Picture Update. Beauty & the Beast

Never let it be said that I do not listen.

Less verbs, more pictures. I hear you!

So. Here you go…

Some are taken on trips and jaunts to Dubai and Bahrain. The rest were taken in and around Khobar where I am living.

It was quiet. Friday mornings always are. It is the day of rest. A religious day. No-one works. Well, not until after midday prayers, anyway.

The photos I took do not reflect the bustle, but when you look through them please appreciate that waving a camera in people’s faces in Saudi is not something that is encouraged. Ignoring the potential for provoking religious or personal outrage by snapping women or strangers, I was really aware that I was heading into the poorer parts of town. My camera is worth more than a month’s wages to many of the people around these parts. Maybe in time I will increase my confidence and get more involved with the population… but this was the first time and I was really conscious of flaunting my comparative wealth.

Readers: "Eh? We’ve seen the middle east. In brochures. It’s incredible." 

Readers: "Hey! You keep posting amazing pictures of the seafront… What do you mean?"

There are two worlds out here. The need each other so they live on top of and alongside each other. They feed off each other. They are symbiotic. They are both beautiful and ugly simultaneously.

First we have the exciting, planned, developments. Highways and bold developments of shopping centres, hotels and office blocks. They are built around landscaped parks and recreational spaces. They are built to impress. They regularly succeed. I've been lucky; I've seen some incredible sights:

Dubai - From Grand West Media City

Bahrain - World Trade Centre

Bahrain - Movement

Saudi Arabia - Al Khobar Corniche

Bahrain - Lanterns... Where I spent my Birthday :)

I love these parts of the region. I feel comfortable. I understand and relate to them.

No photo’s I am afraid, but a view the view of Dubai as you land/take off from the airport takes your breath away. The palm shaped residential developments and map of the world sculptured as sand banks in the clear, still waters backed up with the tower blocks behind isolated and alone in a flat, pancake desert stands out as one of my favourite views of all time.

But in order to have these, you need to have service. And I have seen it. It shows the rougher, far less glamourous side of the countries. They are not included in the brochures but I am finding them just as impressive and – sometimes - more interesting and engaging from a life experience and creative perspective. I am passionate about photography and geography, after all.

Saudi Arabia- A mosque in a warehouse district between Al Khobar and Dammam

Dubai - Warehouses, Office Blocks & Trailers

So this is where I got out to explore Al Khobar...

Khobar Back Streets

Clothes Drying and Low Cost Housing

Golden Hyderabad. Selling tea in plastic cups. Busy before Prayers.

Bridge over The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Road.
Where you can find beggars with missing their lower arms, hands and/or feet. Victims of Justice.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Road

Shop Front

Apartments

Cables

Decorated Truck. Many of the vehicles are driven by Pakistani and Indian immigrants. Most are personalised...

Abandoned Car. Remember... Khobar sits between the desert and the sea.
Anything that stays still starts to get buried. 

Street Signs.
In all honesty, I took this as a reminder to help me locate a Malaysian Restaurant I stumbled across.
Used to eat Malaysian on Holloway Road and down near The Riverside in Newcastle Upon Tyne. I doubt either place are still there.
Love Malaysian food!

Offices? Apartments? I dunno.
I stuck my head in the doorway. You will be relieved to hear that it had the same rank, stale urine smell that it would attract in London, Berlin, Kiev... The  whole world round.

This battered and grubby stair well was in a parade of jewellers which will explain the discarded cabinets.
I love the disparity between the rubbish strewn hall way and the apparent value of the cases.

Adverts.

Parking Rebel

This reminded me of The Lanes in Brighton... Joke :)

Never Back Dawn...
Too bloody right. What's Dawn ever done for me?

Not quite the same the word round.
There is a bit of graffiti around. On the walls or in the dust on cars. But I am yet to see a comedy cock n balls!

Street Scene - Khobar

Dereliction - Back Street Khobar

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Street Scene - Khobar

Street Scene - Khobar

To close, I experienced my first sandstorm on Tuesday. I flew back to Dammam from Dubai and dropped into into a yellow wasteland...

On the Apron at Dammam

On the road to Khobar
The wind was blowing straight off the desert. The four by four we were in was being brushed out of lane. The sand on the metalwork and windows sounded like the most torrential rain.

And, finally... back to the pretty.

The beach at Khobar.
Low tide in the Arabian Gulf. Egrets, Reef Heron and Flamingo grazed and hunted on the sand bar just off shore.