[alainboy56]

To quote my fellow contributors @captonianm and @Cedric_Statherby I fully concord with your views generally – I am not in social media,(apart from WA for communication purposes), have no need to contribute or tell everyone what I am doing every 5 minutes and considering the tone and direction of the discourse here perhaps (Just perhaps – no admittance of guilt), why I do not have any need to meet or socialise (further).

And pray tell me, what one would suggest to do here in Riyadh under covid-19 lockdown during the holy month of Ramadan …………… ???
Actually forget covid-19 and Ramadan, what would one suggest to do here in Riyadh at anytime ………….. ???
Answers on a postcard please ……….

5 users thanked author for this post.

Johnnyg, ASK1945, Swissdiver, capetonianm, K1ngston

[capetonianm]

And pray tell me, what one would suggest to do here in Riyadh under covid-19 lockdown during the holy month of Ramadan …………… ???
Actually forget covid-19 and Ramadan, what would one suggest to do here in Riyadh at anytime ………….. ???

This is the best posting I’ve seen for a long time!
I’ve been to Saudi, stayed about 2 weeks, I know exactly what you mean, and it wasn’t even during Ramadan.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alainboy56

[Cedric_Statherby]

[quote quote=998668]And pray tell me, what one would suggest to do here in Riyadh[/quote]

I know where you are coming from! I have been to KSA three times, all on business, and on each occasion the thing I appreciated most was my ticket out again!

Perhaps a little harsh … er, on second thoughts not really.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alainboy56

[esselle]

Been to Bahrain once, mid 90’s, and was somewhat surprised to find condoms as part of the assortment in the minibar in my room.

[capetonianm]

I have been to KSA three times, all on business,

Unless you’re Muslim, I’m not sure what else there is to go there for. Someone may be able to enlighten me.
I enjoyed the food and the feeling of safety, sitting round the hotel pool, got chatting to a delightful Saudi family who invited me home for a lavish meal, with wine. I’ve been to far worse places.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alainboy56

[alainboy56]

@captonianm — Hotel Pool ?? Where is this?
One cannot have scantily clad Westerners Male and Female whom are NOT directly related mixing like this!!!
Playing around in the pool half naked — Good Heavens – this is absolutely forbidden in the Holy Kingdom!

And @captonianm, I came here for project work but got caught – had a flight booked back to AUH on 13/03 which was cancelled on 12/03 by the airline, and on 17/03 ALL flights, and the airports in general in KSA were closed.

If I do not make any contributions to this forum for some time, then please consider that I have taken my own life!

[alainboy56]

@Cedric_Statherby – I note you came here to KSA three times and mention that it was for business —
Would anyone from the western world actually come here for any other reason other than business?
Could anyone actually wake up, roll over and tell their wives and partners – I know lets go to Saudi Arabia for a holiday……………….. !!!

It remind me of an old classic —
In a competition, the 3rd Prize is 2 week’s fully paid holiday package in Riyadh, 2nd Prize is 1 week’s fully paid holiday package in Riyadh and….
the 1st prize Ladies and Gentlemen drum roll please da dida dida daaaa! A fully paid package for a Long weekend in Riyadh.
Yes I know the old uns’ are the best.

Bye Bye everyone — I will close the door on my way out ………….

[capetonianm]

@captonianm — Hotel Pool ?? Where is this?
One cannot have scantily clad Westerners Male and Female whom are NOT directly related mixing like this!!!
Playing around in the pool half naked — Good Heavens – this is absolutely forbidden in the Holy Kingdom!

This was at the Holiday Inn Jeddah. Thinking back on it, it was only males around the pool and the ‘family’ I got talking to was two brothers and their sons, but I was invited to dinner at their home and their wives were there, beautiful elegant ladies wearing western dress. It was like a normal dinner at someone’s home – only better. And they had me chauffeur driven to and from the hotel.

