Wadi Hanifa

For the most short-term visitors, Riyadh appears as a dry (scorchingly hot during the summer months) and dull car-oriented mega city. Too many ten lane highways, too many people with "only me" attitude, chaotic driving habits, awful traffic jams... you name it.

From this perspective it might be a bit odd to hear that Riyadh literally means "gardens" in Arabic. But as in any good Thousand and One Nights story, Riyadh is a city of hidden treasures. One such treasure is Wadi Hanifa, a some 120 km long valley cutting through the city from north to south.

The January/February 2012 issue of Saudi Aramco World (a periodical published by Saudi Aramco - the world's largest oil company) includes a very interesting article about Wadi Hanifa, its history as a Riyadh's collective garbage dump and sewer and a 10-year-long restoration project with a budget of around $1 billion.

Definitively worth the read!

Where have all the muttawa gone, long time passing? (sing to the tune of Where Have All the Flowers Gone?)

Wanted to share this picture taken in Riyadh a few weeks back when we went muttawa hunting. We (well K mostly) wanted to see some angry muttawa telling people to go pray, so we on purpose timed our arrival at an expensive shopping mall just as the evening prayer was starting. Shops were closing and shop assistants were gently asking customers to leave because of the prayers. We hovered around the main entrance the entire 25 min in hopes that we’d see some muttawa come in. We have been told that they love this particular shopping mall and that there might sometimes be two patrols in this mall at the same time making sure that nothing sinful happens. To our disappointment they never showed up. But we managed to snatch a picture of people sitting around waiting for the shops to open up again…



And a picture of some ladies praying in front of a shoe shop…

Hashing

Hashing is a very popular pastime here in Riyadh. Contrary to what you might suspect based on the name it actually has nothing to do with hashis. Hashing is a term for a random bunch of foreigners who get together in the middle of the desert and do some running/walking together in the nice dry Saudi scenery. There is usually a run/walk leader called “hare” who leads the way. Hashing is a nice way to spend one of the 360 sunny afternoons of the year. It’s a good place to meet people and friends and spend some time together. Today’s hash took us to place called End of the World. Check out the pictures. I overheard some Americans actually saying that it looks a lot like the Grand Canyon. 

Kuwait Under The Clouds

A beautiful time lapse film of Kuwait City:

(via 2:48AM)

Good Deed of the Day

I, T, have been frequenting the same Turkish barber shop close to our compound for months. In the evenings, the shop often gets very crowded but rarely one needs to wait for more than five minutes. Only exception is if you accidentally show up just before or during Salat, i.e. obligatory prayer.

The other night I somehow miscalculated the correct ending time for the day's last prayer. When I got to the barber shop, my "standard guy" was sipping coffee (Turkish, I presume) with his friends outside. I assumed that the prayer would be over in few minutes but actually it was only halfway through.

Suddenly, out of the dust appeared a Haia SUV (see the bottom part of this page for some photos of their cruisers), the religious police of Saudi Arabia which mission is to prevent vice and promote virtue. At the same time, all the Turkish guys began to flee.

You see, one of most visible duties performed by Haia is to ensure nobody forgets the obligatory prayers. If you are a Muslim or muttawas, the religious policemen, think you are, there rarely are excuses for not praying. This unfortunate Saher employee making roads of Madinah safer learned that the hard way.

My "standard guy" who apparently is not religious at all decided to hide behind of some cars parked next to the barber shop instead of calmly walking away with his colleagues. As a westerner non-Muslim I was just standing there and following the scene amazed. Soon the guy changed his mind and started to whisper to me "Where is your car? Where is your car?"

Luckily my car was parked only few meters away from the spot. We both hopped in and talked about many things for some 10 minutes until the prayer was over and muttawas had left. I guess offering the asylum was my good deed of that day.

Saudi Post

 

We have used the postal services in KSA a few times. The success rates are pretty erratic. Some postcards have not reached their destinations but some have. Most of the mail that has been sent to us has never reached us or has reached us after some considerable delays. The other day when T was leaving KSA for the weekend he decided to take his chances at the King Khalid International Airport and buy some stamps for postcards. The first step in this process was to wake the guy behind the counter up. After the business had been conducted successfully (stamps had been received and paid for) he received some pretty interesting literature (without specifically asking for it). Here’s a picture:

This made us wonder if the true purpose of the post office is something else than carrying mail from place A to place B?

Christmas gift ideas part II

If authentic Iranian rugs are not your thing, how about reading some world literature classics this Christmas?

This particular classic was on promotion at the Jeddah airport. Too bad I had to hurry to catch my flight so I guess I will be postponing the start of my Arabic language studies once again.

Fancy a Rug?

A Christmas gift idea… authentic rugs from Iran and apparently Afghanistan are available at Mubarakiya Souq. Check it out.

If someone wants one lemme know and maybe we can come to an agreement of some sort.

Parking Saudi style

In this photo you see an ordinary 2-lane street in a business district of Riyadh's downtown. Cars not parked (i.e. the ones that are using the street for its original purpose) are highlighted in the picture.

P.S. One might wonder what to do if you find yourself "boxed in"? You just sit tight and honk the horn until the idiot shows up.

Self-portrait

Just wanted to share this self-portrait with the world. Taken in Dubai last weekend, at what I guess could be called an almost authentic beduin camp that offers tourists the wonderful experience of seeing an eastern European (we are guessing here, but definitely not Arabic) girl belly dancing. They also offered us the opportunity to try on Arabic clothes, get henna tattoos and try camel riding. No one was brave enough to try the camels but we sure had fun trying on the Arabic clothes.