King Abdulla University Of Science and Technology - KAUST (Monday)

We are safely in Saudi Arabia at Kate and Arj's home in the compound known as KAUST, 50k's north of Jeddah Saudi Arabia, on The Red Sea.  At the Jeddah airport we just mentioned "Kaust" and we seemed to get some imagined special treatment (we hope).

Our departure from Venice was an all day affair.  It took hours to get through Check-in, then Baggage Control and finally Passport Control.  We had several Asian Tour Groups travelling home that day as well who had just disembarked one of the other 3 or 4 Cruise ships in Venice that weekend.  Unlike us Australians, which usually is a quick perusal of the passport and "Next Please", the Asians had to apply for special classes of visas and each one needed to be carefully checked.

Eventually we arrived at our departure gate after several hours and boarded the plane, a Boeing 777 and we got a couple of the emergency exit seats which gave us plenty of leg room but little table space and a smaller entertainment console.  It was a 5 or so hour flight to Dubai, then we had to endure all the messing about of baggage, customs and passports yet again.  We eventually arrived at the Premier Inn at 11:30pm but after adjusting our watches it was closer to 1:30am.  Dubai Airport is super well organised, the Premier Inn was perfect for our needs.

What a difference the Dubai Airport was, little waiting, professional and extremely smooth.  The only hassle was poor wifi and as my data has again dropped out on my phone so it was difficult (but not totally impossible) to keep up with the footy scores back home while waiting for the flight from Dubai to Jeddah.

Dubai was HOT!

Another 3 hour flight on a smaller but roomier aircraft than the Venice-Dubai leg flight saw us arrive in Jeddah around 2pm their time on Monday in plenty of time to wait for Kate and Arj to collect us.  They couldn't get away from school until 2:20pm but Jeddah Airport is usually reportedly slow for arrivals.

It was different alright!  We had our finger prints taken, our photos taken before being allowed through.  We mentioned we were visiting Kaust but that didn't seem to make a lot of difference.

Kate was confident that despite leaving school at 2:20, the one hour drive to the airport would see her arrive well before we had passed through customs etc.  We were 'out' in less than 30 minutes!

We were driven to their home for a sensational welcome from grand kids Charli and James.  It was great and will be a memorable end to our two months away from home.

So today they are all at school while we are at their home (front door view above) chilling out.  "Chilling" isn't probably a good descriptor as it is a hot and humid 36 or so outside with the summer heat still to arrive.  The home is continually air conditioned so this morning both Trish and I are a little nasally.  But that should clear.

Trish is using the washing machine.  We can't do much out and about until we get our 'official' visitors passes which we may be able to get this afternoon.

And we have internet again!  The University is sensationally setup for internet communication all at no cost.  There are a couple of internet points in most rooms, just plug in your lead and you are connected.  At home I get 6700 down speed, here I get 75,000!  It is as good as top of the line NBN connections at home!

Outside there is free wifi across the whole area.  So not have data on the phone isn't an issue.  Inside Arj has his wifi router set up broadcasting the internet across the house.  His home wifi signal is very weak in our bedroom9on the second floor at the opposite end of the house) but there is enough signal for me to connect to the free outside wifi.  It is amazing!

We will take a little walk later on to the Supermarket for a look.  It will be hot getting there though.  Hopefully we can collect our full Visitor Passes this afternoon which will give us access to the pool and stuff all across the Kaust compound area.

It is so much easier doing the blog on the laptop too!

I plan to go back through the posts over the next few days and add some more photos.