infos important ...

TRADUCTION EN COURS

Visa:
You need a visa for entering Saudi Arabia. You need to obtain your visa prior to departure. We will request the visa at the MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in Jeddah on your behalf. Once the authorisation has been given by the MOFA, a visa authorisation number will be sent to the Saudi Arabian Embassy in your country of residence. All you need to do now is present yourself at the Saudi embassy with your passport, the visa form we will mail you and 2 ID photos.
Your passport should have 2 opposite blanc pages left and no Israeli stamps should be in your passport.

Clothing for men:
You will fly into Jeddah with Saudi Arabian Airlines. You are not to wear shorts or sleaveless T-shirts on Saudi flights. You need to present yourself at the airport in long trousers. A T-shirt is fine. When on board you can be in swimming trunks without a problem, except when leaving or entering the port, then you need to wear a t-shirt. When walking in Jeddah you should wear decent clothing. Shorts below the knee are ok, T-shirts are ok... (no sleeveless basketball-type t-shirts!) Men are not to adress women they don't know and kissing your wife or girlfriend in public is not appreciated.

Clothing for women:
While it is no problem for western women to walk around in Jeddah they need to follow some strict rules. When visiting the old soukh in Jeddah, our dive center will provide you with an Abaya (long black dress in light fabric) which you need to wear at all times when you're out of your hotelroom. Many women buy one at the soukh the first hours they are in Jeddah, it's a nice souvenir that you can take back again on another visit to the country (we do get many repeating customers) You can walk around in Jeddah without an Abaya, but you will attract attention you might not like. If you do not want to wear an Abaya, at least have a shawl at hand to cover your hair if need would be.
Women are not to wear skirts, sleeveless t-shirts or blouses and no cleavage can be seen. The more naked flesh you can hide, the better it is.
The crew is Philippino, there is no Saudi on board, which means you can be in bathing suit or bikini on board without a problem.

Sharia law:
You will be visiting a country with Islamic Law. If you follow the rules you will see that Saudi Arabia is a nice country, people are very friendly and helpfull. No alcohol is allowed in the country. You cannot bring alcohol in the country, it is strictly prohibited. If you do, it will be confiscated and we will be officially reprimanded and will most likely have to stop our activities in the Kingdom. There is no alcohol on board. You are not to bring porc meat into the Kingdom. Please take care of what's on the cover of the magazines you're bringing into the country, no erotic material of any kind is tolerated. If you bring drugs into the country you will face capital punishment.

Diving:
All tanks are 12 liter aluminium with yoke fitting. If you have a DIN regulator, you will need to bring a DIN > yoke adaptor. You can buy this at your local dive shop. Please bring an empty weight belt. You will also need a surface delay buoy. There will be 3 dives per day and 2 nightdives per week. If conditions allow it and the captain agrees, then more night dives can be done.

Electric power:
220V/60Hz, standard european plugs.

The routing of your liveaboard:
It is at all times the Captain's decision what route is followed and which dive sites will be dived on. You can of course make suggestions. You need also understand that there are only 3 liveaboard boats in the whole of Saudi Arabia and that the liveaboards have an expedition character. If an engine malfunction or other malfunction occurs, everything will be done to solve the problem, but we cannot be held respoinsible. Malfunctions can happen even when taking all the necessary precautions.