Going back to a previous theme, I was reminded that when I stayed in THR at the Homa Hotel, like Saudi, there was not much to do in the evenings other than a couple of good restaurants nearby, one was Japanese and outstanding. Because of sanctions, non Iranian credit cards are not accepted in Iran so you had to carry cash. 1 GBP was tens of thousands of Iranian Riyals, necessitating a pretty hefty wallet or a small bag, which was perfectly safe. I went for dinner one night at the Japanese and didn’t have enough to pay the bill, so I offered to pay what I had on me and the balance the next day. They were most gracious about it and just said to come back the next day, and when I did they greeted me like a long lost friend and offered me a little plate of ‘mezze’ and drinks (non-alcohol of course.)

The hotel had a beautiful lobby where you could sit and have tea, coffee, snacks, and there were a couple of seemingly ‘available’ ladies with older men who appeared to be their ‘cover’. I was approached by two such pairs, it was the man who made the initial approach and then the lady would come over and later the man would discreetly disappear. These ladies were very attractive, educated, and spoke excellent English. I suspected that anything more than a chat in the lobby might have led to some difficulty, although a friend who’d been to Iran said that was not the case. They seem to be young women who want to ‘escape’, rather like eastern Europe when it was under the oppression of communism.

An interesting country, and lovely people, sadly oppressed by their rulers, a cabal of madmen. If I can find it later I’ll post some of what I wrote while I was there.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alainboy56

[alainboy56]

@captonianm — There are many Irani girls in Dubai – actually half the population (don’t precisely quote me on that) are of Irani descent but ‘Sshhhh’ do not say that, as the locals are paranoid of their heritage, and when I do point out what is their heritage, especially from Al Ain and Abu Dhabi, they are somewhat crestfallen to be reminded.
They believe 100% in their Sheiks and the bu*****t fed to them on a continuous basis.
Such as ….. due to the ‘Wise, Profound and Visionary leadership’….. – this one gets wheeled out regularly.

1 user thanked author for this post.

LuganoPirate

[capetonianm]

This topic has 55 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 13 May 2020 at 17:38 by capetonianm.

Where is it?
This keeps happening, really annoying.

Letters from Tehran. The following is a summary of emails I sent home when I was working in THR.

Nothing here is as bad as you hear, not even the hectic traffic! I haven’t seen one woman wearing the full niqab covering the entire face – you can see more in Crawley or High Wycombe than here – but they all keep their heads covered. Many are fashionably and smartly dressed.

I had an interesting taxi ride through the seething traffic, with a one eyed driver who got lost on the way to the Homa Hotel, which is about as much of a landmark here as Marble Arch in London. However his taxi didn’t have a mark on it and he seemed able to squeeze at high speed through gaps in the traffic before they even appeared. Maybe there is a God! I don’t understand how they get so close to other cars without actually hitting them.
Today started off with the driver getting lost. After 20 minutes we’d gone in a huge circle and ended up back at the hotel. I had no idea what he was trying to tell me as he only spoke Farsi, but I had to direct him across Tehran in rush hour traffic by pointing. They cut straight across 6 lanes of speeding traffic to change direction. The taxi had a massive hole under my feet with the hot exhaust pipe running below.

My delegates tell me the internet will be cut off later because there are going to be street protests against the high cost of living here. (It is expensive, last night I paid 226,000 IRR which is nearly £14 for a very ordinary small kebab and rice and a fruit juice).

The driver didn’t get lost this morning after having practised on the two previous days. I have finally understood driving here. You have to be in the wrong lane for your next movement, so when turning left you must be in the farthest right hand lane, and vice versa. Immediately before the required turning place, indicate and turn, one action. That there may be 12 lanes of traffic between you and the turn-off is irrelevant, you simply squeeze through the gaps. You see Mercs and Landcruisers and so on, all unscathed, doing the same. This morning most of the cars had snow on them, the drivers peering through holes they’d cleared in the windscreen. Having restricted vision is an asset when driving here, I now understand why I was quite safe with the one-eyed driver. I will not be surprised if my next taxi driver has a white stick or a guide dog.

I am, briefly, a millionaire, as I changed £100 this morning and got 1,830,000 Riyals. One of the guys did it for me, I would have got 10% less officially.

