Hi Everyone, Would like to share with you about Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is quite a nice place. Social groups : Sentamilnalamandram Jeddah, shortly called as SNM Jeddah Tamil Sangam, shortly called as JTS Namnadu (Ladies group) Schools for CBSE Syllabus: There are many schools that provide CBSE syllabus. Below are the most common ones. DPS Jeddah(AL FALAH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL), IISJ( INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL JEDDAH). Schools for IGCSE Syllabus: There are many schools that provide IGCSE syllabus also. Below are few good ones. Al Waha International Al Wadi Manarat Classes for Kids : Bharatanatiyam Dance class (Opp. to DPS school), Drawing Class (Opp. to playground, near IISJ girls section), Karate Class, Kids Toastmasters Legacy - Speech club for secondary students (conducted in Indian Consulate) Restrictions : Ladies must wear Abaya (Pardha or black robe) when going out. Girls under 12 years need not wear abaya. Main Areas : The main areas that I know are Sharafeyyah and Azizeyyah. However, there is a water problem in Azizeyyah. Water is available for domestic use once a day in Azizeyyah. Grocery Shops : There are Kerala shops such as Regal stores, Mumtaz Stores etc., to buy Indian groceries and also vegetables. Malls : There are plenty of Malls to shop in Jeddah. Below are some of the malls that I have been to. Outfits (especially for girls) are damn good and less expensive in Jeddah. Collections and choices are plenty (something similar to Indonesia). Al Andulus Mall( recommended) (Chennai Darbar in Food Court coming soon) Red Sea Mall Al Sulaimaniyah Plaza (Carefourr) Al Salaam Mall(Danube, a very good store):thumbsup Jarir (For Books, Stationery and Electronics) CentrePoint Citymax Some other Malls that I have heard of are, Mall of Arabia( Recommended) Coral Mall Aziz Mall Flamingo Mall Food Centres: Al Baik (Similar to Burger King) Burger King Mcdonalds KFC Hardees Pizza Hut Bukhari taste restaurants Indian Food : There are many food centres for Indian food, below are some which I have tried. 1. Chennai Darbar (in 2 places, one in Sharafeyyah and another one is in Al-Safa) 2. Royal Plaza 3. Star Restaurant (Azizeyyah) Prayer Times : In Jeddah, majority of the people are Muslims. The shops in all the places will be closed during prayer times (5 times a day). Do not hesitate to click this link to know the accurate prayer times in Jeddah. I recommend that you check the prayer times before going out or you'll have to wait until the store opens. http://www.islamicfinder.org/prayerDetail.phpcountry=saudi_arabia&city=Jeddah Languages : Main Languages spoken are Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Malayalam. Transport : It is better to have a car. Cars are driven rashly around here. Be extremely careful. Here, it is right hand driving. For transport, there are no trains or buses (few buses run for men to travel, but very uncommon), taxis are available (normally it costs 10 riyals for short distance and 15-20 riyals for most of the places that are far). Week-end : Just recently, week-end has been changed to Friday and Saturday. Earlier it was on Thursday and Friday. Cost of Living : Cost of Living is cheaper compared to other countries. It costs approx around 2000 riyals (Food(SR1500), Electricity(SR50), Gas(SR20), Internet (SR200) for a middle class family of four. This cost does not include Rent, Water, Education, Transport, and Entertainment.
hi thanks for sharing these info. this thread seems to be old. but if you can give reply to my queries, i would be grateful. i will be shifting to jeddah in a month with DH and 3 daughters. please help me to find out a good icse school there. Also kindly suggest some safe and good locations in jeddah where i can reside with my family. one more doubt . do schools in saudi allow girls to participate in extra curricular activities, sports etc? please reply..
Hi Shabd, There are IGCSE schools available, am not sure about icse schools. Alwaha, Alwadi, Manarat are some of good IGCSE schools that I know. IISJ, DPS are CBSE schools. There are few areas like sharafiyah (Indian area), aziziyah (Mainly pakistani area but many Indians also reside there), these two areas got Indian shops. I am staying near King Abdul aziz University, this area is safe and there is no water problem. Aziziya got water problem in some of the buildings. So, please check before renting out. Extra curricular activities is very less in schools. They have co-curricular activity such as Just a Minute speech, Word power, Math O quiz, Exhibition, Bake sale, Novel globe (character portrayal), Story telling competition, Essay writing competition, Poetry writing competition, language fiesta etc., Looks like some years they have sports day. These are the co-curricular activities in alwaha school. Hope this helps.
