LOUNGING by the pool with his wife and two kids, Adam Fedoriow has no regrets about swapping his old life for a new one in the sun.
His two-bed apartment, complete with an outdoor pool, table tennis, nursery and private cinema, cost the same as his “shoebox” in London – and he’s earning THREE times his old salary as a gym consultant.
Adam Fedorciow, right, and Todd Price, left, both left the UK and now live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia[/caption]
Adam Fedorciow showing off by a rooftop pool in Riyadh[/caption]
Todd Price lives in Saudi with his wife Constanza[/caption]
Price says he loves Riyadh due to the people being lovely and the city always feeling safe[/caption]
But Adam hasn’t moved to a popular ex-pat destination like Spain or Greece – instead, he’s gone somewhere much more controversial.
Originally from Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, the 34-year-old packed his bags for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2019.
Despite accusations of human rights atrocities, he claims Saudi Arabia is a far safer place to raise his two kids, aged four and two, than London – and he has no plans to return home.
“Everyone has been great here and it’s super safe – the opposite of what everyone was saying,” he says. “It is just another level of safety – it’s a lot more relaxed.”
And because there is no tax on personal income in Saudi, Adam can earn considerably more than he was in Britain.
Adam first went off the beaten track in 2016, when – much to the concern of his family and friends – he decided to go to Iran on holiday.
“Everyone else was like, “Adam, you’re crazy. What are you doing? It’s so dangerous out there, you’ll be kidnapped!’
“I said: ‘I want to go and see it for myself and have a look.’”
His experiences in Iran and Kazakhstan, which he visited 2015 and 2016, were so positive that in 2019, he began considering a move to Saudi Arabia.
He said: “I got approached, through a mutual friend, a mentor of mine at the time.
“He called me saying look, there’s a friend of mine who’s setting something up in Saudi Arabia – the Kingdom’s first mixed-gender social fitness and wellness lifestyle club.
“He said we’re building this big facility, first of its kind, mixed-gender, do you want to come and help set it up with me?
“I went out a week later and had a good view of it all then went out a couple of months later, full time.”
Fed up of life in London, Saudi – and the Middle East in general – gave Adam more opportunities, particularly in business.
“My wife Charlotte wasn’t keen. We were thinking about kids… and she didn’t want to raise kids in Saudi.
“She and my family – and everyone else! – told me it was very dangerous, it wasn’t safe.
“But it was more about the opportunity at the time, that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that it may never come around again.
“Opportunity was the main attractor for us.”
Adam pictured in his job at a PT[/caption]
Adam (far right) Todd (second from left) and their pals[/caption]
The duo run a successful business in Saudi[/caption]
And the hold numerous events while living the high life[/caption]
Todd and Adam are keen to stay in Saudi[/caption]
Undeterred, Adam flew over in May 2019 – the year the pair got married – where he set up his own business.
Six months later, Charlotte, who he met in 2007, joined him – and was soon won over.
He said: “My wife came over later and we were here for around a year before we decided to have kids here.
“We said look, let’s raise them here. It’s a good spot and work was going well. We are doing things here, we’re growing, we’re building.”
Adam now pays around £23,000 per year for a two-bedroom flat – which he says it around the same as he was paying in London for a one-bed.
“It’s safer than the UK,” he says.
“You’re not worrying about all the petty crimes like pickpocketing or robberies when you’re walking down the street.
“As parents, that helps. As a father, a protector, if I’m at work and they’re going to the mall, these things aren’t going to happen, so it’s just that little bit less stressful.
“Life’s stressful enough as it is when you have your wife and kids, so if you can feel a bit safer, then why not?”
Their eldest now attends a bilingual school alongside the children of other international families.
As well as working at Resilience Wellness Community, Adam hosts the Saudi Fitness Talk Show alongside his friend and fellow ex-pat Todd Price, 29, who moved to Riyadh from Bournemouth in 2022 following a year in Dubai.
He says: “I was doing my masters when I got a job offer in Dubai.
“Things were going well there, but Saudi seemed like there was more opportunity.
“Dubai is quite saturated. There are lots of expats, so it’s less of an adventure. You go there and it’s very normal – you don’t really miss too much from home.
“Some people love Dubai for the weather, the social life, the salaries, which is all good, but I don’t think it scratched that itch of being somewhere totally different.”
It is estimated up to 300,000 Brits visit Saudi Arabia yearly – and there are around 30,000 UK expats living in the kingdom.
And Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been the driving force behind a massive campaign to open up the country and attract Westerners.
From luring in top sports stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and relaxing some of the nation’s traditional laws, Riyadh launched Saudi Vision 2030 back in 2016 – a £3trillion scheme to modernise the nation.
Mega projects planned including ambitions of the world’s tallest skyscraper, an enormous new high tech city, and 15 new stadiums ahead of the 2034 World Cup.
Mega projects planned including ambitions of the world’s tallest skyscraper, an enormous new high tech city, and 15 new stadiums ahead of the 2034 World Cup.
Saudi Arabia has been working to modernise and open up[/caption]
The coastline of the city of Jeddah[/caption]
Riyadh – where Todd lives with his wife Constanza, 27, and works with Adam – did just that, to the extent that Todd admits to feeling like a “fish out of water” sometimes.
