Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Trip Start
Sep 21, 2011
1
Trip End
Sep 23, 2011
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What I did
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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Sunday, October 2, 2011
I had to apply for a visa to travel here. In Oman and Qatar you can purchase a visa upon arrival.
We departed Amsterdam on a beautiful sunny blue sky day. The +/- 6 hour flight over was very smooth on our B747ERF (http://www.af-klm.com/cargo/b2b/wps/portal/b2b/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLN4o3dDZwA8mB2GZGAfqRmIL-SIJB-t76vh75uan6AfoFuaER5Y6OigA7maKy/delta/base64xml/L3dJdyEvd0ZNQUFzQUMvNElVRS82XzJfNjk5). My colleague Anneke accompanied me on this trip, but while I got off in Riyadh she continued onward to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. I would join her again in Oman and Qatar.
I was met by my local colleague on arrival and I immediately got to work. When work was finished he drove me to my hotel, the Crowne Plaza Minhal (http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/crowneplaza/hotels/us/en/riyadh/ruhsa/hoteldetail), which was a 40 minute drive from the airport. I took this time to get to know him (it was the first time we were meeting one another in person) and learn about Saudi Arabia from a locals perspective. The one thing I truly enjoy about my travels is learning about foreign cultures. I am disillusioned by what we hear in the media every day. While some of it may true I find that they don't always tell us the full story; only what they want us to hear.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that most road signs were posted in both Arabic and English. Riyadh has excellent roadways and other than the dust that you expect to find in a city that was built in a dessert I found it to be a very clean city. Temperatures here ranged above 100 degrees daily, and I was told that this is the cool season there, yikes! The good thing is it is a dry heat.
I had one free day in Riyadh and decided I would like to see something. I have no idea whether I may have a chance to visit here again, so I may as well take advantage of my time here. I questioned my colleague as well as the hotel staff about what I could do and they all basically told me the same thing. I could visit the National Museum (http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=4918), Old Dir'aiyah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diriyah), or visit the Kingdom Tower (http://www.kingdomcentre.com.sa/). In the end I decided to visit the Kingdom Tower, which is described as the tallest building in Riyadh and from which you can supposedly see the entire city.
I departed in the morning and made my way to the Kingdom Tower, only to be shooo'd away by the security guards there. Apparently the place was closed. On arrival back at the hotel I was told that they forgot to tell me that it is open from 4pm to 11pm, and so I made a second attempt that day to go see this place, which ended up with me being shooo'd away again. This time I was told that they forgot to tell me that it was a national holiday :o(
So in the end I did not get to visit any attraction, but I did get to drive around the city. Riyadh offers plenty of modern architecture and several large malls. What surprised me the most was the number of American fast food restaurants that are here: Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, and even a Friday's. American cars rule the roads here, and why not when it costs roughly US$2.00 to fill up the tank.
The day after I departed Riyadh history was made in Saudi Arabia when King Abdullah ruled that women will have the right to stand for office (Shura council) and vote in future local elections (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia). That's history in the making, and I hope that further positive changes lie ahead. What I did not know before arriving here is that women are forbidden from driving. On that note driving here is quite the experience, but still not nearly as horrific as driving in India - geeezzzz.
I also had a somewhat funny experience with Vera while I was here. She sent me the following very nice email on my day of arrival:
"Good luck gorgeous boyfriend of mine!!! I am in love with youuuuuuuu!!!"
I wanted to reciprocate and sent her the following message, which had one small spelling error. I meant to tell her that I was going to "call her in a bit", but somehow this did not happen and instead the following message was sent:
"You make me HAPPY beautiful amazing girlfriend of mine. I plan to kill you in a bit."
In closing you will be happy to know that there were no police waiting for me when I arrived back home, but I had quite some explaining to do - LOL.
Comments
Thanks for sharing