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One of my most favourite trips was one for work to Saudi Arabia and Egypt in 1994. I've just gotten around to getting my 35mm slides scanned (hat tip to flyboyal) and I thought I'd share some of those memories here. It was certainly an unusual trip - actually two, which I'll combine into one here - and I guess Saudi isn't a country that's visited much. Then, and I think now, you can't visit as a tourist - you have to be invited by some organisation there and its not a trivial thing to do.
The reason I went (with a colleague) was that our mining company wanted to assess the middle east as a place to expand and invest. None of the lawyers or accountants wanted to go, so it was up to we geos to do the accounting and legal due diligence as well as the mineral assessment. Wahoo!
Our target countries were Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. Yemen unfortunately was soon engaged in one of their periodic civil wars, so that got ruled out early. When we went to Egypt and saw the Australian Ambassador there, he pleaded with us not to go to Sudan, so that got ruled out too. So that just left Saudi and Egypt, and over 2 trips we had to see the bureaucracy and possible 'partner' accounting firms, lawyers and banks in the cities, and to 'head bush' and see the country, and the mines.
Here's our driving route in Saudi Arabia. There is a decent mountain range running parallel to the Red Sea coast and that was our main interest (we'll leave the desert to the oil guys
).
![Saudi map topo.jpg Saudi map topo.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59478-6477f638e9e60b19a49b767fd3ec4eb2.jpg)
And just to show that the Saudis are not humourless, at least then:
![42520012.jpg 42520012.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59474-1d117efe27b626caddd8031238d3712b.jpg)
That said, you'd have to wonder if this statue, like the one above, on the Jeddah Corniche, is still there ...
![46560005.jpg 46560005.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59476-32c64f1c68fb2378fe3bb0ab20f7a8be.jpg)
Of course we were immersed in an Islamic country: and knew the rules, but on the freeway to Mecca, the authorities left little doubt:
![42520019.jpg 42520019.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59475-6332713ad7f1400232d0619fbfd80ac1.jpg)
Westerners were regular visitors of course .. the Intercon in Jeddah was pretty comfortable, even if it did have one of the mose useless things in the Kingdom (an in-pool bar)
![46570020.jpg 46570020.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59477-7c633e1d8e6507e76884988328992a2a.jpg)
The reason I went (with a colleague) was that our mining company wanted to assess the middle east as a place to expand and invest. None of the lawyers or accountants wanted to go, so it was up to we geos to do the accounting and legal due diligence as well as the mineral assessment. Wahoo!
Our target countries were Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. Yemen unfortunately was soon engaged in one of their periodic civil wars, so that got ruled out early. When we went to Egypt and saw the Australian Ambassador there, he pleaded with us not to go to Sudan, so that got ruled out too. So that just left Saudi and Egypt, and over 2 trips we had to see the bureaucracy and possible 'partner' accounting firms, lawyers and banks in the cities, and to 'head bush' and see the country, and the mines.
Here's our driving route in Saudi Arabia. There is a decent mountain range running parallel to the Red Sea coast and that was our main interest (we'll leave the desert to the oil guys
![Saudi map topo.jpg Saudi map topo.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59478-6477f638e9e60b19a49b767fd3ec4eb2.jpg)
And just to show that the Saudis are not humourless, at least then:
![42520012.jpg 42520012.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59474-1d117efe27b626caddd8031238d3712b.jpg)
That said, you'd have to wonder if this statue, like the one above, on the Jeddah Corniche, is still there ...
![46560005.jpg 46560005.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59476-32c64f1c68fb2378fe3bb0ab20f7a8be.jpg)
Of course we were immersed in an Islamic country: and knew the rules, but on the freeway to Mecca, the authorities left little doubt:
![42520019.jpg 42520019.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59475-6332713ad7f1400232d0619fbfd80ac1.jpg)
Westerners were regular visitors of course .. the Intercon in Jeddah was pretty comfortable, even if it did have one of the mose useless things in the Kingdom (an in-pool bar)
![46570020.jpg 46570020.jpg](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/data/attachments/59/59477-7c633e1d8e6507e76884988328992a2a.jpg)