New Khobar expat citizen

Hello Manuel and welcome to Expat.com!

Your thread has been moved to Khobar forum for better visibility.

I hope that other members will give some tips to you soon.

You should take a look at the different posts on the forum, they may be useful to you.

Harmonie.

Harmonie,

Thanks a lot for your help. I can imagine that all my questions were done before by other "new" citizens. I apreciate an answer because as I will have the job my concern is to know everything about social live because 3 years is a lot of time if you have not more to do than working.

Hi Manuel. Khobar is close to Bahrain so you'll be able to go there for an alcohol fix. There is no alcohol in the Kingdom, sadly. As for social life, you're lucky you're a man because you will be able to drive and get around if you manage to find a group that plays football or whatever sport you're into (and I'm sure you'll find one!). If you're single though, meeting women might be a bit difficult here. But then again, there's always Bahrain!

Good luck with your move.

Hola Manuel,

Regarding your questions:

Is possible to practice sports as surf, soccer, etc?
There are different sport groups throughout Khobar I think, I live in Dhahran and so it seems. We are close to the beach, but I haven't really seen anyone surfing.
Best choice would be joining a sports center/gym with good facilities.

Is possible to find any place for having a beer (other non alcoholic drink) after work?
Not in Saudi, but it is available in Bahrain, takes around an hour to get there on average...

Is possible to organize excursions or trips to the closest countries?
Yes, once you get you residence permit you should be able to travel around GCC countries, you can get quite cheap flights sometimes, and you can even drive to some places.

In short I would like to know how is the daily live in Khobar?
It might be hard at first, but once you start meeting and knowing people it should be fine. Social life can get active after a while and with visit to Bahrain once in a while.

Hope this helps, let me know if you want to know something else.

belishabeacon wrote:

If you're single though, meeting women might be a bit difficult here.

Difficult? LOL

ManuelGomez wrote:

Is possible to practice sports as surf, soccer, etc?

I think your chances are better at catching a large wave in a swimming pool instead of the Gulf.

gsxrsean wrote:

belishabeacon wrote:

If you're single though, meeting women might be a bit difficult here.

Difficult? LOL

Oh, all right --- impossible! *hehehe* I was trying not to scare him off to much at the start...

An other kind of sports is possible to be practiced? I know that swimming pool and is possible but i would like know is is possible to practice team sports.

gsxrsean wrote:

ManuelGomez wrote:

Is possible to practice sports as surf, soccer, etc?

I think your chances are better at catching a large wave in a swimming pool instead of the Gulf.

I have read several topics about this matter, I can imagine the situation, or the not situation. But I would like to know if is possible to go to have a tea, coffee, coke or other thing with some friends at any public place.

belishabeacon wrote:

gsxrsean wrote:

belishabeacon wrote:

If you're single though, meeting women might be a bit difficult here.

Difficult? LOL

Oh, all right --- impossible! *hehehe* I was trying not to scare him off to much at the start...

Yes it is possible.. if it is a mixed group then you would go to the family section. Single section otherwise!

Thanks Anglevs. This week I must say YES/NO and I would like to have a general vision of a daily live, as you know.

My brother who is usually travelling there tells my to say no, but this is a really good oportunity if we are talking about my career. This period will be 2 or 3 years and as I have a lot of doubts because currently I have a good job I am looking for external opinions.

If you like a bit of adventure then go for it, if it'll be your first overseas posting and you want everything to be like home, then don't.
Maybe you won't be able to do all the things you currently enjoy, so you'll have to find new things.
There has to be a trade off somewhere for the "good career move" & presumably better money.

ManuelGomez wrote:

An other kind of sports is possible to be practiced? I know that swimming pool and is possible but i would like know is is possible to practice team sports.

Not sure of public places? In my compound they play soccer (football), basketball, even see cricket from time to time. I see lots of people with tennis racquets, but have not seen the court (course I have not looked either).

ManuelGomez wrote:

Thanks Anglevs. This week I must say YES/NO and I would like to have a general vision of a daily live, as you know.

Eating Out and Shopping seems to be Saudis favorite past time. If you like to do those things, Saudi will be great.

Otherwise you need lots of friends to help ease the boredom. The only caveat being its extremely close to Bahrain where you can catch movies go to bars to grab a real beer/alcohol, etc.

Almost everything shuts down for prayers. So that is something that takes getting used too. You can be either kicked out of shops or locked in them.. very odd...

Right now in the month of Ramadan there is literally nothing open until 9pm at night which can make things quite difficult to accomplish.

Dear Mudman,

I was living in Ireland, Italy and China. But I can imagine that Saudi is different. Day by day and thanks to the forum people I was understanding which ones are the Saudi difficulties in the daily live.

My target nowadays is just to know how to pass them and trying to find people or activities for enjoying my self. Sports, friends meetings, entertaiment activities, etc.

What's about this? Regards.

Mudman wrote:

If you like a bit of adventure then go for it, if it'll be your first overseas posting and you want everything to be like home, then don't.
Maybe you won't be able to do all the things you currently enjoy, so you'll have to find new things.
There has to be a trade off somewhere for the "good career move" & presumably better money.

Things are going on slowest as i thought. Tomorrow I'll have an other meeting with the company investors, I hope to have news during this, as maximum, the next week. I am just waiting for the final conditions for becoming citizen of Khobar. I have to say that I am thinking about to live at Barhain but day by day Khobar looks like a no so bad option.

It's not so hard as u imagine  exactly in Khobar u will find any thing u need .... Don't worry .

que tal Manuel?

yo llevo casi 3 años trabajando en Riyadh si quieres mandame tu correo y te explico mas pormenorizado las ventajas y desventajas de vivir y trabajar en Arabia.

Un saludo

Ico,

Thanks a lot for your post. I would like to be in contact with you just for knowing better the real live there in Saudi. I just sent to you my email address. In any case here you have it again mga20@hotmail.com

Dear Friends,
I have accepted the offer and I will be living at Khobar from January. Anyway I will visit the area 10 days during November or december. See you soon.

My hobbies are:
Sports: Soccer, basketball, padel, scuba, hochey, bycicle
Trips, books, music, party, etc. All your sugestions are wellcome.

I hope to meet you soon.