers,

FG

Blue Cat

yup your right unless it is just a coincidence

wrxqme

Well where to start....

Seder is not bad for the single folk, they have a great "social gathering" on Wednesday nights.

I have been here in Riyadh for 6 months now. I also was in the UK before moving here on a business visa. As I am Australian, I had to travel back late September to do medicals etc. before getting my Iqama. My wife and 14 month old daughter joined me in late November and now we are a happy family living on Ranco Compund.

Now that the background is out of the way.....I am working for a fashion retail company over here and spend all my time in the shopping malls. Boring but a decent enough living. Life is good here. We enjoy the weather and the locals are warm, friendly and welcoming. I have an ever growing collection of business cards collected from locals welcoming me to Saudi.

Safety for us isn't as issue. We don't walk the streets, we drive. We don't head down to Batta (sic) for the weekend, we stay in malls or head to Bahrain. My wife gets a lift with me to the malls in the morning so doesn't use taxis. When I can't be there she uses a compound taxi.

Compound lifestyle for my wife has been the most challenging. As we have a young child, she is not working and she is so used to going for walks in London. Here probably not recommended. She has made lots of friends though and does enjoy a relatively social lifestyle. I do worry that it will all get too boring for her and she'll either need to work or get frequent trips back to Poland.

There are two things that are frustrating though. Driving and red tape. Although it took a while, I do now have a Saudi licence and I'm in the process of buying a car (very long story) so my paperwork trail is almost at an end. My company has been very supportive and helpful in this area though.

I have had my first accident and I'm sure not my last. THEY ARE NUTS!! You do learn to accept it and I'm moving out of their way before that change lanes on me now.

I know I'm new and don't have the experience of the Dean or Nic but feel free to ask any questions offline I'm more than happy to have a chat as well.

Cheers,

Bryn

Nic1

Can you beleive we have had no accidents here in Saudi - drove to Dubai for Eid and some bastard pranged our car in the car park at MOE . . . . Not pleased!!

N

flash_gordon

Good one mate. How did you get out of the accident? Did you have to go to the cop shop and all?
The best way I could describe driving here to the folks back home is to compare it to a very bad Playstation driving game You get points by cutting people off, disregarding traffic lights, putting your kid up on the dashboard or in the spot normally reserved for a stuffed teddy bear.

And of course there's my all-time favourite: When the light finally goes green, and you're first off the rank, take it really easy. Finish reading your papers, adjust the review mirrors so you can check out the ladiez in other cars, and then leisurely take off at 5 km/h. Screw the unlucky sods behind you, you'll clear the light. :curse:

Oh, oh,oh and there's the hearth-warming bumperstickers also, usually translated from Arabic into English using Google translation engine or something. My top one for the time being is "I am cool and you will die!". And yes, it was a Camry driver .

still.unsure

btw, how long is that drive? (riyadh to dubai)

still.unsure

brilliant bumper sticker! i like the parking sign that says "cars will be pulled off" (lucky bloody cars...)

as for describing the driving, i just say "india, but faster -(read 'deadlier')" have only managed to see one body @ the side of the road in 5 weeks so i guess that's not too bad

wrxqme

Actually the cops weren't involved at all. As I was looking through the glovebox for the Avis rental papers, the guys just jumped in the car and drove away. When I went to Avis they said, "it will cost you 100sr excess for the insurance." HA!! Now for £16 that's cheap entertainment.

My collegue has never bought a car. He has however written of 4 Avis cars for 100sr each. He's a lucky man.

Nic1

Riyadh to Dubai took us 11 hours including an hour to cross the border. You can do it in less, but I am a hopeless passenger and hate driving fast - we did about 130-140k/hr all the way. Pretty boring. Some parts need to be done in daylight as there are no camel fences along some of the roads . . . But there was very very little traffic until we got the outskirts of Dubai. So easy and not stressful.

Driving here is crazy, but still think Doha is the worst . . . it's the only place in 15 years that I've seen a Landcruiser go round a roundabout on two wheels . . There's a lot less traffic here than in Dubai so you have more room to manouvre (sp?) when the loonies are around.

N

The Dean

Which route was that, Nic?

I'm told (though haven't done it myself) that the road straight from Kharj to the UAE border is now fully open, good surface, plenty of petrol stations, etc.

A contact of mine did it in about 8 hours that way.

Nic1

We went via Hofuf (along the Hofuf bypass). We really didn't go mad speedwise as I get travel sick if we go too fast (wimp), it is a really clear and easy drive. People we know have done it in 10 hours - 8 is really pushing it I would think. We didn't see anyone going crazy speeds - but in the right car cruising around 200 k/hr I guess it's possible (with plenty of barf bags of course!!)

N