Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

It's high time I wrote a blog update. Especially since there's heaps to write about after being in Saudi for a week. The last few weeks have been pretty low key on the work front. Every now and then there'll be a big spurt of travel - Mallorca for a couple of days, Rome, Paris and London. These places are all repeats (except Mallorca), so while I'm not tired of the Eurowandering yet, it's not as interesting as going somewhere new. Most of Europe all seems the same - the churches, cobbled streets, closed shops on Sundays and bad weather. To conceptualise what a European town or city looks like, I take Frankfurt to be the perfect example. There's snow, nothing to do on Sunday apart from the gym or shag the missus. People will tell me to appreciate what's different about the place. That's like these telling me that having a baby is a wonderful experience and that every day is "difference". I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. A lot of these places just seem like people holders. When was the last time you heard of someone going to Luxembourg for a dirty weekend away.

Poor countries, places is where you have the fun. I'm looking forward to the day that I can go up to the mountains of Pakistan and blow a goat to pieces with a rocket launcher for $120USD. Or charging around the back streets of Shanghai looking for dodgy DVDs dodging mad chinese drivers. Although I guess you can get the mad drivers in Europe too - just go to Antwerp :-)

The other good thing about these places is the poorer the country's airline, the better it fits in to my tardy, "you're bloody lucky to make it" schedule. Usually I'll miss a flight here and there and the good thing about PIA, Saudi Arabian Airlines or even Alitalia is your ticket is really just a voucher to fly. Miss your flight and they'll have no worries to put you on the next one maybe with an upgrade to boot. "Sorry that you missed your flight, sir". That's right. Try the same act with Lufthansa and you'll be booted out the door with a sharp "nein" while they proceed to scribble your name on to their black list of unworthy customers. So as to be expected, I rang Saudi Airlines at midday when I was due to fly 10 hours prior, and I had a new booking in 2 minutes. Ta!

Riyadh is pretty cool. It does match up to the media hype about being reasonably strict implementing Sharia law. My mate Arafat who lives here insists that the country is modernising rapidly. He says I wouldn't recognise the place if I came back in a year's time. Meanwhile, the country only just approved its first cinema in the more liberal city of Jeddah. Although separate queues families and singles still exist at most Starbucks, McDonalds and Tikka Curry houses. Even in the family eating section of the mall food court has partitions that you can put around your family's table. Privacy is serious business and watch out if anyone sees you mis-eat your shwarma. But I dare say a large part of what Arafat says is true, which makes what it *used* to be, a rather draconian place.

The country is offically ruled by King Abdullah however internally, the country's leadership and laws is a hybrid between the Wahabbis and the monarchy. Back in the early 70s, King Faad was trying to modernise the country faster than what the conservative population was happy with. The religious elite wanted no business in their rapid westernisation and occupied the mosque at Mecca. Now apparently the monarchy used some elite guards and put the wrong gas cantisters. Instead of tear gas, it was "waste those dudes" gas and most of the occupiers were killed. In the aftermath, a "gentlemans aggrement" was reached where the sharia law would be administered by religious elites and everything else by the monarchy. So when the shops close down five times a day for 30 minutes' prayer time (Salar), this is a fatwa.

The entertainment side is a bit lacking, but there are a couple of people I know already who I can go out with. Arafat and I cruised out for a couple of hours of pool the other night. And I went out with another collegue for a BBQ last night with a bunch of Westerners. And most cool is the two squash courts in the hotel. Was like the hotel in Abu Dhabi that I stayed at for two months. AAaah, room 629.

Time to head back to the hotel and post this on the intertubes.