Well not an unpleasant Bastille Day. The orientation finished this morning and after lunch we were taken on a city tour and visit to the Heritage Village. Dammam is dated, not old, though there are certainly old areas. The city is dirty rather than sandy. The dust is everywhere and on everything. Thus everything is sand coloured. I bought two pot plants for my apartment just to have some green for my senses.

Back to the tour. About 15 mins through the city to Murjan Island. A place people go for picnics. There is a restored tower near the picnic ground and a causeway out to the island. There is grass and many bright coloured picnic domes around for families. We stopped for a while and took some happy snaps and I climbed the tower for a better view. Not too bad a view but a very dusty day.

From the Fanar Tower on Murjan Island were drove to the Heritage Village. It is essentially a traditional coffee house with a museum on the top two internal balconies. There are lots of exhibits and black & white photos of Dammam's history particularly the asphalt pits and the oil shipping. The exhibits are covered in dust. Not from the general atmosphere, but from the lack of care. It is more like walking through someone's shed, attempting an amateur exhibition.

Down stairs in the main building there is a coffee lounge set out in traditional Saudi style. What's more it is used by the Saudis. It felt like the most Arabian thing I have done since arriving. We sat in a round room on rugs and cushions and were served traditional cardamom coffee and dates. It was really nice and there is no coffee in the coffee. It is brewed cardamom and ?milk of some sort and poured from a metal pot over some distance to cream the coffee. To be honest it looked and tasted more like tea. But it was really nice and surprisingly cooling to sit and drink very hot coffee and eat dates. Our faux pas was we all forgot to remove our shoes. Something to note for next time.