Photo post: Riyadh New & Old

I took a little trip from my home in the north of Riyadh to the souq in the south on Friday afternoon and took lots of photos as we were driving, so I thought a photo post would be in order!

The Faisalia Tower, Olaya, Riyadh

King Fahd Road, Faisalia Tower appearing behind trees

Mamlaka Tower with Faisalia in the distance

Houses in the older part of Riyadh - Dirah

Orange building ahead with a tower on the corner is the Qasr al Hukm - Law courts

Behind the Law courts, the Grand Mosque of Riyadh can be found along with what is commonly known to the expats as 'Chop Chop' square. This is where the hudud punishments are carried out.

The Law courts

Masmak Fortress which I believe now houses a museum

View back towards the Law courts and Grand Mosque

Driving towards Bat-ha

There are more souqs at Bat-ha but predominantly for men. It is not advisable for women to go alone or in the evening when it is very busy.

The nice greenery that you find in the older part of Riyadh

Busy traffic heading back into newer Riyadh

The spaceship type building you can see on the left hand side of the photo is the Ministry of the Interior.

Gold shop at Owais, a souq in northern Riyadh

Check out the huge necklaces on display!

Watermelons for sale at Owais

Haram abayas & 50 degrees!

The temperature in Riyadh actually hit 50 degrees centigrade yesterday afternoon - meltdown!

We made a quick trip down to the souq at Dirah which is the old town centre. Sign posts pointing you to 'Wasat Al-Madinah' (Town centre) which not take you to Olaya where the Mamlaka and Faisalia towers are situated along with all the designer shops but rather to the old town.

We wanted to buy a new abaya for my eldest daughter plus a couple of other bits and pieces. We didn't manage to buy an abaya at that souq though after all... When we arrived we had some trouble finding abaya shops and then noticed abaya vendors wrapping sheets around their stocks and closing up shop. I thought my watch was wrong and it must be almost time for maghrib prayer... wrong, it was only 4:30pm.

It turned out that the mutaween were around and were 'raiding' abaya shops. The objectionable items in question? Abayas with embroidery or diamante. The couple of abaya shops remaining open had only 100% plain black abayas on display and any embellished abayas had been quickly whisked away.

It was a bit of a wasted trip all the way down there but I did manage to take plenty of photos of the area showing the contrast being new Riyadh and old Riyadh - photo post coming soon!

Forwarded email - hoaxes

Forwarded trash in my email inbox from people who really should have enough brain to know better, is one of my pet peeves. These include emails that promise big freebies or cash if you forward the email to all your friends or a specified number of people; bogus health warnings etcetera.

I urge people to read about hoax spotting at the two following websites:

How to Spot an Email Hoax

Guide to Recognising Hoaxes

When I receive too-good-to-be-true emails or emails warning about certain products or giving 'alternative' health advice, I generally pick out a few keywords from the text, type them into the Google search box along with the word 'hoax'. If the email is indeed a hoax, a link to the article at urbanlegends or hoaxslayer will show up in the results.

So people please, stop clogging your friends' inboxes with pointless rubbish and do your homework before hitting the forward button. It only takes up 1 minute of your time!

Riyadh at night

A couple of photographs of Riyadh by night.

This first photo is Tahlia Street (Champs Elysees of Riyadh!) which is just off Olaya Street.

 

The following photo shows The Faisalia tower which is on Olaya Street; it looks very pretty all lit up at night.

Da list

Inspired by 'Da List' on Ammena's blog who was in turn inspired by Molly, I have decided to make my list of things I would and would not miss in the event of leaving Saudi Arabia.

Things I’ll miss and not miss when we finally leave Saudi Arabia. Things in green I will miss, things in red I most certainly will NOT miss!

1. Adhan!
The shops staying closed for over half an hour for every prayer and the shops being closed between zuhr and asr which is generally 4 hours.

2. Going out shopping or for any other activity and having a mosque or prayer room in the vicinity
Having to rush and go to the mall in the morning if I want to go anywhere apart from the supermarket as the mall shops will be closed between zuhr and asr and then it will be really hectic in the evening especially after isha.

3. Going out in Abaya/hijab/niqab and feeling just like everyone else, not different
Being stared at when I start to speak to my children because I look like everyone else but don’t sound like everyone else.
My pretty, hijab-wearing 12 year old being gawped at by perverted weirdos.

4. Living on a compound where the children can go out and play freely
Having to listen to moronic, bigoted compound politics… well actually I just try to stay out of the way and ignore it as much as possible

5. Having a decent sized, spacious home
Trying to clean it!

6. Halal food everywhere, not worry about pork or alcohol
Nothing not to miss here!

7. Going out to eat where everything is halal and no bar in sight
Again nothing not to miss! Actually… having to get into the restaurant right after isha prayer before the restaurant really fills up

8. Being able to do exciting things like driving to Makkah, Madinah or UAE
Having to leave all the driving to dh and some of our trip within KSA are approaching 1000KM which is a LOT for one person.

9. Being in the close vicinity of other countries like Oman, Yemen, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain
Having to get a stupid exit-reentry visa every time we want to leave the country so unless we have a 6 month exit-reentry there can be no spontaneous, “Hey! Let’s go to Bahrain!” We decided at last minute to go to Al-Khobar recently and would’ve loved to drive that little bit further to Qatar or Bahrain but… no exit-reentry visa!

10. Having to rely on taxi drivers who seem to speak no known language fluently and getting stranded at some location for a period of time while I try to rearrange return transport due to misunderstandings. Grrr!
Where's the positive for that?!

11. The sales - they really are fab here! Bargains galore and sadly enough, am very much looking forward to getting back from Algeria to browse the sales in August!
Nothing not to miss about that is there?!

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A few additions from my two eldest daughters.

DD2 (10) says, "I will NOT miss:

• The stupid maniacs who crash everyday


• The people who do that annoying gesture and go “shway shway


• How only men can work in malls and supermarkets and women can't


• Having to get the school bus to school every day."

DD1 (12) says, "Things I WILL miss:

• My friends


• Compound - having freedom


• People wearing abayas and being fully covered


• My school


• The fact there is a swimming pool, shop, recreation centre two minutes away from home


• The sun