A Trip to the Mall

I needed a thumb drive.  I had intended to bring one from home, but it somehow didn’t make it into my bags.  So, a couple of weeks after my arrival in the kingdom, I screwed up my courage, arranged for a taxi, and ventured out to the Mall of Dhahran!

I went early on a Saturday morning.  Not many people were there yet, so I had the opportunity to explore a bit.  What I found was a very interesting mix of the east and the west.

You can see from the photos that there is certainly a strong western influence upon the region.

They have an Ikea.

And an Apple shop.

And FroYo is coming!

They even have a “Women’s Secret.”  Victoria has been ousted, I suppose.  (Thankfully!)

It was very much like going to a mall in the US.  There are many westerners here.  Perhaps they designed it that way to appeal to them.  But I think it runs deeper than that.  But that’s the subject of another post…

There is a grocery store in the center.  Hyper Pando.  Or maybe Hyper Panda.  I can’t quite tell from the logo.  It has all the familiar trappings of a grocery store back home.  Except for the international flavor – where everything is bi-lingual, and some of the translations are funny.

“Potato chips anyone?  We have Tomato Ketchup flavor!  No?  Well, how about Salt?  No?  French Cheese it is then.”

Their rice selection is HUGE. 

They also have a department store, like Target, attached to the mall.  It’s called Saco World.  It’s pretty much the same, except for the stairless escalator…

… and the fact that they seem to have a wider variety of everything.  Some sections are much bigger than their counterparts in the states.  For instance, everything you see in this picture is part of the sporting goods section.

The Muslims pray five times every day.  The times when the prayers are said varies from day to day.  They have a prayer schedule that looks like a bus schedule.  When prayer time comes, the shop keepers will disappear, and there won’t be any service from them for the duration of the prayer.  The mall even has a mosque in the middle to which they can retreat.  The calls to prayer are played over outdoor speakers all over the place, and are even broadcast on television – even in the midst of Saco World.

This poor kid opted to stay outside while his mother was shopping in the Women’s Secret (which seems to be MUCH more modest than what we get in the states).  

The thing I find funny is that the sign on the window says “Family only.”  If I’m not mistaken, this designation means that a man cannot enter this store without a without at least one woman next to him.   (Sometimes you will see a man with multiple women in tow…)  It’s hilarious that this store gets the exact same designation as this one:

The abaya store.  In the Saudi culture, women cannot go into a public place without covering themselves with a black abaya.  There are varying degrees of covering that are practiced.  There are women with their faces exposed, as well as women with only their eyes exposed – or there are the cocky foreigners who have the abaya draped over their shoulders, but completely open in front, displaying whatever they are wearing.  But, in any case, Saudi women can wear whatever they like under the abaya.  Theoretically, they could all be wearing only stuff from Women’s Secret underneath, and NOBODY would know.

Anyway, I was successful in obtaining my thumb drive.  On my way back out to find my taxi, I found Captain Kirk – Arabian style!

… and several other people just arriving for another trip to the mall. 

What an amazing, diverse, and wonderful world we live in!

Peace.