I ventured outside the community for the first time today. I took one of the shopping buses to the mall of Dhahran. This is one of the largest malls. 70,000 square meters according to Christian who I met on the bus. Square meters doesn’t register with me, but the mall was huge. There were golf cart like Taxis inside to shuttle people around. If you ignore the burkas and the Arabic, it felt like an upscale mall in the USA.
I met Christian who was from the UK because there were only 2 men on the bus and he was carrying the bag that is given to new hires.
All the Expat women on bus wore the abayas, but did not cover hair. The smell of perfume on the bus was overwhelming. This made sense once I got into the mall because there were perfume stores and kiosks everywhere. Stores selling gold jewelry were also prevalent. I’m talking major bling gold.
Charlotte has the designer purse, but she will need some gold accessories, an Abaya with some bling and a couple bottles of perfume.
I ate lunch at Herfy because I thought the name was funny. It was a burger and fry place. The double burger tasted like a mix of Burger King and big boy.
The IKEA, appliance store, Applebee’s and Papa Johns are all next to the mall. These are a 15 minute drive from my house. The fancy mall is another 5 minutes down the road. Maybe I will go there next weekend. There are 5 shopping bus routes that go to different markets and malls.
Matthew of Arabia 