tutsiwarrior Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) thanks for your valuable advice...it's been a great help and something to negotiate with the employer and before accepting an offer with all necessary immigration expenses included... I bought a new barbour cloth 'levi style' jacket and a fleece lined hoodie from M&S when last in the UK...I know that it gets chilly in the desert in winter time...plus, one has to look cool at site...my son wanted to give me one of his 'hip hop' baseball caps to wear backwards but I declined... Edited January 15, 2012 by tutsiwarrior Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naam Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) Tutsi:1. OK...so we can also say that with a bank account in saudi the bank will convert SAR to USD and do a TT/SWIFT transfer to an account elsewhere, outside of saudi...hurrah!... 2. no need to dick around any further if the exchange rate is acceptable... 3. usually with HSBC (SABB in saudi) it is not...it is criminal as I stated before using the USD to GBP rate that is used between accounts in the UK as an example... 4. do you always get SAR3.75 to USD1.0 when you convert at a bank in saudi? 1. yes 2. yes 3. because you transferred SAR and the conversion was done abroad 4. TT rate is approximately 3.72, give or take one Halala 5. last november i changed cash USD into SAR at a money changer downtown Jeddah and got 3.69 6. around Christmas time in 2007 same money changer Jeddah gave only 3.62 Edited January 15, 2012 by Naam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 thanks for your valuable advice...it's been a great help and something to negotiate with the employer and before accepting an offer with all necessary immigration expenses included... I bought a new barbour cloth 'levi style' jacket and a fleece lined hoodie from M&S when last in the UK...I know that it gets chilly in the desert in winter time...plus, one has to look cool at site...my son wanted to give me one of his 'hip hop' baseball caps to wear backwards but I declined... Red Wing boots and Nomex coverall with reflecting stripes is all it takes nowadays Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutsiwarrior Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) I had a pair of Red Wing work shoes in saudi and they hurt my feet so much that I almost passed out when at high level on a boiler...had to sit down and recover...plus don't like boilers as I suffer from vertigo...these days I just let an inspector go up and take photos if there's a problem...most things I can resolve sittin' behind me desk... I had Ben Johnson overalls which were handy when inspecting steam drums after an acid clean...one would then emerge filthy and parade around proudly and conspicuosly...the client's management would then regard me seriously and say: 'Mr tutsi, senior staff are not expected to undertake these extreme inspections personally...'...and I would say: ' our activities at site are to always safeguard our client's best interests, sir...' haw!...whatta chump... Edited January 15, 2012 by tutsiwarrior Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutsiwarrior Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) Tutsi:1. OK...so we can also say that with a bank account in saudi the bank will convert SAR to USD and do a TT/SWIFT transfer to an account elsewhere, outside of saudi...hurrah!... 2. no need to dick around any further if the exchange rate is acceptable... 3. usually with HSBC (SABB in saudi) it is not...it is criminal as I stated before using the USD to GBP rate that is used between accounts in the UK as an example... 4. do you always get SAR3.75 to USD1.0 when you convert at a bank in saudi? 1. yes 2. yes 3. because you transferred SAR and the conversion was done abroad 4. TT rate is approximately 3.72, give or take one Halala 5. last november i changed cash USD into SAR at a money changer downtown Jeddah and got 3.69 6. around Christmas time in 2007 same money changer Jeddah gave only 3.62 naam...you prefer to change cash rather than use a thai debit/cash card at an ATM to get local currency?...before I opened a saudi account and got a local card I used a UK VISA debit card to get riyals...probably took a beating on the exchange rate, I suppose...I loved the convenience, though... in Jeddah I hear the best rates for money changers are down in Balad...a nice reason to get a tasty shwarma outside the doors of the shopping mall there...with my shwarma and a coke sittin' there on a bench I felt like Mr Jeddah, yessir...wipe me hands with my bandana, get into my Hyundai Sonata and head south on the highway towards my accommodation at the Shuaibah power and desalination complex 75km away...grand...earlier, lived on Amir Sultan Road just across from the sultan's palace, a nice western compound but too far to drive to work... Edited January 15, 2012 by tutsiwarrior Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I had a pair of Red Wing work shoes in saudi and they hurt my feet so much that I almost passed out when at high level on a boiler...had to sit down and recover...plus don't like boilers as I suffer from vertigo...these days I just let an inspector go up and take photos if there's a problem...most things I can resolve sittin' behind me desk... I had Ben Johnson overalls which were handy when inspecting steam drums after an acid clean...one would then emerge filthy and parade around proudly and conspicuosly...the client's management would then regard me seriously and say: 'Mr tutsi, senior staff are not expected to undertake these extreme inspections personally...'...and I would say: ' our activities at site are to always safeguard our client's best interests, sir...' haw!...whatta chump... Funny you mention that. We used to clean externally the tubes of furnace, water wall, super heater, reheater and economizer by a mixture of soda ash and trisodium phosphate which is like the opposite of acid washing. It took like forever to put up scaffolding inside the furnace and cover all refractory by protective sponge material and during the cleaning the saudi engineer was frantically checking the PH of the waste water which needed to be above 7.5 All in all I think he must’ve gone through 100 or so rolls of PH paper which was quitte hilarious at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naam Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 naam...you prefer to change cash rather than use a thai debit/cash card at an ATM to get local currency?...before I opened a saudi account and got a local card I used a UK VISA debit card to get riyals...probably took a beating on the exchange rate, I suppose...I loved the convenience, though... in Jeddah I hear the best rates for money changers are down in Balad...a nice reason to get a tasty shwarma outside the doors of the shopping mall there...with my shwarma and a coke sittin' there on a bench I felt like Mr Jeddah, yessir...wipe me hands with my bandana, get into my Hyundai Sonata and head south on the highway towards my accommodation at the Shuaibah power and desalination complex 75km away...grand...earlier, lived on Amir Sultan Road just across from the sultan's palace, a nice western compound but too far to drive