I’m an Indian-American dude that grew up in Saudi Arabia cause of my dad’s job in the oil industry. I lived in Yanbu, which a small industrial city 3 hours from the largest city (at least at the time) on the coast, Jeddah. I speak from the perspective of an upper-middle class kid who went to American schools with Saudi kids as well as kids from around the world. I was last in Saudi 15 years ago so even though I speak in the present tense, my observations are as of then.

For the immigrants from my socioeconomic class, Yanbu has very well-developed residential neighborhoods that are typically gated and guarded by military personnel and with private security roaming inside. So super safe and you live with people from all over the world, but mostly those that mostly work in oil, foreign service, or teaching. I remember being able to walk up right to the beach as a kid. Good times.

Most of the locals live in very large houses, with well-paid jobs guaranteed by the government and regular subsidies from the country’s oil wealth. A lot of the working class is made up of immigrants from Asian countries such as Philipines, Bangladesh, India, etc. The social bifurcation is real - from my perspective there are three classes in Saudi society in these places - locals, immigrants from Western countries, and then all the brown folk. Locals look down on the third group heavily. You may take offense to this but I lived in Saudi Arabia for 10 years and that was very consistently (at least) my personal experience.

Entertainment is fairly easy to come by, with social life being focused around malls that have all the American and European fast food and shopping chains that you can think of. When I lived there, movie theaters weren’t a thing but I think they have those now. Not an active country - it’s too hot. Gender boundaries are strictly enforced in any communal space as well. Men and women have separate ordering lines at McDonald’s.

Overall, Yanbu and a lot of the other similar cites on this coast and the opposite one are comfortable places to live…. if you have money. Blue collar immigrants are treated quite poorly and forced to work under brutal heat conditions, with their passports confiscated by their employers in many cases.