Ramadan in Riyadh :) Part I

Well it has been quite a while since I last posted, but it all became too difficult when I supposedly "upgraded" the windows live writer to the beta version, which I used to use for writing the blog - it freezes, it closes, it makes the spaces between paragraphs non-existent and it was taking far too long to edit then to top it all off after battling all this it won't post the blog - much too hard basket - shame to windows for producing such a bad and unworkable program in this modern computerized driven world! Now I have had my rant I will get on with what I hope is an interesting post :P

As I wrote last time, we arrived in Riyadh on the first or second day of Ramadan and stayed at an excellent hotel called the Mena, which Jesse assures me means Port in Arabic. The decor had a really Arabian feel to it, and for Ramadan they had erected a tent in the foyer from Arabic design fabric and this had the typical floor mattresses and arm rests and many made use of it for having their very light flavoured Arabic or Turkish coffee - Naturally of course as it was Ramadan it was after the sun went down.

(Hint - if you press on the photo it opens up into large picture)

After checking in - we were lucky with a great summer rate which included brekkie, and Iftar (which is Ramadan Breakfast - 6.30pm) it was a must to go to Jesse's favorite Lebanese restaurant Al Sayira and have our first evening meal, which true to form was way too much but delicious and not expensive :) That was enough for our first night, and the next day we headed out of Riyadh towards Mecca (Makah) as Jesse wanted to show me what he calls the "edge of the world" and it was a really worthwhile trip - this was taken on the dunes outside of Riyadh. As you drive out of the city, there is a major checkpoint and just past this the road declines sharply through a huge cutting to open out on these lovely red dunes and large rock formations - it is really the first time that I have felt that I was actually in the true desert.

We then drove virtually into the middle of nowhere (well I exaggerate as usual as there were small farm holdings and camel farms) to see a tall rock formation that Jesse had visited when he lived over here way back. He was most disappointed that the road to it had been sealed and as we drove closer it was fenced off with a guard post and several quarries had been put in - so we couldn't go all the way up to the base as in the "old days".

Our timing in arriving back at the hotel in time for the 6.30pm "Breakfast" was excellent, and we had worked up quite an appetite with all the dune climbing and running back down hehehehe.... The brekkie was pretty awesome as well - Arabic coffee, dates & dried apricots on all the tables to break the fast, although I passed on the Laban which is a yoghurty thickish drink that Jesse will drink by the gallon if it is there :( and then on to the buffet which was actually pretty impressive - we certainly didn't go hungry!