Riyadh

Riyadh skyline

Hi Bloggers,

Well, I'm now in the capital of Saudi Arabia after a delightful two month return spell in Thailand.  Riyadh probably isn't a place you'd choose to be if there wasn't a lot of money to be made.  Yet at the same time it's nothing like as bad as I'd expected it to be. I haven't been harrassed by the police or "muttawa" (the religious police) yet, and most people have been pretty friendly.  And the university I'm working in is superbly modern and beautifully designed.

Dita Square

Even the general atmosphere of Riyadh is pretty nice, particularly in the downtown Olaya area.  Generally, there's a feeling of real spaciousness and most places you go there seems to be hardly anyone around.  Before coming I had been worried that you'd have a feeling of always being watched, but actually I haven't felt like this at all.  The absence of women is, of course, a noticeable feature of the place, though you do see a fair few of them in the shopping malls.  Most wear the full head gear with just a slit for their eyes, but I have seen a few with no covering at all, so things can't be that bad.  The only thing I really dislike is that whenever prayer time comes, everything closes down.  By law all shops have to shut.  And there's also the extremely irritating 4.15 am prayer session, which invariably wakes me up.  I've now adopted a strategy of going to bed at 10.00 pm so as to guarantee myself at least 6 hours sleep!

The main positives of Riyadh seem to be the shopping malls.  They're all pretty spacious and stores like Marks & Spencers and Debenhams really make you feel at home. Needless to say, Starbucks and McDonalds have their usual presence.  There are some good supermarkets, like Carrefour, where you can get most of the kind of things westerners like, like your favourite brand of marmalade, etc

Anyway, before coming here I had a great two months back in Thailand.  It was so nice to be back in my favourite country again. In fact, I even stayed in the same condo block, Saranjai Mansion.  I was almost living my old lifestyle again, going jogging in the Queen Sirikit and Lumpini parks, cycling around on a Trek bike, eating in the food courts, watching football in Gulliver's and enjoying the ubiquitous state of the art shopping malls.  In fact, there's a new mall called Terminal 21, which has the theme of a different country on each level.  I was quite impressed.

Al Battha souqs

Of course, the missing factor that has spoiled everything for me has been the fact that I've had to leave my wife in the Philippines, as her pregnancy is too far advanced to travel freely.  This is the main outcome of the BC's decision to revoke my contract, the disruptive effect it's had on my family.  It's such a pity there's almost no work for foreigners in Manila.  Nevertheless I spent the whole of June there.  Eventually, though, I 'm confident we will be living again as a happy family should.  In fact, I'm going back to Manila in October for the birth of  my son.  After that, we will see.

Masmak Fortress

Cheers,

Robert