to work... ya Tutsi habibi... instead of suing an ATM card i prefer to meet old friends whenever i am (once a year) in Jeddah. the old chap who changed three and a half decades ago my riyals into one-thousand mark notes is still kicking. he must be 115 years by now but he still remembers me (after wearing his glasses). we always have some tea together and talk about the good olden (and golden) times when he let down a fishing net in front of his booth located in the Souq, went for a prayer in the nearby mosque whilst newcomers stared at the bundles of Pounds, Dollars, Deutsch Marks and Gold bars protected only by that net. it goes without saying that not one, but two shwarmas are mandatory when i go 'fil balad'! by the way, my home was off Kilo 5 Medina Road, 200 meters from the 'Lebanese Supermarket' and next to [then Prince] Fahd's party house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutsiwarrior Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) I was by the big mosque in Balad waiting for my ride to pick me up near prayer time one weekday afternoon and in an instant the busy souk was deserted, just me waiting in the street...the driver had gone off to pray, y'see... when folks emerged from the mosque they took no notice of the westerner patiently waiting for his ride by the curb... a different scenario altogether when in the supermarket on King Fahd Rd before prayers on a Friday morning when Israel had invaded Gaza as the hostility was palpable...at the checkout two 10' tall grim looking pashtuns in pancake hats were crowding my space menacingly and the checkout man looked distressed like I was gonna be lynched on the spot...I was lucky to grab my stuff and get outta there pronto...definitely unfriendly...sorta sounds like something outta Woody Allen and his anti-semitic paranoia... Edited January 15, 2012 by tutsiwarrior Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattayaParent Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 OK...so we can say that the first time that I went to saudi in 2007 I obtained a 3 month business visa that required me to travel to the US to obtain a work permit in order to return to saudi to make the iqama application...never heard of a 'work visa' at that time...if it is true that 'work visas' are now available before travelling to saudi at the BKK embassy and that an iqama can be obtained directly in saudi without any requirement for further travel outside of saudi then so much the better! Work visas are not a new invention in Saudi, I always had one on my several assignments in the sand pit from 1984 to 1994. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 ^ Yes they’ve always been there. How else are they bringing in those millions of Asians that come in on 2-3 year contracts. No employer is going to fly out those guys back to Mumbai or Manila after a couple of months to pick up their worker visa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutsiwarrior Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 OK...so we can say that the first time that I went to saudi in 2007 I obtained a 3 month business visa that required me to travel to the US to obtain a work permit in order to return to saudi to make the iqama application...never heard of a 'work visa' at that time...if it is true that 'work visas' are now available before travelling to saudi at the BKK embassy and that an iqama can be obtained directly in saudi without any requirement for further travel outside of saudi then so much the better! Work visas are not a new invention in Saudi, I always had one on my several assignments in the sand pit from 1984 to 1994. ^ Yes they’ve always been there. How else are they bringing in those millions of Asians that come in on 2-3 year contracts. No employer is going to fly out those guys back to Mumbai or Manila after a couple of months to pick up their worker visa. this is good to know...my previous employers were cheap shits and that ain't gonna happen again...there were a lot of asian inpectors on the job and I presumed that they had to mess around with the same arrangement... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naam Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 (edited) ^ Yes they’ve always been there. How else are they bringing in those millions of Asians that come in on 2-3 year contracts. No employer is going to fly out those guys back to Mumbai or Manila after a couple of months to pick up their worker visa. BINGO! addendum: during my time we did not waste immediatley any work visas for important jobs which were much harder to obtain than e.g. an unspecified block visa (no names) for 200 Pakistanis or Indians. we brought the chaps in on a easily obtainable three-months visitor visa, judged their performance during a three months probation time and only if they performed let them fly back to their home countries to pick up their work visa. rule of thumb was only 50% made it. quite a percentage of those who were sent back with a "sorry mate, no can do" could not adjust to the then much harder working and last not least harsh living conditions. i am talking about my time frame 1974 till 1980 when we used to work 10-14 hours a day, 7 days a week. but then our financial rewards in the Kingdom were indeed 'princely' if not 'royal'. during and after the oil glut during the 80s the expats in Saudi Arabia could only dream about the remuneration we received and that applies to nowadays too. Edited January 15, 2012 by Naam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 ^ You're right Naam. I started in 1992 and the working hours are still there but the money isn't what it used to be. You can still make good money though but schemes whereby the employer matches your savings dollar for dollar have long gone. Saudi employees in Aramco are getting a pretty good deal with them being eligible for early retirement after 25 years of service where they get paid 70% of their last salary plus full medical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naam Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 I started in 1992 and the working hours are still there but the money isn't what it used to be. Meom, with applied austerity measures, starting in the 80s, the Saudis and Gulf Arabs realised that a lot of westerners drawing huge cash salaries and fringe benefits could be easily replaced by Pakistanis, Indians and Pinoys with the same qualifications and the same capabilities for a fraction of the cost and according to my information the screws have been even tightened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 You’re right. In the past it used to be that basically anyone who was willing to work and had half a brain to go with it could come to Saudi. You learned along the way and that’s how you moved up. Nowadays it’s completely different and as a western expat you got no chance really unless you’re highly qualified with X years of experience. Another poster asked where to find these headhunters. Waste of time really if you have to ask because if you're any good at what you're doing word goes around quick enough and they'll approach you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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