NADZIR & RAHIMA

Monday, February 1, 2010

Working & Life @ Middle East

It has been exactly one month since I first landed in Saudi. I was posted here for a one-year training at Shuaibah I? Water & Power Plant 130 km from Jeddah. All I can say is this place is not that different from where I came from. It doesn’t feel like all that alien to me…perhaps its because I’ve been to a few countries this past year and felt the differences of the culture & environment. I could adapt to live here much easier than I thought initially. Reason being the food is not that different, the weather is not different (although a little bit dry) and the people are not that different in terms of friendliness.

I was really surprised by the (friendliness/warm treatment)? of the people I encountered or work with in Saudi. Maybe its because I’m still new and they were being nice to me….but who cares! Here, its much more diversity of races is far larger than Malaysia…you will face the Arabs, Egyptian, Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Filipino and last but not least Caucasians in your daily life. Also I have to mention special thanks to my colleagus from TNB who really helped me to ‘set up’ myself here.

The food here is variety….you got the Arab, Indian, Turkish, Western and even Thai food! What do I miss? There’s a lot of fast food here too! You can name every fast food outlet in Malaysia and I bet there’s an outlet here in Jeddah. Oh, they also have a Malaysian restaurant up in Mecca called D’saji. Owned by Felda & Tabung Haji. I was hoping for Secret Recipe to open its branch here…hehe. My favorite food here is of course the khabsa…lamb cooked together with rice. Kinda like nasi briyani…Can’t have it always though…not only it’s not good for your heart, but is not good for your wallet too! One meal costs 50 riyal. But then again, most restaurant in Jeddah are expensive…the cheaper meal would cost around 20 riyal.
When I first arrived here, the weather was really nice…with cool wind and sunshine through out the day. Since I’m staying in Jeddah, the humidity is relatively high compared to the other area here (but it is still dry…you can ask my skin!). This is because Jeddah is situated in the west coast of Saudi, facing the Red Sea. And the Red Sea…my God it’s beautiful! I couldn’t believe when they told me there are corals just outside my plant’s seawater intake. But then somebody posted the Environmental Audit Report with some underwater photos. And there it is…beautiful corals! Hopefully I can explore the Red Sea later on although they said there are a lot of sharks here….

So all I can say is…I really enjoyed my stay here in Jeddah for the past one month and hopefully for the next 11 months..it is going to be great!

Labels: Hubby Bubbly

posted by NADZIR & RAHIMA @ 2:51 PM

1 Comments:

At April 4, 2010 at 9:36 AM, lucy said…

bile la nk dtg visit nie ehehehe