Queens and Desert Hunks Gather Together

Ramadan Holidays in Saudi Arabia, first holiday in Arabic calendar, usually takes place successively for 4-5 days. It’s the best time for expats to unwind, revitalize and enjoy after an 8-month inexorable and arduous time spent in offices, sites, stores and schools.

For Saudi nationals who cannot afford a luxurious world tours, its their chance to travel to nearby avant-garde Gulf countries, where they could splurge freely. They usually travel in ‘open cities’ like Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait where they enjoy the beaches, nice hotels, bars, girls and great food.

But for Filipinos, it is best to stay in the Kingdom and find a good place where they could also enjoy and bond together. Besides, employers seldom grant outside-the-Kingdom vacation to their employees for fear that they might run away. (They safe-keep all their employees’ passport). If expats want to have distant travel, they are limited to cities-to-cities travel only. Riyadh dwellers can go to beaches in nearby Eastern Province (Al-Khobar or Dammam) or Western Province (Jeddah) and vice-versa.



Our friends decided to spend 3 days in Dirab Golf Course and Resort. Actually this is the only safe haven, with 18-hole international standard golf course, 9 resort houses, 1 big pool, gym and horse-back arena, located 45 kms from Riyadh Center.

One villa costs SR1,000 (P11,000) per day. Although its quite expensive, but we are assured that no 'authority' would dare to come inside and spoil our celebration.

Actually we opted to spend the vacation all together since 6 are celebrating their birthdays this month.



Although there were some minor flaws in each assigned task for the party, like the lapse in transportation, food preparation, etc., the celebration ended up satisfying everyone and became more significant because those who have misunderstanding and conflicts in the group had patched out together and settled harmoniously.