Al Faisaliah, A Rosewood Hotel Riyadh

This is my first entry into a sort of journal for all my family (that includes you too, la famille Coguiec). I had hoped to have started earlier and posted some pictures and info online but there were two major set-backs to this.

First of all, I forgot my camera in England with Rachel in Bournemouth. Silly me! Until I get it sent over then I will just use the camera on my phone which is perfectly adequate for daylight shots. Anything that requires a longer exposure time ...

... the Faisaliah are impressive. Being Ramadan there wasn't much traffic...more on that later.

The compound, al Jazeera, is nice...small, central to the city, good amenities - pool, gym, tv room, small coffee shop. Glenn has a 1 bedroom apartment which has everything he needs, and it is cool. After a quick tour of the place i had a cuppa and off to bed...i mean i haven't seen glenn for months :)

... each year is staggering.

With that delay we passed Makkah then Ta'if, and then it was sunset as yet again we entered the sandstorm areas. We stopped again at a Sapco for sunset prayers, Nusaiba and I causing a stir in the ladies restroom at the masjid -- I gather they don't see a lot of Americans there. When we went in a woman asked where we were from (from our coloring we are obviously not local) and was visibly shocked when I said America, I ...

... popping and we noticed lines of trucks with their hazards flashing as they struggled to keep their vehicles going at the slow rate down the sloping roads. The views are breathtaking. I particularly enjoy the odd assortment of rocky outcrops -- amazing how these jagged towers are shaped by nature.

... small barrier to the families' entrance, and back in again. I shared a small chuckle with the staff as they were the same people, they had just shifted down the counter a bit. I was also the only customer in the store, on either side.

Large mocha chip Frappucino in hand I felt ready to face the next ten hours or so of drive time. We drove quickly along the city highway, not much traffic but still considerable winds and a lot of sand blowing around.

... ventilated, do go straight to ICU, but often we look after ICU "stepdown" patients in recovery before sending them on. I've seen some pretty interesting stuff already - a few MVA's and a partial liver donor this week. Its just taking some getting used to, with all the damn paperwork (so, so much paperwork!) and also their way of doing things. You can't even do the simplest thing such as apply oxygen without a doctor's order! Patients who have a motor block ...

... to a piece of fine gold! The best part of the morning was the fact that the souk was situated on the other side of town, and we had to drive right through the city centre to get there - providing me with some fantastic photo opportunities of the city, typical architecture, and the two famous towers - Faisalliah and Kingdom tower. I've booked in my first lot of leave for late September/early October, and I can't wait! The plan is to head to Dubai for a few days, meet ...

... a new one of my own the other day and found one that was quite nice, although it was a lot of fun trying to get one that would be long enough for me! My villa is quite nice. I have a large bedroom to myself, and a bathroom adjacent to myself as well. The power here is only 110v here, though, so drying my hair just seems to take forever! (I think I could dry it quicker by sticking my head out the window in the heat for a few minutes :P) At least the power adaptors i bought with me ...

... and are either racing against time to cover places they have not been to or simply going to Bahrain again and again for lack of better ideas), contrary to my typical behavior, here I am in the Saudi Air flight to Cairo (chocks off). The original deal was to hit Cairo by 6pm to get into a late night sleeper train to Aswan by 8.40 pm, but that now seems ...

... finally made it to the border. End of the story, pass into Jordan, right? Wrong. First, we went through the preliminary customs check - passports, multiple exit-re-entry visas (which you pay for!) in the passports and valid, istimara (ownership papers for our Trooper). From there we were sent on to the second stage - actually passing out of Saudi into Jordan. Oops - all the computer systems were down! We parked in line and waited, where I met Mahmoud, a Lebanese ...