Photos from the Middle East parks

I'm a coasterfan who happens to be half American and half Saudi. and this summer i'm back in my 'other' home in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

so i gotta a couple of parks i thought of heading up to and taking some pics to help add to rcdb's website.

tonight i'm heading out to Saudi Amusement Centers, otherwise best known as King Fahd Park. however last night i hit up another park.

on RCDB its listed as "Castle Park"

its actually named "Prince Mohammed bin Fahd Amusement Park"

bin meaning "son of" and Fahd being a-duh the late King.

There are two coasters at the park, a Zyklon/Galaxi named Typhoon, and a kiddie coaster named Dracor, that's it for "Prince Mohammed bin Fahd Amusement Park". Also to boot, there is no Dhahran province, its still part of the Ash Sharqiyah province. the city just happens to be Dhahran.

Planning on hitting up the big park here "Saudi Amusement Centers" otherwise known as here on the ground as "King Fahd Park" hopefully tonight. parks don't usually open in the early day it is way too hot and nobody comes out till right after asr prayer (which is when the heat begin to let up).

planning on also hitting up a bunch of smaller parks and snagging pics to help out the coaster sites.

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Edit:

Can someone tell me how to contact the guy who puts up the photos at rcdb.com ? i e-mailed the feedback link and got no response in perhaps the last two days.

just wondering thanks.

more photos coming soon.

maha salama for now.

the real name of the park.

close to the track pic of Dracor.

the turn around on the Dracor kiddie coaster.

Dragon trains

Dracor Kiddie coaster station

Typhoon turn around

Typhoon station from a neat angle.

more of Typhoon

Typhoon sign at the top of the ride in Arabic and in English

Typhoon sign on the station

That is the email address i have used. Maybe he is on vacation or something , i would just give him some time.

Feel free to upload your photos here! You simply have to resize them 800x600, edit your post, and then choose the file to be uploaded! Then we can add them to the park index page on here.

May I suggest buying a tripod? Or learning how to focus. Most of your photos have motion blur or are out of focus.

That said, this is pretty cool. And the name "Prince Mohammad bin Fahd Amusement Park" is fantastic. We should name our parks after leaders.

I can't wait to see the other parks. Are they all like little carnivals? That's the vibe I got from these photos.

you can. but in the Saudi parks its a rule of no pictures while in the park. somethin' about taking pictures in public around women, children, and government. I understand the government but the family part annoys me. Its just some of th fundies tryin' to get their way and as no one listen to their laws, if pushed the gov' will. (the fundies btw are indeed slowly losing their power in the country, but it will probably never will be the ultra secularist/Athiest happyland some would love to imagine)

anyways, i'm trying to get the best pic possible without drawing too much attention to myself.

i'll definitely try and hit up as many parks as possible.

most parks from my generation look just like that, really just carny stuff. i didn't get to the Dammam Amusement Center as other plans came up. that park has and i've seen actual television commercials, of what looks like a PAX Cobra coaster.

the other one on rcdb is listed as unknown but i'll definitey check it out.

Guardian21 your attempts are greatly appreciated!!

Yes, I have heard from others as well, that they REALLY "FROWN" on taking pictures in the parks in that part of the world, for the reasons he cited. Taking pictures of women and/or children is a BIG no-no! Even if you are only trying to get pics of the coaster, some woman or child may wander into the frame, and (in their eyes) it would still be your fault.

As far as RCDB goes, give Duane some time. He will get back to you, and he would definitely be interested in pics of coasters that aren't already on the site.

Good luck in your future picture taking attempts.

JJ

I got a couple of more photos to share with you all, hopefully later tonight i'll update it.

i got pictures of Crazy Twister kid coaster at the new Saffori Land in Al-Hasa, which is a spinning coaster (but the seaters face outside).

and i got some photos from a really nice water park (small but damn it was it nice and everything was like being in a hot Texas summer with Saudi babe's in their bikinis (i was extra careful but i did manage to obtain 3 photos) and my God it explains why they cover up the way they do .

so i'll upload those soon.

That's really interesting that your not aloud to take pics while in the parks over there. Thanks for showing us this very unique park.

I knew that saudi women where allowed to wear what they wanted in there house as long as it was out of public eye, and if it was an all women get together , but i didnt know they where allowed to wear bikini's at a water park. I saw a show recently that a saudi women was swimming/scuba diving and she still had on alot of clothing. Interesting.

well i got pictures of Saudi Arabia's (probably - cause i've looked and asked) biggest amusement park.

i did look for the second 'unknown' coaster like rcdb has it listen and didn't find it, i asked the foreign workers if they knew and they didn't know, no doubt - could care less. but as far as i saw and i did indeed look there is NO second coaster at the park.

couldn't get a ride on Cobra as it was broken with one guy messin' with the over the shoulder restraints, and i probably don't intend on comin' back. unless i'm bored out of my gord.

Also the park is indeed located in the city of Dammam, in Ash Sharqiya Province (Eastern Province). but the company the OWNS it is called "Saudi Amusement Centers" the parks name is King Fahad Park.

personally i'm used to naming the King, King Fahd but whatever.

hope you guys like it, this is Saudi's biggest coaster (aside from the boomerang called Kraken on the other side of the country). its a Pax Cobra but it has two loops.

photos taken 8/09/08

Park's entrance, its fuzzy - i know i was in the car when i took it. it is King Fahad Park.

so the name isn't Saudi Amusement Centers

Cobra's station, notice front half of the train is looking backwards and the back half is looking forward.

Another shot of the odd lift hill with the King Cobra station in the center for decoration.

a picture down the way through the station over the hill into to two loops only to do it all over again backward.

awkward lift hill, with the Cobra head that is fully lit up at night.

Men's entrance had the most interesting entrance.

Two loops in the evening sky

Cobra in Arabic. very neat i thought.

also wanted to put up photos i got done resizing of Sunset Beach, a really nice little waterpark, where the strict Saudi rules don't seem to apply.

the general public don't really know about it, and hte price to enter is fairly high for the average person (almost a 100 riyals, which is about 25 bucks). that sounds cheap in America but in Saudi - on an average Saudi budget that is high.

the rules for the women clothing was pretty clear, no abaya's or the head to toe dresses. you can wear a one piece or a two piece clothing of your choice, but nothing heavy for safety reasons.

the park was not big, the best of the water slides was a bowl, and i love bowl slides.

there was one indoor water slide in the fake mountain and another just below it that rode on top of the fake mountain made more for the kids. in any case, with the Western women and Saudi women in their bakini's i gotta admit it was a reprieve ( ) from the 'still' conservative dress wear that exists in Saudi.

I took no pictures of the women, i dare not to cause a stir with the public, everybody minds their own business here.

everything is a bit expensive but everything was top notch treatment.

I am definitely going to it again this Friday, so i might snag a few more pictures.

pictures taken 8/08/08

kids play area, but even the teens just hung around it. the bucket came down a lot more often then it would at regular waterparks. water full in it by the way. Also in the little fake mountain on the left side there were two slides in it.

no name for it, but i love these things, and this was no different.

Picture i took from the entrance of the park

Wow! That pax coaster looks weird and fun! The layout looks like somehting Iw ould build in rollercoaster tycoon! Too bad it was closed.

So strange to think that Saudi Arabia is approximately a 4 hour drive from where I live and yet I can't go there O_o

So many good coasters within driving distance that can't be accessed because of the stupid Middle east thing. A reason for peace if ever there was one, don't you think?