Yanbu Flower Festival 2017

Yanbu's annual flower festival has begun and this year they have entered the Guinness Book of Records for the largest carpet of flowers. So, it is imperative to record the event in my blog too. 🙂

The city starts to look pretty with flower beds around most of the road starting Feb and that is a sign that the flower festival is around the corner. Last year we went towards the end of the event and in the evening time - which was not a good idea. So this year, honestly I was not too keen to go because I never liked the idea of watching flowers at the night! But how about the daytime? Yes, this time we went on a Saturday morning and spent exactly an hour on the entire tour.

This post is obviously going to be photo heavy and I have not done justice to the actual beauty the garden had. Nevertheless, my humble attempt to my readers and the rest of the world! 😛 (Actually felt good stating "rest of the world" which in the corporate world would be the under-developed countries! Buhhhaaa! )

(The entrance)

(you will be amazed to know "the message" on the carpet from an aerial view pic)

(There is another spot from where you can have a better view at a fee of 5 riyals. We didn't opt for that because we already wasted 50 riyals on the lousy butterfly park. :-P)

Maybe the kids who have never been exposed to real butterflies would benefit from this park concept but not us. We were just curious to know what they might have - maybe some exotic wild forest butterfly - Nah! just a few pretty garden ones fluttering around the make-believe garden.

I have captured only the flower beds and all things beautiful. Not pictured are the kids' play area, a line of shops that sell plants and pets, and toys. etc. I so wanted to pick the mint, rosemary and basil plants but I know they wouldn't last.

This year there was a whole section on Recycling Garden that showcased items made out of waste.

(A boat with plastic bottles. Palm tree with tyres)

The recycling garden items amazed me and blew my mind! Look at the creativity!!!
Now for the surprise! The message on the flower carpet!

I love the fact that this country is "planning" a "vision" which they want to accomplish by "2030" and some of the works are already in action. To have the message on the flower carpet that entered the world record is the best way to drive home the reality.

With their main goal of saudization, I wonder how much of it is going to affect the ex-pat population of all stature. The country is divided on the concept of Saudization which is focusing on reducing ex-pat dependency - which means expats' job security, newer opportunities or better growth in the same job are all at stake. You can read more about Vision 2030 here.

Let us hope for the best because Change is permanent.

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