Riyadh Sojourn :)

Continued………….

Before I start on Riyadh, I might just go back to the freeway getting there :)

As I mentioned previously we arrived in our capital city just after nightfall. We had our nearly empty tank tank filled up by an attendant - yes every service station here has someone to fill it for you :p - for the grand sum of less than $6 aus dollars at the beginning of the freeway so as not to run out (petrol is a really great price here :p), but we didn’t really need to, as unlike Jesse’s experiences here 10 years ago there are quite a few service stations along the way, and approaching them as night was falling was like looking at a carnival on the side of the road with the amount of coloured fluorescent lights they had along the side leading into and out of them and also all over the roof shaped like tents – very hard to miss :)

Another thing I noticed that was really interesting was all along the highway cars pulled over onto the sand slightly off the road and wondered why – then I realised it was time for last prayer. I must admit that I was really impressed with the devotion to prayer that would have someone who was hurtling down the freeway at or in excess of 160km in an obvious hurry to get where they are going to take the time out to stop for 30 minutes approximately to face Mecca and pray. Not all cars pulled over mind, but there were sufficiently enough that it was very noticeable.

There were 3 major checkpoints on the way to Riyadh. This involved all cars slowing very rapidly to 20km, but luckily all cars put flashing warning lights on. We weren’t pulled over as we went through, but it was still a very serious matter approaching these points. The guards were armed and a jeep type truck parked by guard house with fixed machine gun ready to do serious damage.

We found  the exit from the freeway (quite by accident) to get into the main downtown area, and Jesse was then swamped with memories of where he used to go, live, etc etc. He then drove down to the computer souk that he had visited the week before to show me how many guys there were out flogging software, and then found a nice Holiday Inn right in the middle of the city. After checking in, it was then FOOD time so he asked directions to a Al Sayira, a Lebanese restaurant he used to go and eat at all the time. He was delighted that it was still in same street, same place, but was hard to find coz it had a huge facelift, lit up like Xmas, but inside it was still the same with individual booths complete with curtains, many of them closed with families inside, and the same waiter that used to be there all those years ago. For the grand sum of $100 Riyals ($30 aus) we had a fatoush salad,large dips entree complete with 2 huge loafs of Turkish bread, olives, dips etc etc. Then main of mixed grill, grilled fish, pepsi’s, lemon juice and mineral water :)………. Well I shouldn’t say, but Jesse ate most of it :p

Curtained booths for female privacy                Front Entrance :D

              Me deciding :D                        Fatoush Salad & Tukish bread

After finishing our delicious meal, it was back into the car and driving to see all the sights. We drove up the main streets which had the nicest light displays in the centre medium strip. The palm trees were all net lighted totally up the stems and into the fronds and overhead were starbursts and different kinds of light displays. It was then off to see his old compounds where he used to live and I’ll let him fill you in on his thoughts on those. We drove past the satellite & electronic souk and when we pulled in looking for a particular sort of audio cable– it was very like the computer souk with guys immediately swamping us with cries of “you want satellite???? We Cheapest….come….come” then back to Holiday Inn to lovely SOFT bed as it was now about 1am.

Next day we didn’t get up until about noon as room was VERY dark and bed VERY soft and we were very tired. It was then back out to drive around in daylight and take in the sights once more. Riyadh is a major city and would compare favourably with any major city in the world. I was very surprised after being in Al Khobar as this looks like a regional country town in comparison, but it was nice to get back to our own familiar town.

By this time it was evening and the quest was on to find parking for the Kingdom Tower. We found the shopping mall that was attached to the tower & hotel and parked. The shopping mall there only had brand shops in it, and we walked around looking at and in designer name shops like Chanel, D & G, Saks 5th Avenue to name a few – and people were really purchasing things from these stores :) and I actually saw a baby in bootees from Burberry.

After Jesse was told by a security guard in no uncertain terms “no photo in here sir” we then asked him if you could go up into the tower and he showed us where lifts were. Lucky for us it was prayer time, so the line wasn’t too huge and after only about a 10 minute wait we were let into the elevator, which was totally blacked out and had lights twinkling as stars & planets. All the ladies were herded into the back of lift first, and the men were let in after. Needless to say I towered over most of their heads. The trip involved the first lift to the 75th floor, where we changed and went in second lift to the 98th floor.

The views were breathtaking and it was well worth the trip. No cameras were meant to be used, but lots were so we did as well. We had our picture taken by photographer up there, and then the security got tough on cameras, so we then had to use the phone for pics, which was allowed.