“The first taxi I got into here, the Saudi driver was trying to talk to me in Arabic. This didn’t happen in Dubai. It’s very different,” he says.
“I remember one of the first days I got here – the weekend here is Friday to Saturday, so I thought that on Friday morning, all the shops would be open.
“I turned up to the mall and everything was closed. I couldn’t even get a coffee. Prayer time here is more serious, and some places will shut five times a day for that.”
Despite the cultural differences, he says he wouldn’t hesitate to raise a family there – and also earns three times more than he was in the UK.
Price adds: “Healthcare is pretty good. For an adult, the cost is roughly £1,000 per year though plans vary depending on coverage.
“Most expats have this included in their employment package, so they don’t always pay directly.
“I have my own business here so we have medical insurance for the company and the people within it.
“Obviously you’re not paying income tax, so you have more money to spend on your kids.
“There’s the weather, which means that in the evening during the winter, kids can be outside playing, whereas in the UK they are mostly inside a lot of the time.
“Adam’s daughter loves to go for a swim and play in the pool. You wouldn’t have that opportunity in the UK in December.
“I have no reservations about raising kids here.”
Some expats are keen to share their lives in Saudi – including a raft of Brits who are sharing their lifestyles online.
A dozen now-influencers – most with young children – made the move months or even years ago as their husbands landed various jobs working for Saudi projects.
And alongside these projects, there is also a raft of Saudi influencers who share their lifestyles in the kingdom.
The Saudi government are keen to clean up the kingdom’s image.
Women who live in Saudi have also taken to TikTok to share what life is like there[/caption]
A dozen now-influencers – most with young children – made the move months or even years ago[/caption]
Brit mum Samara films day-in-the-life videos in Neom[/caption]
Nada Baeshen is one of the top Saudi influencers with 700,000 followers[/caption]
She shows off her lifestyle and her travels – and also works on Saudi TV[/caption]
She also shows off her lavish lifestyle[/caption]
In Saudi Arabia, homosexuality is illegal. So too is alcohol, although there is speculation laws could thaw in future.
“Not being able to drink doesn’t bother me at all,” Todd says, explaining that some people travel to other places to let loose.
“They go to Bahrain on the weekends, they’ll go to Dubai, they get their little escapes once a month for the weekend.”
Although Adam and Todd live luxury lives earning triple what they would in the UK as foreigners, Saudi has come under fire for repeated human rights abuses.
In 2018, US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the regime, was murdered after walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
A US intelligence report found Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder himself. He denies this.
Saudi’s infamous £370billion Neom project has also drawn criticism for its treatment of workers.
As many as 21,000 are reported to have died during construction – but Saudi authorities have disputed this figure.
Bin Salman has, however, made moves to improve the Kingdom’s image.
The nation has secured the 2034 World Cup after investing heavily in sport, particularly football. Saudi club Al-Nassr even signed iconic forward Cristiano Ronaldo after he left Manchester United in 2022.
But according to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia carried out a record amount of executions last year that violated international law and standards.
Inside Saudi’s blood-soaked $8.8TRILLION Neom
By James Moules, Foreign News Reporter
WHEN Saudi Arabia revealed its ambitious $500billion megacity project, set to be a glittering jewel in the heart of the country’s desert, the world marvelled.
But the Middle Eastern nation’s NEOM project – which would see a high-tech utopia built from scratch near the country’s border with Jordan – has long been cursed as one worker reveals all.
NEOM was announced as part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s Project 2030 in 2017 – a major push to wean the oil-rich nation’s economy off its reliance on fossil fuels.
NEOM will be a futuristic city across 26,000 sqft on the Red Sea and will include smaller projects The Line, Oxagon, Trojena, Sindalah and the Gulf of Aqaba Projects.
Stunning concept art gave a taste of what was to come, from floating structures to luxury holiday and ski resorts, but eight years on and not much progress has been made.
The daring project has been plagued by setbacks and controversy ever since the first construction workers descended into the sprawling dunes.
The anticipated cost of delivering the gargantuan scheme is reported to have spiralled from $500bn (£386bn) estimate to a head-spinning $8.8 trillion (£6.8 trillion), according to The New Civil Engineer.
But even more shocking are the human rights abuses and brutal conditions for workers looming over NEOM – issues that have plagued the country well before the project.
As many as 21,000 are reported to have died during construction on various sections of NEOM, although Saudi authorities have disputed this figure.
One former employee has shared their story of working at the gigaproject with The Sun, shedding light on the atrocities taking place behind NEOM’s doors.
Rights organisations have long blasted the Saudi regime’s record on workers’ welfare, with a recent Human Rights Watch report detailing the “gruesome yet avoidable” deaths faced by many migrant workers.
The advocacy group mentions that some workers die falling from buildings, by electrocution, and even decapitation.
Human Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea told the Sun: “Unfortunately migrant workers in Saudi Arabia continue to face widespread abuses, some of which may amount to situations of forced labour, including at high profile gigaprojects.
“On NEOM, Human Rights Watch has found that ambitious targets set by Saudi authorities have tight and unrealistic deadlines which can lead employers to demand that workers continue to work under dangerous conditions.
“Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia experience illegal and exorbitant Recruitment Fees, limits to job mobility, obstacles exiting the country, as well as serious health and safety risks.”
READ MORE HERE