Kingdom outside KAUST campus
So far I was able to see two biggest cities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Jeddah which is about 80 km away from KAUST and Riyadh where I have spent 5 days visiting headquarter of my company. Riyadh is completely new city, in last 50 years its population grew from 300 k to over 5 millions. Almost all roads and buildings are brand new.

here is second highest building in the city with golden globe near the top. The globe house very expensive restaurant. 

And here globe close by and few pictures from the top.

the most known building in Riyadh is Kingdom Tower, gigantic bottle opener.

 

Tops of the building are connected by the viewing platform.

Both Jeddah and Riyadh are very crowded (gas is so cheep, about 15 cents per liter)  and traffic problem is compounded by crazy drivers. 

 only one way to stop them to go right way on one way street is to keep street packed with cars or to use

And I think that this picture says it all. It is hot there. Picture was done on August 25 and I spent all my late afternoons walking around Riyadh alone. Nobody walking on the street except yours truly.

KAUST laboratories

Believe or not but from time to time I work and I spend some time in laboratories. KAUST labs are design in very modern way. They have here eight building and all of them look identical from outside. Here are four of them. On the right brown building is where I am.

Other four are on left part of the campus. They are three stories high and there is one more level below the ground. Above each floor they have mechanical half height floors which house all utilities. 

Core of each building have open concept offices 

 and behind the glass they have laboratories. About half of the lab space right now is still waiting for occupants. Every new laboratory is getting empty space and lab is prepared for them using standard moveable furniture and all supplies (Water, electricity, gasses) are dropped down from mezzanine above.

Here is some inhabited space waiting to be fitted out.

and here some labs already done

All infrastructure is drop down from mezzanine above. I like exhausts from glowboxes in the left upper corner. All furniture are on wheels and movable. They come from Spain company Flores Valles and they are not inexpensive but very well made. 

My labs in SABIC are a little bit different. We do not have half space between floors but we have also offices separated from labs by glass walls. So no fire separation but do we need it when sprinklers will do the job.  

and here is my mechanical room. 

It is is five time bigger from D'Iorio mechanical room. And we will have about 20 fume hoods in the building.

And finally there is really beautiful place here, KAUST library. Just see yourself

Another underwater movie

This time we dove with big group. All together 18 people went down in one group. A little bit to many but at least underwater visibility was great, way over 30 m and I have seen nice malabar grouper 

and lots of angel fish. 

To see video please go to Youtube, somehow blog does not accept my file. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vJjfu9eSoE

SCUBA dive on July 12.

This time I experimented with filming under water and here is the result. Of course colors are not what I expected. I guess I will have to invest in red filter for my wonderful GoPro camera

I hope that you were able to see the whole movie. I will work on better one next weekend. I already booked dive for next two weeks.
You can also see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRIe1Ig3KoM. I hope that this version will have better quality.

 

First Diving

Finally I was able to book diving. As all other activities in KAUST they are very well organized but it take time to book it and diving is one of the most popular and it is very often sold out.
Here are some pictures

Boat crew is waiting for divers.

on the way to the reef

do not forget that clicking on a picture can enlarge it to bigger size.

What to do during weekends

If you brave enough to expose yourself to temperatures of over 40 degree you can have many choices to spend your days outside. This weekend I tried golf course and I am surprised how good it is, 

.

Practice green was the most occupied part of the golf course. On actual 9 holes I was alone.

 

 Par 3, 168 yards.

For people who do not want play golf when is over 40 degrees, they play in night when is only 35. Course have artificial lighting, 

or you can stay in club house in comfortable 23 degree or spend some time in water. Do not forget that campus is on the shores of Red See.

Beach is not as empty as other parts of the campus. Today I counted about 15 adults and about 15 kids. But because the beach is so big it looks empty too.

Next weekend I will be diving on coral reefs. Can't wait.

More about KAUST campus

And here few more pictures from the University campus.

this time I started from my workplace. Shades are added to have nice patio in front of the building and protect laboratory windows from the sun. Here are other solutions to protect buildings from the sun 

 

Almost all parking lots are covered to protect cars from very hot sun.