Road marking and the supermarket

It’s now three weeks since I first moved onto the Al Yamama compound and this afternoon I decided to go for a walk outside the walls.  Most residents drive out but as I don’t have a vehicle that wasn’t an option.  Anyway, I need the exercise and it was a good opportunity to have a closer look at the entrance.

The following photos were taken using the camera on the phone and I’m not sure if they are an improvement on my earlier efforts with the old digital Pentax camera.

The approach to Al Yamama 2 is on the left and the exit from Al Yamama 1 on the right.  At the end of the hessian screen is the first checkpoint.

The next photo shows the outer hessian screen wall down “my side” of the compound.

This is NOT a major road but you can see it is quite wide. Opposite the compound is a row of private apartment blocks, some of which have businesses on the first floor.

They are either occupied by locals or the “poorer” expat workers.  One apartment building is still under construction and it appeared only the foreman was a legal worker as he was the only one left to continue attempting to finish it!

The potential problem with renting privately rather than from a compound is that whilst you have to pay the entire annual rental in advance, there is a good chance you’ll never have any maintenance done by the private landlord.  But of course, the rent is cheaper.  My preference was to obtain accommodation on a compound and already I’ve had to call in maintenance staff twice.  The standard of workmanship isn’t as good as anything in the ‘west’!

Obvious workers are living in one of the apartment blocks because the company bus was parked out the front.  I wonder how many live in each room?

At the top end of the road is a mosque.  Actually there are at least four mosques within a block of the compound and I’m rather fortunate the closest is on the opposite side to me.  I walked that part of the compound one evening at prayer time and it back blasting the call to prayer into the villas. <I don’t understand how I got that lucky?>

I have gained the impression there is a mosque in every block of the city.  When prayer time hits their loud speakers all burst into life.  I’m starting to learn to regulate my life by the three prayer times that occur during business hours.

Just before the mosque is a small suburban street which I photographed to give you an idea of what a normal suburban street looks like.

Just down from the mosque is a medium size supermarket which I wandered into for a look around.  It was mostly local food and all I need at the moment is some cereal, which they didn’t have!  However I noticed the following sign hanging one aisle.

It’s out of focus but I just wanted to mention it’s not since my days as a single soldier that I’ve eaten ‘canned foul’.  Although I walked up and down the aisle I couldn’t see any on the shelves…… Not that I intended to buy any.  I haven’t eaten foul since I married!

Just around the corner was another of those fast food outlets.  This one sold deep fried rat in 11 secret herbs and spices.

Oh….. The road markings.  There are no painted road markings in the city.  Instead they use what appears to be either small metal or ceramic domes that have been hammered into the bitumen.

The yellow domes are ‘cautionary’ and the white are lane markers <not that many drivers observe them>.  The directional marking are also done using these ‘domes’

My assumption is that whilst the ‘domes’ may be a greater initial capital outlay, they last much longer that the painted road markings.