Riyadh
Trip Start
Dec 17, 2011
1
25
Trip End
Jan 15, 2012
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Sunday, December 18, 2011
by an inquisitive man who started a conversation with me immediately. He
was from Sudan and was off to India to work for his business to do with
distributing medical supplies. I tried to get something out of him
about Sudan but he didn't say much. He asked me a lot about myself but
as I'm not particularly interesting I just cut myself off before I bored
him.
An attempt at a bit of work followed, then a doze then
eating a bit more food. Then another doze was followed by an attempt at a
reading from a journal article at the computers , I was slightly
sidetracked by a large ango-filipino family in the transit lounge on a
stopover en route to the Philippines who were kicking up a bit of a fuss
about the total lack of communication and disorganisation by Saudi
Arabian Airlines. I had a chat to them to see if I could also kick up a
fuss on my way back but it became evident that the best action was to
bite the bullet and pay the £18.
Around 10pm it became very busy in
the lounge and after I ate my last meal I chatted to a very stylish
french lady who was a teacher at the British school in Jeddah. She told
me how Jeddah was a lot more liberal than Riyadh as she didn't have to
cover her head. Teachers are paid very well there so she could afford to
go to Jakarta for a cheeky few days. I talked to her so much that I
realised that my flight was leaving in 20 minutes and as I grabbed some
last minute drinks from the fridge, a man was hunting me down 'Kuala,
Kuala' he shouted. I sprinted it to the plane and grabbed my seat. 20
hours had somehow flown by but I was very glad to be heading onwards to
KL.
