The Petrol Pump Attendants

[danman281]

I like the third one

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Another couple from this morning. Used a bit of fill in flash for a change to try and balance out the lighting.

#15


#16

 

[Chris of Arabia]

#17

 

[stsinner]

Excuse my ignorance, but what's the the dude wearing a scarf? I thought only women wore scarves over their face.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

It's only to keep the sand and dust out. I can't remember specifically, but the chance are that it was a windy day and whipping lots of stuff up - and in the middle of the desert, there is lots and lots of it to be whipped. We tend to think of it as being some sort of national head dress, but it's actually a very practical garment to prevent sunburn and keep the crap out of your mouth, ears, nose and eyes.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Due to a slightly unintended detour, our subject today comes to you from the Dammam highway running east out of Riyadh.

 

[stsinner]

It's only to keep the sand and dust out. I can't remember specifically, but the chance are that it was a windy day and whipping lots of stuff up - and in the middle of the desert, there is lots and lots of it to be whipped. We tend to think of it as being some sort of national head dress, but it's actually a very practical garment to prevent sunburn and keep the crap out of your mouth, ears, nose and eyes.

In Iraq, we got some monster dust storms.. That stuff was magical-it would get inside your rolled sleeping bag somehow.. We'd come back to our tent at night, unroll our sleeping bags on our cots, and there would be fine dust inside.. Drove us crazy!! But nobody ever wrapped a scarf around their head. I don't mean that in a negative way, but just funny how no American would ever wrap a scarf around their head, except as a costume. I just don't think the though would ever occur to us. In many ways, we're not very practical.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Today's guest appears courtesy of a trip to the supermarket. He's been seen before, but today I discovered he's from the Kerala region of India

 

[Chris of Arabia]

A few shots from a weekend trip across the causeway to Bahrain.

#20 - "Redbeard"

East bound on the highway towards Dammam, we met Zachariah from Kerala in India. Nice chap and excellent English




#xxxx

Probably not petrol pump attendants, but you never know. Either way, these guys were in front of us on the corniche in central Manama, Bahrain. Given that we were moving at a crawl, it seemed an ideal opportunity to pop off a quick shot. Apologies for the poor image quality, I really must get that windscreen cleaned.



#21

Finally a couple from the West bound Dammam highway on the way back to Riyadh. That's a 50 Riyal note in his hand, worth about $13.00 or £9.00.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

I seem to be buying an awful lot of petrol of late.

We met Nurula (I'm guessing at the spelling) as Petrol Attendant #14. On today's visit, I've established that he's from Bangladesh and has been in Saudi Arabia for the last 15 years (6 more than me). As he's only a little down the road from here, I'll see what else I can find out about him when I next visit.

#22



#23

 

[Chris of Arabia]

#24



This is Nurula's (in background) companion in crime just down the road from here. His name is Jamal and he's also from Bangladesh, though I wasn't able to find out how long he'd been working in Saudi Arabia. By some strange quick of coincidence, the word jamal or very similar is also the Arabic word for camel, the main souk for which is another couple of miles down the road - there's a set of photographs from there elsewhere in my collection. As you can see, the day I took this was very dusty - we've been having some cracking sandstorms here just recently, and this morning's was an absolute belter.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Turns out this guy is from the Punjab in India. For the life of me I couldn't make out what his name was, try as I might.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Been buying more than my usual amount of petrol just recently. This is Ahmed, another Indian from Kerala. He's been in Saudi for about 12 years now and only gets to go back home once every two years - not a prospect I'd relish, but if it got me out of doing Christmas, then maybe I'd consider it.

#26

 

[Chris of Arabia]

I went to a different petrol station yesterday, just across the road from our new HQ building (but not actually where I work) in the centre of Riyadh not far from the Ministry of the Interior. This is Shaalam from Bangladesh and he has been in Saudi for 2 years now - chances are that with the frequency I'm visiting HQ now, we may be seeing him again.

 

[Fraggo]

In Iraq, we got some monster dust storms.. That stuff was magical-it would get inside your rolled sleeping bag somehow.. We'd come back to our tent at night, unroll our sleeping bags on our cots, and there would be fine dust inside.. Drove us crazy!! But nobody ever wrapped a scarf around their head. I don't mean that in a negative way, but just funny how no American would ever wrap a scarf around their head, except as a costume. I just don't think the though would ever occur to us. In many ways, we're not very practical.

I remember using them all the time when i was in Iraq, we would usually support the local markets to get them too. And wear them on patrols through the cities.

Great series too btw, I'm still tring to pick a favorite.