Sunday, January 11, 2015

Saudi Arabia Trip

Himalaya Mountains from airplane window

I went on an 8 day business trip to Saudi Arabia in the middle of December. As I read the previous sentence I'm thinking of course it was a business trip. Tourism isn't real big in Saudi Arabia other than the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca and I'm not sure that really counts as tourism.

Anyway, the plane's route went over a part of the world I had not seen before. Here we are over the Himalayas.

Click to enlarge.




The pilot indicated that K2, the 2nd highest mountain, was out the left windows. I'm not sure if the picture above is K2 or perhaps the mountain sticking out of the clouds on the horizon in this picture. You will have to enlarge the picture to see it.

That's not camera distortion you see on the horizon. That is the curvature of the earth.



Beach at the Intercontinental Hotel in Al-Jubail, KSA

SABIC is building an ABS plastics plant in Al-Jubail on the east coast of Saudi Arabia.

The hotel in Jubail has a nice beach. Not very busy - the weather was a bit cool - about 75 this day. At this private beach women can wear whatever they want.



Eurasian Hoopoe

This bird was hanging around the beach area. It is a Eurasian Hoopoe.

Here is a link to Google Maps if you want to get your bearings. Zoom out to see the industrial area south of the hotel. You can't miss it. It's huge, about 12 miles by 12 miles or 144 square miles.

Intercontinental Hotel - Al-Jubail




Here is a look at part of the plant. The ABS plant is in the foreground. The cranes in the background are on other projects.




Here is my colleague and friend Rick Legg. Notice the full body harness he is wearing. The contractor takes safety very seriously. If you are working above or below ground level you must wear a harness. Once construction is completed and all the handrails are finished this requirement will go away.




The blue items are demisters on a High Efficiency Air Filtration system.




Part of the ABS plant is in the foreground. Across the road is another Petrokemya plant.




The plant is a little behind schedule. You can see a see some of the pipe left to install.

I'll be returning sometime this spring or early summer.



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