Getting ready to Join Khurais... Lot of Questions remains

I have a friend who works in Khurais while his family lives in Dhahran. He does the weekly commute via the provided 737 by Aramco. Aramco has daily flights (I think) to Khurais from Dhahran and he leaves the house early (5AM) on Saay morning and comes back at 3PM on Wednesday and arrives in Dhahran by 5:30PM.

If your housing is at UDH, it would probably not be very practical for you to fly back on a weekday after work, then catch the 6am flight back to Khurais. then the drive from the airport to your home, then the drive from you home back to the airport at 5AM to catch the plane by 6AM...sounds like a lot of travel to me just to spend the night at home. Not sure if they have wireless internet in Khurais. You'll have skype if bring your own computer and it has skype on it. Never heard of 'gtalk'. Not sure what their internet facilities are. You'd most likely have high speed internet at work, so e-mail would not be a problem. You can also buy a saudi mobile to talk to your family if they're staying at UDH.

It's my impression that most departments don't really want you breaking your leave up like that into 3/4 trips, but then again, if you're here as a Bachelor and you're family is not In Kingdom (IK) sometimes they're more flexible. If your family is IK, they most likely would frown on you taking 3/4 vacations, but organizations are different. Some may have no problem with this at all. My department has a policy that all 11+ employees must take 31 vacation (we call them 'L' days) at one time for their annual vacation. That would leave you with 8 L days remaining for the rest of the year. But my department is not like all other departments. They can basically set their own rules based on management prerogative...

They rarely put 11+ employees in rooms together so you'd likely have your own room.

If your wife will not arrive to reside within 3 months you will be bachelor status. This will allow you more trips home. You can change to family status when your wife is ready to come reside in KSA.

It does depend on your supervisor's approval, a friend of ours went home every 2 to 3 months as a bachelor for 7 to 10 days. You just have to ask and work it out with your supervisor/manager.

Thanks for the replies...

I hope i can make to my home 3-4 times a year, by utilizing the long leave during the EID holidays.

I know it's a little late, but I work in Khurais engineering dept. and live in UDH for the last 2 years. For the regular workers (not on shift), there's an Aramco flight every Saay morning from Al Hasa airport to Khurais, and another one on Wednesday at noon from Khurais back to Al Hasa. There is no daily flight as someone else mentioned on here, the other flights are available for the shift workers and are not convenient for us. It's not feasible to travel back to UDH during the week because we work 12 hour days.

If there is sand storms, the flight will be cancelled and we'll take a bus. From Al Hasa airport, there is a bus that takes us to UDH. Usually there's only 2 or 3 guys on the bus. Personally, Ive been driving for the past few months for convenience, its an easy 1.5 hr drive.

I don't know what these other guys are speaking of regarding the vacation. You can take your vacation however you like as long as its approved by the supervisor. In order to get the repat allowance, you have to ask the timekeeper to process your leave request as "repatriation" and it must be at least 14 consecutive days. I take 2 vacations per year in addition to the eid holidays. The one in December is my repat. Khurais is very laid back since its a remote area.

We work 6am to 6pm and get paid for OT, unlike those not in remote areas. We also have special location allowance. We live in a nice residential facility with a gym, tennis court, pool, game room, free dining hall, etc. We have high speed internet as well for 150 SAR/month. UDH has ADSL internet.

UDH is a nice place for families, my wife and kids love it there. But don't let these folks from Dhahran tell you that all Aramco camps are created equal! UDH is much smaller than DHA, and has fewer amenities and activities due to its small nature. But it has a nice small town feel that is good for the kids.

Sorry its so late, I dont check on here often, and my username password wasn't even working anymore so I had to create a new one just to reply! Send me your email address and any extra questions if you want the inside picture of this place.