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Post by himni on Oct 20, 2015 21:09:38 GMT
Thanks everyone for your helpful posts. It looks like I'm headed to Rakah, ETA December 28, with my lovely wife and four kids in tow. Hoping to meet some of you and find some friends to ease the midyear transition for my 10yo and 8yo, especially.
We are leaning towards selling/donating almost everything and taking the cash in lieu, since we are told we could be in Rakah anywhere from several months to two years. Anyone take all cash and regret it, or ship everything and wish you hadn't with the furnished accommodations. We have moderately nice stuff, but we aren't tied to most of it, except for a few sentimental things.
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Post by ToesInTheSand on Oct 22, 2015 14:56:58 GMT
We will be coming to Rakah in November, I have a 10y boy and a 9y girl. We will definitely have to connect when you get in!
A lot of the posts I read pretty much say the "partial shipment" is the way to go. I have elected shipment for myself (candidate) and cash in lieu for the family.
Even though we are liqui......... nearly everything (furniture, decor, electronics, etc)... as we begin to sort through stuff, its easy to see how we will need to ship some stuff. Particularly if you look at the costs of some things you may want when you are in country.
Good luck!
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Post by expatinwaiting on Oct 22, 2015 18:33:44 GMT
The movers just hauled off our belongings yesterday; that IVI took some work. We ended up using both allotments based on the premise that it will be more expensive and time consuming to replace our furniture with items that we like once we are in Dhahran, insha.
My wife connected with a number of friends of friends who are currently in Dhahran, and the overwhelming advice was to bring furniture, as it is challenging to replace. The major items that we liquidated/donated were the couches and dining room table. Hopefully we'll find replacements when the time comes.
We also ended up using all 6 eboxes so we'll have the essentials within weeks of our arrival.
Hope to see you all out there.
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Post by himni on Oct 22, 2015 19:16:43 GMT
ToesInTheSand,
I hope to see you there. It's heartening to see many others with children of similar ages taking the plunge. Most of the kids in our current neighborhood go to different schools than ours, so our kids will love to have schoolmates who live in the same community.
We are still leaning towards liqui......... almost all, storing a few things with relatives, and buying new stuff. We aren't that tied to most of our things.
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Maursh
Senior Member
Posts: 169
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Post by Maursh on Oct 28, 2015 9:14:08 GMT
If you are coming from the US (and I assume that you are all US payroll on the understanding that Global is no longer offered housing) then you should think carefully about packing electronics.
Most outlets in Dhahran and Rakah are 110V with US plug sockets. You can get some changed to 220V but not all.
Any electronics you buy are 220V with standard 3 pin UK plugs. It can be a problem. Some (high powered) devices do not work on 110V and you need an adapter for the 3 pin plug.
In addition, it is not so much the expense but the quality and range of choice available here.
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Post by bogiefrommuskogee on Oct 28, 2015 9:38:19 GMT
If you are buying 220V things and running them on 110V, technically some things will tolerate that but KVA is the same regardless. If you cut the voltage in half, you double the ampee. Ampee is what makes the cable warm up and 220V appliances are built with thinner wire than 110V things and were never designed nor intended to take the higher ampee. The higher the power of the thing you are operating this way, the hotter the cable is going to get. This could short, burn, cause a fire. It is a better idea to go to Radio Shack in Bahrain and buy a proper transformer and a lot safer. If you do not know how to calculate how much KVA you need, ask someone. Buying a transformer that is too small is also a fire hazard. You can buy transformers in Khobar but the ones in Radio Shack are designed and built to do exactly this – operate appliances from one voltage to another and they should be UL or CSA approved.
Trying to operate 110V things on 220V is an immediate burn/fire which is why 110V appliances are now banned from import. Too many fires. Many shops sold both types years ago.
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FPEPRO
Advanced Member
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Post by FPEPRO on Oct 29, 2015 3:12:01 GMT
Bogie all that is true for high current items, but for things like TV's, DVD players, etc. They are almost all dual voltage in Kingdom. I actually prefer that flexibility over something that can only run solely on 110v. I was going to buy a nice TV in the US and ship it until I visited eXtra (which is just down the street from Rakah by the way). They had a pretty nice selection, and every TV I looked at was dual voltage. I actually bought a very nice LG 40-inch 4K TV for under $800 USD just last night to use as a monitor. So I'd say the selection is pretty good if you go to the right place.
That being said... The prices of upper-end washers and dryers is absolutely ridiculous. Same thing goes for refrigerators and freezers honestly. They have cheap stuff, but the higher end variety is double the price. At those prices it would be cheaper to buy it in the US and pay for shipping to Saudi through a cargo company. If you do your homework, there are a number of shipping agencies that offer very reasonable rates for sea cargo.
I actually purchased an entire kitchen set in the US and shipped it (double-oven convection range, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator (All refrigerator), and matching freezer. My wife is an avid cook, and thinking of catering in kingdom, so I got her the supplies to do so. The houses here have appliances, but they are nothing special.
-CT
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Post by bogiefrommuskogee on Oct 29, 2015 5:10:08 GMT
I have to admit I am not up-to-date on the latest digital TV technology. Traditionally TVs sold in the US worked on the NTSC 3.58 standard while the signal here is PAL. Multi-systems are common here. I believe this is not much of a problem though with HDTV although the refresh rate is slightly different. I am of the opinion that TVs sold in the USA have many more features than TVs sold here. TVs from Extra have pretty basic features. I like being able to watch four things at once. Most electronics any more are multi-voltage and auto switch - especially true with portable electronics because people do travel. Buying a 220V espresso maker and running it on 110V, however, is really not a good idea.
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FPEPRO
Advanced Member
Posts: 58
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Post by FPEPRO on Oct 30, 2015 14:54:25 GMT
Yeah, as far as TV's go, HDMI pretty much eliminated the problem with PAL and NTSC issues.
You are right about the coffee makers, and essentially all electrical things that heat up. If it heat up as its function, it's a pretty good bet that it won't be dual voltage, and if it is, it will not work quite the same. We have a clothing iron that is dual voltage here, but I can testify that it definitely doesn't work as well on 110v.
-CT
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Post by himni on Nov 13, 2015 18:45:20 GMT
I just received the news that we've cleared BI and Medical. So, pending visas, we are good to go, with an ETA of late December!  :shock: We've decided to take the full cash-in-lieu. We have stored a few things with relatives and will probably check a few extra boxes, but we are okay more or less starting over, so to speak. |
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Post by expatinwaiting on Nov 14, 2015 8:50:26 GMT
Great news Himni! Look forward to seeing you in Rakah next month. Make sure to bring warmer clothing, as it has already started to cool down, particularly in the evening. That said, it's quite amusing to see people out with jackets when it's still in the 60s. It's all relative, I suppose.
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Post by ToesInTheSand on Nov 14, 2015 12:32:12 GMT
himni,
Awesome news! We fly out on the 29th of Nov. So much to do, so little time!
Looking forward to seeing you all in camp!
-T
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Post by Urmiu82 on Nov 16, 2015 2:22:32 GMT
We recently got our clearance to apply for visas so now the fun begins! Seems that we will be flying out in late December as well! |
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Post by ToesInTheSand on Nov 17, 2015 11:05:21 GMT
Great news! Glad to hear you are almost squared away! I believe we met during orientation... we look forward to seeing you in KSA.
We are going crazy finalizing our shipping inventory list and we really arent bringing much at all... but its still a chore. :shock:
Cheers
-T
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:shock: