Some expats in Saudi Arabia are able to buy black market bottles of alcohol, despite a strict ban
Posted on 10/15/2015 5:36:01 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The issue of drinking alcohol in Saudi Arabia has come sharply into focus once again after a British man was caught with homemade wine.
Karl Andree, 74, was arrested by Saudi religious police and has spent more than a year in prison - it had been reported that he was also facing 360 lashes but it has since emerged that he was going to be spared flogging because of his age and ill-health.
Alcohol is prohibited in Saudi Arabia and the Foreign Office warns Britons not to flout these rules - but how easy is it to get your hands on booze out there, despite this strict ban?
Tony, a 49-year-old Briton, has worked around much of Saudi Arabia as a business consultant, and lived there for almost five years. He is currently out of the country but plans to return.
He says those living on the compounds populated by Westerners have access to mainly homemade wine and beer, as well as "a spirit known as Sidique, which is basically neat distilled alcohol".
"If you are on the compounds you will find that quite a few expats will brew their own - I certainly did.
"Some of the compounds have clubs for brewing and even competitions. The big thing with brewing was never to sell it, as that was normally when the problems happened."
'A blind eye'
He adds that on a visit to the supermarket, an expat can often be seen "loading up his trolley with a couple of cases of fruit juice and a large bag of sugar" - the ingredients for brewing alcohol.
"Booze is a big thing on the compounds - they really are like little holiday camps. There are a
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Some expats in Saudi Arabia are able to buy black market bottles of alcohol, despite a strict ban
I’ll never go to SA but if I did I’d never, ever take even the slightest of chances with drinking. I wouldn’t get near it. Therefore, I won’t go near SA. I still want to see Idaho and Montana.
A friend worked with the decorators for the Royal Saudi family and they drank like fish.
The Saudis drink, they just don’t want YOU to drink.
Much like liberals and guns.
Why would anyone ever go there? It should just be nuked.
I have no sympathy at all.
If, as an Expat, you have to have your booze, go to another country.
If you are a chewing gum addict, don’t move to Singapore.
Etc, etc, etc.
When I was in Saudi Arabia, almost everyone in the ex-pat community was making their own wine. Some beer. There was also the local hooch available, siddiqi (headache in a bottle). In the larger communities in Dhahran, for example, there would be fully stocked bars on some of the larger compounds.
When I was in Saudi Arabia, almost everyone in the ex-pat community was making their own wine. Some beer. There was also the local hooch available, siddiqi (headache in a bottle). In the larger communities in Dhahran, for example, there would be fully stocked bars on some of the larger compounds.
a spirit known as Sidique, which is basically neat distilled alcohol”
I see the Saudis are on the ethanol bandwagon as well!
I felt that way when I first went. But after six months of living in that muzzie paradise, I needed a drink!
MONEY!
The causeway between Dammam and the island of Bahrain is a bit like the crossing points between Canada and the USA during prohibition. Secret drinking in the expat compounds in the Eastern Province is commonplace. I once enjoyed some fine scotch in the home of a Pakistani manager of a construction equipment company, so it’s not just European expats who manage to flout the laws.
I flew into Riyadh on a private jet and muzzies came onboard and taped the tops onto the bottles with clear packing tape. I thought they would come back when we were leaving to check them but, we took off before they could arrive.
At hotels Westerners stay, I was told alcohol was permitted as they would make accommodations for businessmen - not Riyadh but other muslim countries.
Geez, our country is damn near run by pols catering to their power voter blocs, such as homo’s, BLM’s, Latinos, etc.
Do we really need more muslims here?
Havent been back since the late 90s....I traveled thru SA but kept my drinking in Bahrain.
In places where clean purified water is a questionable commodity, such as primitive regions of the globe-throughout history, quenching ones thirst with a distilled product made sense.
The same reason most individuals do unpleasant and risky employment. Money.
For me, I spent 14 months in Yemen in the early 90s. I was well paid for it at the time, relative to my experience. But as I expected, the work experience made the following jobs more accessible and higher paid.
And on this topic, Alcohol was "officially" forbidden in Yemen as well. I drank far more there than I ever did in college or any other time of my life. Alcohol was part of our compensation, paid to us monthly by the contractor.
We even got a gift from a US valve manufacture after millions in purchases. They sent to us in the field a keg of Guinness that had been stenciled "lubricating oil".
I flew into Jeddah in the 90s. A stewardess told me in the past, the local cleaning crew sorted out the empty liquor bottles from the trash, poured the drops left into a single container, and then fined the airline (Air France) a fortune for importing alcohol into the country.
It was the reason when I traveled, the stewardess collected the bottles separately and did not leave them as trash to be removed but kept on the plane to be thrown away in another country.
The convicted guy likely took the extra step and was selling the home brew
Making and drinking is winked at
Making and selling is a different kettle of forbidden fish
I flew from Kuwait to Jordan on the Jordanian Royal Airline and felt a little extra kick to be drinking while flying in Saudi airspace.
Almost as bad as college dorms these days.
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