I just spent two lively days in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, with my family. After traveling overland through the desert from al-Khobar on the Gulf coast, we reached our hotel at around 1 p.m. We stayed at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel on Al Imam Faisal Ibn Turki Ibn Abdullah road, […]
Arad Fort lies on the northeastern corner of the Kingdom of Bahrain, in the town of Arad, on Muharraq island, which was the capital of the island kingdom until 1923. The name “Arad” possibly comes from a Roman word for Bahrain, “Arathus,” which was used by the Egyptian-Roman writer Ptolemy in the second century CE. From […]
This article features some of the photographs I took over the last four weekends, during which I took my family to the corniche in the city of al-Khobar. This is one of the three main cities in this part of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia; the others being Dammam and Dhahran. All three cities […]
The weather has been great recently in al-Khobar, on the Arabian Gulf, in eastern Saudi Arabia. The temperature has been in the mid-70s (around 25 Celsius) during the day, I would say, and the evenings have been considerably cooler. For the past few weekends I have taken my family to the corniche and we have enjoyed […]
We recently headed to Bahrain and stayed overnight in the capital, Manama. It was mostly an opportunity for me to enjoy some well-earned rest and relaxation, and a chance to unwind after an intense couple of weeks in the office. It was also my birthday and my family and I wanted to try the Sato […]
I had been looking for a place to get pictures framed, and after about three weeks of asking around I finally found a picture frame shop last weekend. I found it unexpectedly when my wife and I visited a home furnishings fair in al-Khobar. We had been walking around the booths, searching for “something traditional” […]
The Roads of Arabia traveling exhibit is currently residing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), until March 2014. The exhibit displays historic artifacts from Arabia, including from present day Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen and Oman, as well as from Persia and the Roman Empire. For me, the most interesting item on display […]
We recently visited the camel market in the desert just north of Hofuf in the al-Ahsa/al-Hasa district. Although the market is located in a desert area, much of the area around Hofuf consists of date farms that make up the largest oasis in Saudi Arabia. The area exports dates harvested from approximately 3 million date […]
Since I had some time off from work for the Islamic holiday of ‘Id al-Adha I took my family to Bahrain for four days. I was a little apprehensive about driving there because on previous visits I had always taken a bus. Since I had witnessed the chaotic rush of traffic as it squeezes through […]
Last week my family and I explored some of the sights of Qatif district, about a 45-minute drive north of Dhahran, where we live in the Eastern Province. Qatif is a geographically large area that includes many towns and villages. It has a colorful history dating back 5,000 years. Qatif was known to the ancient […]