Haha word.
Well, anyone who is from the middle-east will tell you, the countries are pretty damn different from one another. I've been to Jordan, the UAE, and obviously Saudi and Bahrain. Jordan (I was in Amman, Petra, and Jorash.) is a pretty easy going country, very very friendly people, and great food from lebanon, greece, and the more traditional arab countries. Here's a pic from when I was in petra, that's where that Indiana Jones movie was filmed, it was beautiful, you go right and it's a valley full of palace fronts carved into cliffs. The sad thing though is the little kids selling rocks to tourists to support their families, there are a lot of them, it's really very sad. The other is from the roman ruins at jorash, no kids selling rocks, easier to take in the beauty.
Where I lived in Saudi (Riyadh), it's pretty oppresive towards women, they have (had maybe, heard a lot of their power was taken) the muttawah which are religious police. If a women's ankles are showing under their Abbayas(Burkas whatever you want to call them their are different names for the different types of full body coverings) these police walk up to her and start caning her ankles. People can be jailed for pretty much anything, christianity and all other religions are outlawed. During Ramadan when Muslims fast (which isn't fasting because they just don't eat from sunrise to sunset, and most people gain 10 lbs(about 4 kilos) in that month from eating so much at the feasts at night and morning) all other people must also, you're not even supposed to drink water. So going out that month during the day sucks. Bomb checks going in and out of everything, mazes of concrete. The days of the week are different. Their weekend is Thursday and Friday(friday being the holy day like christian's sunday) so the week starts on monday. Women can't drive, they have little rights. Most day labor is done by indians, pakistani's and philipinos. Outside of riyadh their are huge cardboard cities where the camels stand taller than the shoddily made homes. No cameras are allowed in Riyadh, what you see in the news is american propaganda, the american embassy posts notice in every compound(walled in city where westerners live complete with armed guards) saying that if you get arrested no matter what the cause, the US will NOT help you. From what I heard, before the war Baghdad was a nice city to visit for the Ex-Pats. the UAE , I was in Dubai, very nice, very cultural, but again very big difference between Poverty and Wealth. That is the main difference. Saudi sucks I can tell you that for sure. But I heard in Jeddah, Saudi arabia women could drive. No clue.
Again, as a guy, I didn't have to many problems, women have the worst time their though. Oh and Every Friday(holy day) in saudi they have public beheadings and they cut people's hands off in this public square where they also hold open air markets.
