Al Gosaibi Al Khobar

... like formations, but it was still night and I couldnt really see much. I took catnaps now and then - the driver did take his liberty at frequent stops at motels. Then at around 4:30 I noticed that we were breezing through Riyadh, the capital city. All lit up and with flyovers, I knew it would be a beautiful city to look at in the day too.

It was around 7:30 AM that I was jolted out of a doze, and what: I found myself right in the middle of a folktale from the ...

Not much - just waiting at the airport for the flight! Bahrain was both nicer and more boring than I thought, the weather is a lot more forgiving but it's not worth more than about 3 days exploration tops.. Unless you like to get really nittygritty :P

... and also not having any male family members with us [women are not allowed to cross solo, nor are they allowed to drive in Saudi!], we didn't even bother to attempt to cross the real border to go into Damman [although I wanted to..], so Saudi exploration will have to wait until I'm married :P [I have no brothers and my dad would much rather go anywhere else but a hot desert!]

... being Ramadan pretty much everything was shut! And it was roasting hot, if cooler than Dubai would be, so I grabbed a few provisions from the supermarket and retreated to the hotel room!

We might go explore the restaurants later tonight [will probably end up in Hard Rock Cafe.. when it comes to Arabic food we're not the most adventurous!] and we'll see what happens tomorrow! Leaving tomorrow night though.. It's a nice little country though. If a bit small and empty :)

... it to back home.  It was pretty much the same, but the sauce was a little different (and not in a good way for me), and fries were pretty much the same too (though these ones not particularly fresh).

OK, so time to come clean.  With the family at home really worried about me being in Arabia (especially Pop), I'd been trying to keep from scaring them.  All of my trip was basically safer than being in certain parts of Atlanta, except for Yemen, but tried to keep this on the down ...

... less than 3)---everything was on paper and the guy was placing copies all over the place, adding things, and stapling. It was now past 9 and the taxi still wasn't here. While checking out, the admin from the local company called and said they were sending someone to pick me up. We cancelled the taxi, but this meant that I would probably get to the plant even later. Had to wait another 15-20 ...

... but I guess I could see it if it was for education and/or avoidance of cultural influence.

We stopped off at a Hyper Panda, one of the largest retailers in Saudi, which was basically a big mass merchandiser like a Wal-Mart superstore, but more food and less clothes, toys, electronics, etc. I took a bunch of photos of the company’s products and shelves of interest to some of our current projects. Next a walk down the (internal] strip mall so a store ...

... Western hotels do). Apparently Riyadh has some women-only clubs. I wondered how women get exercise (particularly since Saad expressed how much he likes to get exercise) since only men have these sports opportunities. In other conversation, Saad mentioned to Farhad that his treadmill was broken at home, so I guess that’s one way.

We had planned to grab a quick, fast-food dinner afterwards. Saad mentioned several options, I suggested something ...

... people on the teams. The thorough documentation I had completed was considered valuable and helpful to the Quality and Engineers I worked with, particularly due to the inclusion of pictures.

Lunch was at around 1:30PM (around an hour) and was fast-food type chicken with onions and mushrooms, soft waffle fries, bread, and tomato/cucumber/lettuce salad. Decent, but greasy and I was still full from breakfast and the fact that it ...

... We even had to jump in for the 21 year old hot female Swedish driver and crowd favourite who we personally witnessed crashing due to a overly large backfire in her hotrod about 3/4 of the way down the track. While we were doing the show we simply hoped she was still alive! It was a unique and uncomfortable feeling. (www.phoenix-productions.net)