diving in Saudi Arabia

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

SteveFass

Contributor
Messages
415
Reaction score
1
Location
New York City
# of dives
50 - 99
I just saw this on CNN.com. It says Saudi Arabia is interested in developing tourism and diving tourism. The tourists, especially the lady tourists, just have to obey a few rules, like wearing the black robe (is that called a burkha?).

Come on down and party on our beaches. But no alcohol and no tanning allowed.

When the official being interviewed was asked how a woman is supposed to dive in a robe, he said exceptions can be made. Somehow I wouldn't want to risk getting caught in a legal dispute regarding my dive suit there.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/07/05/saudi.travel.ap/index.html
 
The article failed to metion what there is of interest to divers off the coast of Saudi Arabia.

Also, any country that uses the death penality as liberally as they do would make me nervous. I think I'll pass.
 
The proposal to increase tourism is a bit hard to believe. In any case, I once snorkled in the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba (on the Saudi side) -- the beach was a little trashy, but the water was beautiful. Lots of coral and crystal clear. Here's an article that mentions diving: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Aqaba
 
I could edit that thing right now and change the entire way it reads. Look at the first entry, then look at the final. In the beginning there was no talk of rich this or that, now there is.

I wonder what the truth of the matter is? IMO any entry in Wikipedia is suspect because anybody can edit it. What would it read like if somebody edited it who's never been there and only read of it in blogs, what if the Arab tourism committee wrote it? See, we don't know who writes those things or even why.
 
Well, I've been to the area, but not to the city of Aqaba specifically. Aqaba is in Jordan. When I was in the area I was told Aquaba attracts a lot of local tourism. I also heard people talking about how good the Red Sea is for diving, and my snorkling experience seemed to back that up. Here's a link on the city: http://www.atlastours.net/jordan/aqaba.html
 
I'm not sure of the actual regulations regarding women travellers in Saudi Arabia. However many Arab countries tend enact different standards for Muslims versus non-muslim visitors. For instance, from what I understand, alcohol is legal for non-muslims in the UAE but illegal for muslims.

How this sort of thinking will play out in Saudi Arabia seems uncertain. Even my former Muslim boss was aprehensive about travelling there with his Muslim wife.

I would think the best thing to do here is see how the diving industry plays out before taking a wife or daughter to dive here. Besides, there are always live-aboards or Egypt for Red Sea diving.
 
I would definitely NOT go to Saudi Arabia as a tourist. Taking a wife or daughter would be a disaster. At best it would be very very boring, and at worst you might inadvertently do something that would get you in trouble. I'd say Red Sea diving is a good idea, but not from Saudi Arabia.
 
I wouldn't think of going there for various reasons, but especially because of how they would expect my wife to "behave" and how they would treat her.

The best we could hope for is that we would be able to break a few of their rules? Yeah right, and how's this different from South Africa during apartheid? There's plenty of fine diving elsewhere.
 

Back
Top Bottom