Missing the bus

We were due on camp to get onto the morning bus for Khobar Shopping, but ran horribly late because the taxi failed to arrive on time. Apparently, he felt compelled to "wash his car" before picking us up. Hmmm.... so when he finally arrived we had him racing to Dhahran, Arabic music blarring, and prayer beads swinging from the rear view mirror.

I'm noticing my body adapting to the Arab environment by staying loose in the cab rides as opposed to stiff as a board with fear.... these drivers are crazy! Today in the cab I was able to put on my abaya, check my email on my phone, and find my camera and Aramco ID card all effortlessy by going with the bumps in the road. Celeste grew some shocks! Brilliant!

So we missed our bus and told our cab driver to flip around and follow one of the green Aramco buses coming out of camp's front gates. It took us to the Al Rashid Mall.... the area we had just left from..... we're staying at the Al-Rashid Apartments. Good times, even the cab driver was laughing.

Al Rashid Mall is enormous and the clothes are far cuter and more fashionable than any clothes I've seen in the States. "Honey, under these abaya, there are some sirens" my mom said. Speaking of abayas, all Western women we saw at the Mall had abayas on, but not all of them were wearing head scarfs. I heard some women from the tour were given a hard time by a young Saudi man in Dammam today for not having their hair covered. These women had abayas on, but no head covering.

So, bottom line. Western women wear abayas off camp... head covering strongly recommended unless you feel like taking a chance getting harrassed.

The Saudi women have suprised me though. While Western protocol has become more stringent, the Saudi women have stepped out a bit. Rarely do I see any Saudi women wearing a full face veil like before.... with NO bit of face showing. Now, the "only-eyes-showing" look is popular, as is a little "bling" added to the abaya trim.

There are more than several young Saudi men who've tossed the thobe and gutra and adopted the Euro-Metro-Sexual look. Wow! Quite bizarre, but it somehow works. Yup, men still hold hands when walking around. So strange. I forgot about that bit.

Al Rashid Mall, as modern as it is, still has hammam toilets.... only one Western style toilet. Wonderful! Ah, some things never change!