Must go, off to the strip clubs and pole dancing bars. Difficult to choose as there are so many, and of course with the bars on every corner there are plenty of distractions.

Today is the weekend here. I was going to go to the mountains to ski but it snowed heavily all night after a few flakes during the day, and this morning the whole town is covered in thick snow.

Last night I was taken for dinner by one of the people I’m working with and his wife, well educated young people who speak perfect English, and like so many, leaving the country because they see no future. We went to a lovely Iranian restaurant. The reality of this country is quite different to the crap you read in the press, but there are a lot of restrictions. At least when you walk around at night you know you’re not going to be harassed by drunks and beggars.

Despite the warmth and hospitality of people here, it’s boring and the city is a dump. The TV stations are in Farsi and even locals say they are dire, otherwise there’s BBC World, CNN, and Al Jazheera in English, all repetitive and dull but AJ is the least bad of the three. No cinemas showing Western films other than a few very heavily censored ones. The websites for most of the Western press are blocked.

Back to Saudi, last time we were in CPT I transferred money to my wife’s Revolut card but she ended up converting it to SAR (Saudi Arabian Riyals) instead of ZAR and wondered why she’d got a few hundred instead of a few thousand. I suggested she hung on to them as the rand was plunging and a few weeks later we changed them back to ZAR and scored the price of a few beers.

5 users thanked author for this post.

LuganoPirate, Montysaurus, cwoodward, Inquisitive, alainboy56

[Cedric_Statherby]

[quote quote=998706]Where is it?[/quote]

Are you sure the Iranian secret police haven’t infiltrated BT Forum and are monitoring your output?

And the Saudi thought police too. Should we all watch what we say, lest alainboy gets a knock on the door at 3.00 am ???

2 users thanked author for this post.

alainboy56, capetonianm

[SimonS1]

Interesting reads above.

I went to Jeddah on a ‘look see’ trip in 2007 and stayed for 2 years. Must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Really fascinating place, plenty of history and when you get your head round the segregation the locals (male and female) are both extremely sociable and hospitable. In those days single local guys were banned from Red Sea Mall after 7pm. Funny to sit in Starbucks on a Friday morning and watch the Bluetooth flirtations going on.

I gather it has changed a bit these days and is even more liberal.

Actually with visa on arrival I was planning a business trip and weekend in Jeddah before interfered.

[capetonianm]

alainboy56
If I do not make any contributions to this forum for some time, then please consider that I have taken my own life!

I sincerely hope not, you are one of my favourite posters.

Given that one concern with being locked down in places like Saudi is lack of entertainment, there are numerous ways of getting international TV, which will work anywhere (possibly needing a VPN in some places) which are easily set up on a Windows or Apple laptop, or on Android devices. The subscriptions are generally very affordable, and one of the one I use works off a small set-top box which you can take with you, all it needs is a wifi or ethernet connection, which could be your own portable hub, and an optional connection into the TV set in the room, if you want to watch it on the TV.

If anyone is interested I can post details here if allowed.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alainboy56

[alainboy56]

@captonianm
Thank you for the compliments and Nooooo I will hang around a bit longer yet.

On your reports of driving and traffic in THR – I thought for one minute you were describing CAIRO! Its exactly like that (without the snow).
On your tips for TV, I normally do not watch TV – I stay in hotel rooms and never ever switch it on. This one in my room now has not been on since I arrived.
I download series and watch them individually. one thing one notices from travelling, is often I will watch 3 or 4 episodes of a series on a flight, and think later will have to catch up with that — so that is exactly what I am doing now to pass the time.

@Cedric_Statherby

Thanks for the reminder – from now on it ‘stum’ – I am having a wonderful relaxing time here and shall never ever complain again.
It seems here on this forum that there have been some better experiences in JED, but alas I am in RUH. I have heard that JED has a little more life. DMM too.
Even the big man is living in JED not here, and his leading son, wonderful chaps both, is also not here, he is on the same coast somewhere.

1 user thanked author for this post.

ASK1945

[cwoodward]

I thought about contributing to this thread but finally decided that I could not possible recount on a public board what I do in the evenings !

(much too boring)

[Author]

Posts