Hello All,
I have some links to a bunch of short videos I made with my GO Pro camera. They are each about 2-3 minutes long so they will take a few minutes to download. Let me know if you have problems viewing them and I will send you a link directly.
Compound Entry
The first video is of us coming into the compound. It starts from the turn off the main road, you can see the sign for the Holiday Inn on the left. We approach the first checkpoint, on the right side you can see some new houses they are building, they are between 5,000 and 6,000 square foot homes. As we approach the checkpoint, a Solider comes out of the building and moves the barrel and waves us through. On the left we pass a pickup truck with a machine gun turret in the back and on the right we pass a mosque, we then proceed through some obstacle barriers and past the Holiday Inn. Just past the Holiday Inn, the wall is marked by some old bullet holes from an attack back in 2004. We proceed to the Arabian Homes “foreign object” detectors where they use a mirror to look under the car for hazardous devices that should not be there. Then we go past a second pickup truck on the left with a machine gun turret mounted in the back. Once we turn the corner, you can see the main gate with a central tower and a room in the front with another machine gun placement. In addition to the sliding steel gate there are two barriers that raise and lower to restrict access to the compound, you can see them lowering if you watch closely. After that we are inside the compound. In the last few frames, you can look up and to the right and see the tall walls and razor wire. At last, Home Sweet Home
Compound Exit
The link below is to a short video we made exiting the
compound. It is almost a reverse of the first video. In the
distance you can see the main guard tower from the compound side. The
opening on the right just past the crosswalk is Dispatch, where the drivers
hang out and where we keep the 36 Toyota Land Cruisers used to haul us around
town. As we approach the tower you can see the large steel door opening,
the barrier in front of it has already been lowered allowing us to exit.
Unfortunately we get stuck behind a truck and it limits the view of a lot of
stuff. As we turn to the left, you can see the truck with the gun turret
on the right. You can also see one of the Land Cruisers coming back into
the compound, the second one has a friend in it and if you look closely, he
waves at the last minute as they stop for the foreign object check. The
Holiday Inn is on the left and down at the corner by the Mosque we will turn
right. Just before we turn the corner, you can see the other pickup and
gun turret. Then we zip past the entry checkpoint. In the last few
frames you can see another Land Cruiser entering the compound. We keep
them pretty busy taking us to and from work, the store and out sightseeing.
Inside the Compound Clip 1
Here is a short video of inside the compound. We leave
from reception where the driver picked me up. We proceed to the outer
wall and turn left. We drive along the wall for a while, we pass a woman
walking. It is .8 miles around the perimeter a lot of people walk or run
around the perimeter for exercise. We pass by some of the basketball
courts, the soccer field and the playground. There is a small putting
green next to the playground. You can see all the trees and greenery, the
buildings all look alike, nothing fancy just clean and simple. There is a
pool in the middle of every block sometimes two pools. In the last few
frames you can see a construction area on the right, they are building some
apartments for overnight visitors.
Yanbu Clip 1 & 2
I did not realize it but clip 1 and 2 are very similar, they
start after leaving the compound. You can see several large houses being
built. I have never seen so much construction in such a small
place. We end up on the main road into old Yanbu. The other
direction is to Jeddah. The Refinery and the Royal Commission are that
direction too. Big businesses and small shops are all along both
sides. A million dollar building alongside a pile of rubble, no rhyme or
reason to where people build or what they build. You will see them build
a big house and leave all the construction rubble in the yard, never clean it
up.
Yanbu Clip 3
This is more of the downtown area. Throughout the city there
are various pieces of art or sculptures at intersections and in the middle of
the roundabouts. There is a large fish in a bowl in this
roundabout. Be sure and look at the various shapes of the buildings, they
are really unique. If you look around, you will see the spires of Mosques
throughout the movies, there must be several hundred Mosques in Yanbu.
You can also see rebar sticking out of roofs which are left there for people to
expand later. You can see part of the restored “old city wall” which is
the beginning of the Old City proper. The Gold Souk is at that
intersection. There are 20-25 gold and jewelry shops in a one block
area. At night this is a bustling place to be. People of all cultures go
out after last prayer and shop.
Yanbu Beach
This is the beach near to us, it is on the Red Sea. It
is actually three smaller clips put together. The water is crystal clear
it is real shallow for 50-75 feet and then it drops off pretty quick. As
we enter the beach area, you can see several woman in their abayas, Hijab &
niqab (black dress and head and face coverings). It was about 100-103
degrees that day, it is really uncomfortable at least the Western women think
it is. In the last clip, you can briefly see a family all out in the
water in their abayas, it seems so different from our culture.
Inside the Compound 2
We start off by Reception (the closest pickup spot to our
villa) and drive by the restaurant (you can’t see it, it’s off the
street). The building behind the white car is the Grocery Store, it also
has a small library in the same building, most of the books are old and not of
much interest. Just past that is the Day Care Center and the tennis
courts. Just past the tennis courts on the right is the Gym & Sauna,
at the end of the street is the playground and soccer field. We will go
along the outside wall a ways, you can see the trees, flowers and other
greenery, there is a lot of in within the compound which is nice. With
the trees come a lot of birds, you can hear them chirruping all the time.
You can see that most of the villas have some small back porch or patio for a
grill or patio table.
Vegetable Market & Town
The vegetable market is downtown. It has two parts the
first part shows some permanent shops with fruit stands in front of them.
The second part is a larger open air market where they bring in
fruits/vegetables by the truck load. Traffic is very heavy in this
area. There is an open air butcher shop in the middle of the
market. You can watch them butcher lamb, goats and camels. There is
nothing more surprising than walk up on a table full of camel and sheep
heads. The stores around the market are general purpose odds and ends
shops stacked floor to ceiling with a million things you never expect to
see. They are the third world version of Walmart. You might find a
table with clothes, a stove, a fan, electronics, they bring it in set it down
and it’s there until it’s gone.
Royal Commission 1
The Royal Commission is an area in the towns of Yanbu and
Jubail that the Saudi government established back in 1985, they established one
on both the East and West coasts. They were designed to house and support
the large petrochemical plants they built in those areas. When a person
gets a job at SAMREF or SABIC (Saudi Refinery and Chemical companies) he gets a
house in this area. As a plant expands, they build another “section” in
the Royal Commission. All the support structure is included in the area,
restaurants, banks, schools are all spread out within the sections. With
the exception of the very old areas it is very pretty. You can see the
sculpted hedges and palm trees in the median and all the other trees along the
road. The various homes are kind of neat, because each section was built
at a different time, the design is different every block. I wish I could
get some better pictures. All are concrete and cinder block
construction. Also notice there is no grass anywhere. There is some
ground cover in the median area but none around the houses.
Royal Commission 2
This is an older area of the Royal Commission, different
trees and shrubs. The only grass is a little around the palm trees, it’s
only there because the trees are watered every day. Some have water piped
to them and others have a water truck come by and water each tree
individually. This is the Al Semari area in the Royal Commission, toward
the end you will see a small strip center similar to what we have in the
US. Most of the stores were closed this day. We have gone to the Turkish
restaurant in this center.
These movies were shot on a Thursday morning in July. Most
people are not out & about until after dark. Some will be at the grocery
store, but most shopping is done after dark when it’s cooler. All the stores
will be open then, most until 11pm, but many later than that. You seldom see
women alone, or even in groups during the day without a man nearby. At night,
it’s not unusual to see a group of 6 or so shopping together. Notice the many
different types of clothing styles the men have.
Hope you enjoy,
TJ
in KSA
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