Out of Riyadh

I had a meeting to attend in Dammam and after seeking advice it was suggested to me the best mode of travel was by road utilizing my car and driver.  So Ghaleb collected me from the villa in the morning and we set off for Dammam.  Now Dammam is in the east so I was rather relieved when Ghaleb pointed the car towards the rising sun.  However that didn’t last very long as he quickly did a ‘U’ turn and had us going West.  Then he decided to go north before again heading East.  But then he turned south and after stopping for instructions, decided to again go West.  Obviously my sense of direction is better than his, or maybe my geography is better!  Anyway I decided to involve “Felicity” and see if he would take instructions from a lady.  Now “Felicity” is the name we have given the female gps voice.  She is very patient but I’ve discovered she cannot pronounce Arabic street names.  Consequentially Ghaleb didn’t understand what she was saying.  However it is possible he wasn’t prepared to take instructions from a female? Nevertheless, between Felicity and myself we managed to get the car pointing in approximately the right direction.

Felicity hadn’t started when the above photo was taken.  I just wanted to point out the road works down the centre of the road.  The Saudi’s are removing the major intersections by creating a grade interchange.  They are moving the centre six lanes below ground level and building bridges across these sunken lanes.  This allows the traffic to keep flowing.

The reason why I have included the above photo is because there’s a damned great mosque to the left of the furthest left streetlight pole.  You can see the two large and two small minarets and part of the dome.  It appears there is a mosque in every block. 

The Saudi’s are very much into shopping (what else is there to do?) and whilst there are thousands of small shops they have also started to build vast shopping malls.  The one on the left in the photo below is Centrepoint. I’m going to visit one of the larger malls just to see what’s inside.

Of course you can’t have malls unless you are demolishing the existing buildings and there are certainly plenty of signs of demolitions.

As you get towards the outskirts of Riyadh the freeway (motorway) becomes elevated and it is possible to look down upon the suburbs.

Most of the buildings have what looks to be a small shed on the roof.  It’s actually a cover over the water tank.

There is a slight rise in altitude leaving Riyadh where the road to Dammam passes over a small series of rolling hills and up onto a desert plateau.

On either side of the road there are the tents of nomads who appear to be happy eking out an existence from the desert.

As nomads they are obviously not raising crops.  Rather they tend to their livestock which is mostly camels, although I did see goats and some sheep.  Frankly there didn’t appear to be much fodder for sheep.  The camels and goats appeared to be surviving on the small amount of dried shrubs.

I’ve included the above photo of two reasons.  Firstly to show you the earthen berm that some nomads have constructed around their tents.  I assume this reduces the wind factor and also assists in the control of their livestock.  The other reason is to point out the rubbish.  Almost every item purchased comes with a plastic bag and they aren’t recycled.  Instead millions of them are discarded and are blown by the wind where they snag on the fence lines.  The road to Dammam has a fence line on either side.  One assumes it is to keep the camels separated from the vehicles.

We had travelled less than 100kms when Ghaleb needed to stop and fill the tank.  Yes, we had left Ruyadh with almost an empty tank!  Fortunately there are regular road houses (Motos) along the highway.

I don’t know which interior decorator designed the colour scheme but it sure stands out!  Now you don’t fill your own vehicle.  Pump attendants do that.  They look very much like low paid expats from Africa.  So Ghaleb filled the tank (3 pounds & fifty pence).  Told you petrol was cheaper than water!  Like all good Moto’s this one had a Saudi version of the ‘Travelodge’ for travellers who wanted to rest.

I know…. the colours scream at me too!.  You may not be able to see it but the sign above the door includes the letters V.I.P.   I was too scared to ask what they meant!

So five hours later we arrived in Dammam.  I had booked a room in the Novotel and will leave you with a photo of the Novotel entrance sign in Arabic.  Tomorrow I’m heading to Bahrain to renew my visa.