Recent move to Rakah

It's great to hear from an actual resident, to get a real sense of how it's going there. Have you started work yet?

It will be helpful for incoming residents to hear how the intracamp transportation works out once school starts, particularly for parents with kids of varying ages, who might have babies at home, kids in preschool in DLC, and kids at the schools in in DHA. I imagine families in DLC will build a network for backup babysitting for each other, and probably many will hire domestic helpers.

Please continue your contributions. :-)

SSS I will try to answer your questions. Please keep in mind that i am fairly new and things may change

1. Can you please share where you moved from? We will be moving from the US (New York)

Moved from US (Texas)

2. Perspective on commute to work for you / your spouse would be great (timing, door-to-door travel time, convenience, dealing with bus stop, etc.)

This is my first week and I will be picked up by an employee from my department for the first few days. People I have talked to say that if you take the bus, plan to travel for 30 minutes one way. If you are driving, it could be shorter (20-25 minutes) and all depending on the traffic. My understanding is that the bus is pretty convenient (starts at specific time from right next to the community center at Rakkah) and drops you off on designated drop points at the main Aramco Dhahran camp. As I mentioned earlier, most of the people moving right now are being located around the community center. As Rakkah starts getting filled up, new employees will be further away from the main community center and may require short walk towards the main center.

3. Perspective on commute for kids (either yours or what you have heard)...same things i.e. door-to-door travel time, convenience, dealing with bus stop, etc.

Currently I believe schools haven't started yet. The schools have separate buses which also departs from specific place and time (from Rakkah) and will drop kids at the Dhahran school. Again, like anything in life, my personal perspective is that once families start getting used to the concept of sending kids through the buses, it will not be a big issue. I think we are fortunate that the travel time is only 20-30 minutes compare to some other camps where the travel time is even more or they don't have the option to send kids to Dhahran camp school due to the distance.

4. Do the houses have 110 or 220 or both voltages? We will be bringing our TVs and DVD players and most likely buy a new microwave and a toaster. Am assuming these will work on 110 in Rakkah. Anything else in terms of electronics? E.g. would you recommend getting a separate refrigerator as well (to have two in total I guess)?

I was told that the houses do have 220, but I haven't seen any 220 outlets yet. I was also told that if we want 220 wiring, it will be installed. Most of the outlets in the house are 110. If you are bringing your TVs and DVD player, I don't think you will have any issue. You may want to look into getting a converter to move from NTSC to PALs system from Amazon or any other electronic store. Definitely bring your microwave and a toaster. Review the list created in "Frequently Asked Questions for any other items which you may want to bring. Most of the people I have talked to recommend getting decoration pieces/wall hangings for the house as the choices may be limited over here (not confirmed as I have not ventured out yet).

Other items to consider are cordless phone (I bought one from Sams with 3 sets), Magic Jack from Best Buy, VPN, GPS (I think you can also get it from local market), Unlocked cell phones (for you and your spouse), Iron and stand. You can definitely bring a refrigerator, but I am not sure if it will fit in the kitchen. You can probably put that in one of the extra rooms on the ground floor called "Maid room", if you are not planning to use it.

5. What have you heard from existing families about security? Especially, relating to commute from Rakkah to DHA on a daily basis for adults and kids?

Personally I don't have any issues with security at KSA especially at the Aramco camps as they are quite secure. As far as commute security, again no one has said anything that they may have felt threatened or un-secure for their personal safety while commuting for work or personal travel. Families use buses, taxis and other mode of transportation to venture out of the camps on a regular basis. As long as people respect the local culture and avoid bringing attention to themselves, I don't think security is a big issue.

Good luck with your travels and safe journey.

ZSB,

It is great to finally hear from someone who has moved to Rakkah. We have been setup for Rakkah and waiting for all paper work to complete before we move from Houston.

Few questions about your post, what VPN do you recommend? Any insights on GPS? I have not yet seen any GPS with ME maps here in the US. For most of them you have to buy maps after the fact. I was trying to figure which maps are the most accurate for ME. Tom tom or Garmin? I checked extra (electronic store in Dammam) and they sell GPS from NavMan for around SR 500. So if that is good enough should we even bother getting one from here?

Was the furniture you got in your house similar/same to what was shown in pictures?

Please keep us updated with your experiences at Rakkah. Particularly school commute for kids, your and your spouse's commute via Aramco transportation and experience with renting cars and getting around.

Thanks!

Greetings all - I looked at the typical floor plan of the houses in Rakkah and I was wondering if anyone could let me know if a queen size bed in the twin room would fit comfortably with space to move around and a side table? Thanks much in advance.

Thanks alot for sharing your first hand experience. We have our medical schedule for thus week. I have questions

1. We want to buy te beddings from here(US) could you please tell what sizes beds are there.
2. Is there a microwave in the kitchen and is it big enough and which brand?
3. Is there carpet or tile?

Thanks alot vpainter. I read somewhere that all houses in rakah has 4 bedrooms. Oh my, we are getting soo many surprises;). Anyways, is there any game room/ sitting area upstairs?

I am also a recent addition to Rakkah. As others have mentioned, the houses are very nice and everything here looks brand new & fresh. Especially the central building looks brand new (you will see a stark contrast in Dhahran). Everything in my house works perfectly from the get-go, except my internet and telephone didn't work when I arrived. But the staff fixed it on the following day so everything works now. The furnitures are the same as those in the pictures, except the rugs and TV were actually not included.

The camp (about 500 homes, 80 acres) is small, especially compared to Dhahran. It's good and bad. It's good that everything is practically within walking distance, and the community will be very tight-knit. However it's bad that the camp is not big enough for the wife to drive around, and the camp actually kinda feels cramped. The amenities are not as numerous as Dhahran, but then you share them with fewer people.

The commute to work is not too bad. Door-to-door, it ranges between 30-50 min, depending on where you work. The buses are big, luxurious tourist bus. The ride is usually pleasant; you can spend the time chatting, reading, or sleeping. Bus schedule is somewhat limited for now. But I expect to see more frequent bus schedule once the camp is filled up (currently the camp is only about 15% occupied).