“Madam, you may take your abaya off”

Fasalya Tower is what I guess could in Saudi terms be called a skyscraper and one of the landmarks of Riyadh. It’s a tall building right in the center of the city and on top of the building there’s a ball, which is actually a fine dining restaurant. Here’s a picture to illustrate:






After the weird semi-encounter with the muttawa downstairs we took a lift to the restaurant, sat down and were brought hot towels to wipe our hands with. At this time, the waiter turns to me and says: “Madam, you may take your abaya off”. My mind is racing a hundred miles an hour thinking “oh god, oh god… this can’t be happening… no, no, no”. The reason? At every other restaurant in Riyadh, even at FourSeasons, western women are asked to keep their abayas on. So, I wasn’t exactly dressed for an evening at a nice restaurant underneath that abaya. Let it be officially known that I have now dined in a fine dining restaurant in golden stiletto heels, gym pants and a faded t-shirt. Very comfortable if you don’t count the shoes, and best of all… no-one ever knew but hubby.

Muttawa (again)

One night, we decided to go and eat out in a nice restaurant. As we were pulling up in front of the mall, we saw a white muttawa (religious police) SUV right behind us. The last prayer of the day had just started. The muttawa love shopping malls because that is where men try to meet women and vice versa. All of a sudden, in front of the mall we started hearing angry commands issued through a megaphone. I turned around to look back if we were being asked to pull over by the police or something.  Instead of policemen, I saw the muttawa sitting in their car going “salat salat… salat salat”. Salat is the Arabic word for prayer. In other words, they were telling people to go and pray since the last prayer had just started.  Never seen that before.

Eid-il-Fitri

Oki doki, so Ramadan is done for another year. Whew… life is really a lot easier now that we are able to eat and drink during daylight hours again. The whole Middle East seems to be in a good mood now that it’s time for Eid. Last night we heard some fireworks in the distance to mark the end of the fasting.

In Riyadh, streets are deserted during daytime because businesses are closed, many people have traveled abroad and those who are here are either sleeping or eating at home.  Shops open in the evenings and we are told it’s one of the busiest times of the year for them because everyone is giving gifts to relatives and children. Here’s a picture from one of the busiest streets in Riyadh from yesterday. Hubster and I have never seen it this empty before.

Ramadan

We are nearing the end of Ramadan, the Moslem holy month of fasting. During Ramadan Moslems do not consume any food or drink during daylight hours. They do this to remind themselves that not all people are so fortunate as to be able to eat three square meals a day. As non-Moslems, you would probably assume that this does not apply to us. Unfortunately not so… hubster and I have been eating and drinking in secrecy for the past few weeks that we have been back in the Middle East.

That is, you’ll get into trouble if you eat or drink in public during daylight hours. It’s not clear exactly what kind of trouble. Some say you’ll get arrested and detained until the end of Ramadan. Some say you’ll get fined and some that you’ll get told off. In any case, we haven’t taken any chances, so all eating and drinking has happened behind closed and locked doors. For K it hasn’t been that easy with daily temperatures in the mid 40’s and some walking to do outside. Especially unpleasant have been daily morning jogs. Mornings are the coolest time of the day, but with temperatures starting at 33C it’s really not pleasant at all to job in the mornings.