Go East Young Band!

Before checking out of the hotel in Jeddah we made a couple of really neat stops at a shop that specializes in all things dates - it had uncountable varieties of dates cooked with honey, milk, nuts - you name it. I had no idea dates could be fixed in so many ways. They also had date coffee and date milk which was especially tasty. Samples were abundant and I am now a date fan. It turns out that Saudi Arabia's second major export is dates (guess what the first is). Here are some of their displays:

Tim & I split on a 1/4 kilo sampler plate.

Then just a few doors down was all things chocolate:

I am munching on a few of the above as I type this!

Heading back, I saw that I missed an opportunity to have my laundry done just around the corner from the hotel:

Thom made a quick stop at a local color store:

and then we checked out of the hotel for the flight to Dhahran. It was a pleasantly uneventful flight and Chris from the Consulate was waiting for us there.

Here in the eastern most province there are three settlements. The oldest is Damamm, the next is Khobar, and the most modern is here at Dharhan. It is the home of Aramco, the state owned oil producing company of Saudi Arabia which is actually a joint venture set up by the US and Saudi Arabia - the name Aramco meaning Arab and American Company. Let it not be understated that there is LOTS of money here and lots of Americans employed here as well. In fact, tomorrow we are scheduled to play at the ISG theater which is an international school that many of the American kids attend. More on that tomorrow.

As we were driving to the hotel Thom and I noticed that if it weren't for the Arabic spelling it would look like anywhere USA. We saw plenty of KFCs, fast food chains - even a Krispy Kreme!

I called it "anywhere KSA" (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

After checking in we met up with Chris and Matt from the consulate for a great meal and a restaurant that specialized in Syrian and Saudi food. A special waiter came to our table to give us some special coffee and then led us over to his little area of specialty drinks. The coffee tasted like water steeped in hay and new mowed grass, but the fruit drink was great.

We later crossed paths with some locals for yet some more wonderful "cultural exchange" of international good will:

It was another night to remember.

More music from the consulate tomorrow. Thanks for tagging along. We love your comments and hope to see more.

Jerry