Underneath the abaya, there’s a different story!

I often get asked the question what do women in Saudi-Arabia wear under the abaya? Doesn’t it get terribly hot under the abaya? How does it feel to be forced to wear abaya? Isn’t it horrible for western women to have to wear abayas everywhere? What are abaya fabrics made of? Do SaudiRead more

Western Woman in Riyadh? Make The Best Of It!

This is a playful post for all the ladies currently living in Riyadh. It might be a harsh environment and many things irritate us from time to time..Nothing is like back home. But what can we do? Other than getting frustrated and anxious, try to look at it in a positive way and make your life a bitRead more

Bedouin Patients

The hospital I work in gets quite a few bedouins coming in for treatment from all around Saudi. It’s a large tertiary referral hospital, which means many patients were referred there because they could not be treated elsewhere or their cases were so difficult or rare it needed specialRead more

Expat’s Guide to Grocery Shopping in Saudi Arabia

There are surprisingly many differences between the grocery shopping experience in Saudi Arabia vs. in the expats’ home countries. Here are a few tips for newbies in Saudi Arabia- How to grocery shop in KSA! Where to Shop The most popular large grocery stores in Saudi Arabia are Hyper Panda,Read more

King Khaled Exhibition at Riyadh’s National Museum

This week I went to the King Khalid exhibition which is going on this month at the National Museum Riyadh here are some pics I took: The King Khaled exhibition was at the National Museum in its own separate building. They welcomed us very warmly and we were treated like VIP guests. I guessRead more

Camels-Miracles Of The Desert

Camels, the animals designed specifically to survive in the harshest of environments – the desert.Every single detail of the camel has been carefully designed and constructed to perfection. It is one of the few animals specifically mentioned in the Quran: “Have they not looked at theRead more

Saudi culture and visiting the sick

Since my last post showed a rather negative side of saudi culture, this post will display one of the many positive sides to the Saudi way of life. Visiting the patients in hospitals is a very important thing here, it stems from Islam and its teaching to visit the sick. A patient in saudi hospitalRead more

Riyadh To Do Guide

I often hear people complaining or boredom and lack of activities in KSA, especially from the expats who have moved to conservative Riyadh and assume there’s just nothing to do, or that they as women are not allowed to go out and do anything! Which is of course completely untrue. I’mRead more

Why My Abaya Is Blue..

First of all what is an abaya? For those who don’t know, it’s the black “overcoat” or “cloak” some Muslim women choose to wear over their normal clothing when they are in public. Read this post to learn more about abayas: Underneath the Abaya In Saudi ArabiaRead more

Culture Shock!

Everyone who moves to a foreign country or environment will go through culture shock. There are 5 stages of culture shock, each of them with their typical characteristics. Some people go through all phases quite easily, while others have serious problems, or they do not progress at all and hence doRead more

Welcome! Tervetuloa! Ahlan!

Welcome to my blog The Blue Abaya! I’ve been wanting to start a blog for a while and now I finally got myself some time to create it. I’m not the most computer savvy person and it took a while to understand some things. I’m hoping some day the blog would have a nice design butRead more