I'm shocked.

This is one of those things I never would have imagined happening along with movie theaters, women drivers, women's faces uncovered, rock concerts, McDonalds, Coke and Ford.

They also said they're going to allow alcohol at the beach when they finish building Neom.

Right now it looks like you have to be a diplomat in Riyadh to shop at the liquor store.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/25/saudi-arabia-to-allow-first-alcohol-sales-in-72-years-dividing-opinion

New generation of ME leaders that were educated in the west. Need all the old guys to die off.

Not sure this surprises me. MBS has been on a "glasnost" and revenue diversification kick for several years now.

Makes some more sense that the shop will be open only to non-Muslim diplomats but it's nice to see the first step to becoming normal.

People with money just go to Bahrain to party anyway.

CDUB98 said:

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People with money just go to Bahrain to party anyway.

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Kind of too far to drunk drive all the way back to Riyadh.
I've heard that most of the drunk drivers don't even make it all the way back across the causeway anyway.

Also, can we get a health check on TxTarpon?
I haven't seen him post in several months.

He took the bait apparently

In the 1980s when I worked at an engineering company in Houston, one of the employees of the company who spent most of his time in Saudi Arabia said that it was simple to smuggle alcohol into the country.

According to him, you put the alcohol in a paper sack and keep it separate from your luggage. When you go through customs, you set it down and hand the customs officials your luggage to search. According to him, they knew very well that there was alcohol in the paper bag but would never ask for it.

I never knew whether to believe him or not. Either way, I would not have chanced it.

Funny

You can purchase items from the store, take them home, and get stoned

Or you can just stand out front and get stoned.

I can't say about trying to smuggle alcohol in because the liquor my dad had was stuff he bought from a Lebanese guy who operated in that Black Market space. My dad did a ton of homebrew though.

As far as luggage inspection, in the 1970s - 1980s, they absolutely inspected every bag and took everything out of it. So if you had luggage that was tightly packed, good luck getting it back together.

all the wealthy saudi nationals vacation in places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi. Doha, etc. where alcohol and hookers are available at the hotel/resorts (for non-muslim foreigners ...riiiight) so they can drink and have secs and they see the success in business and foreign investment places like UAE and Qatar are having from it.


those saudis are like southern baptists at a bar when they think no other baptists they know are looking.


...and saudi opening up like this could hurt their neighbors' business sort of like what would happen to Louisiana if Texas legalizes gambling.

I know a guy who was stationed in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. He told a great story. After the war was over, the local mayor or bigwig from the nearby Saudi town wanted to have all the US soldiers over for a celebration dinner - a thank you for keeping Saddam out of Saudi kind of thing.
So after all the soldiers showed up to the bigwig's house, he opened a closet to show pretty much every kind of liquor bottle you'd ever find in a well-stocked bar. He told the soldiers to enjoy whatever they wanted.
Well the commanding officer didn't want anybody getting out of hand - so he declined on behalf of everybody there. Can you imagine how upset all those soldiers must've been not to be able to enjoy the liquor!

I wonder if Muslims act like Baptists in the liquor store. They don't recognize one another.

Actually offensive to their host too. Because if they offer, you're supposed to accept.

HollywoodBQ said:

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Actually offensive to their host too. Because if they offer, you're supposed to accept.

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Good point. I guess that wasn't taught in officer's school

Next thing you know the Baptists will allow dancing! What's this world coming to?

Heard story that somehow Westerners in the Middle East would get charcoal from used Jack Daniels barrels and put them in Coca-Cola... wa-la Jack and Coke-sorta.

chico said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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Actually offensive to their host too. Because if they offer, you're supposed to accept.

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Good point. I guess that wasn't taught in officer's school

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It certainly wasn't being taught in the early 1990s when I went through.

Our cultural ignorance of the locations where we operate is pretty bad. That includes domestic operations too.

Anyone who's ever been on an international flight out of Riyadh knows exactly what happens when you reach international air space...

CDUB98 said:

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People with money just go to Bahrain to party anyway.

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The most dangerous place in the KSA was the Saudi side of the Bahrain causeway on Friday night as the Saudi came back to country still sauced but having to be back to work on Saturday.

zephyr88 said:

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Anyone who's ever been on an international flight out of Riyadh knows exactly what happens when you reach international air space...

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Unless you are on Saudia.

EKUAg said:

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zephyr88 said:

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Anyone who's ever been on an international flight out of Riyadh knows exactly what happens when you reach international air space...

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Unless you are on Saudia.

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That's the only one (and it's the JetBlue of the Middle East).

I mostly flew SwissAir or KLM and it was rocking about 2 hours after liftoff. No dish-dash, no burkas. Just non-stop Dom and Louis Vuitton.

HollywoodBQ said:

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I'm shocked.

This is one of those things I never would have imagined happening along with movie theaters, women drivers, women's faces uncovered, rock concerts, McDonalds, Coke and Ford.

They also said they're going to allow alcohol at the beach when they finish building Neom.

Right now it looks like you have to be a diplomat in Riyadh to shop at the liquor store.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/25/saudi-arabia-to-allow-first-alcohol-sales-in-72-years-dividing-opinion

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Liquor has been "smuggled" into SA by diplomats in Diplomatic Pouches for a very long time.

While being "deployed" to SA in the early 1990's after Shield/Storm, I was able to go to Bahrain for a little R and R. Bahrain is a more liberal Islamic country where alcohol is served and there is a bridge with seven checkpoints that connects SA to Bahrain.

Besides checking your papers, the number one priority of these checkpoints is to arrest drunk SA citizens traveling back from Bahrain.

While at one checkpoint, I saw three drunk SAs being hauled off by the guards.

Is it legal to bring yeast into the country and let nature take its course?

Burdizzo said:

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Is it legal to bring yeast into the country and let nature take its course?

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You can purchase locally everything you need to homebrew.

One of the smart merchants in our town figured out that all these Expats were purchasing certain items so he put together a "kit" that he could sell as a bundle.

I don't think he sold any because everybody was too afraid to buy it because they figured they were being watched by the Religious Police.

I'm reminded of the story that Russia is Christian because a thousand years ago, their prince evaluated the major world religions, and rejected Islam because Russians would never give up alcohol.

Burdizzo said:

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I wonder if Muslims act like Baptists in the liquor store. They don't recognize one another.

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Why should you always bring two Baptists on your fishing trip?

Because if you just bring one, he'll drink all your beer.