I guess that you are in for a surprise!!!!! But it should be a good one! I would however recommend that you bring a can of anti-freeze fluid with you, you might need it to get close to the Icelandic F/A's! <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
As for the religious police, I would be very surprised if you actually got to meet any! They are keeping a low profile thanks to the Governor of Makkah.
Living costs, the price of food is pretty close to the UK provided that you don’t want imported brand names. Eating out can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it, but the cost of eating in Chillis or TGIF is about the same as the UK. A bottle of scotch will cost you £120 while a Gallon of local moonshine will cost around £25, wine is around £2 per litre and beer is a little cheaper, unfortunately none of this is available off the shelf, but you shouldn’t have any problem finding it.
Cash machines are available in abundance. Entertainment is what you make of it, this is where the can of anti-freeze will come in handy! <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> With a little effort, you can end up with a pretty active social live for the period that you are there.
Rose Village isn’t in Jeddah, its around an hours drive from the city center, I believe that they have a compound shopping bus that will bring you to the city or major malls, for social purposes you can expect to pay around £20 each way by taxi, but this will generally be divided by a number of people.
Things have changed since
Mr Angry from Purley was last there. They should have an Internet cafe in the compound, so emails and communications wont be a problem. Your UK mobile phone will also work provided that you have roaming services on it.
As for the job, I understand that they have 2 dispatch offices in Jeddah, one is located in Rose Village for Hadj flights operated for airlines other than Saudia, and a desk located in the Saudia dispatch area for the flights they operate for them. Air Atlanta usually has a pretty active Hadj program with up to 7 or 8 aircraft and a couple of hundred people all living in Rose Village. I don’t know how many aircraft they are bringing this year as they have competition from Kabo Air with 7x B747’s and Gulf Falcon.
If you are arriving as a normal passenger, be very weary about taking DVD's or magazines with you, if you run in the wrong customs guys you will have them confiscated, the same warning goes for foodstuffs containing pork or alcohol.
I believe that
18 Wheeler is presently in Jeddah as an Air Atlanta F/O, if you put your message in the Oz forum you might be able to contact him.
Finally, leave any discussions about politics or religion for the pub back in the UK.
Enjoy.
Mutt 