Four Seasons Riyadh

... she asks me in broken English if I am going to Riyadh or Bahrain. I give her my response and she conveys to me in Arabic that she is doing the same. More silence and I sense that this might be a very uncomfortable situation for her. Ironically, this was the first time I've experienced a flight where people actually rearrange seating once they board based on gender segregation. An elder gentleman dressed in an off-white kaftan in front of ...

I apologise for the lack of actual information on this page. It has been a fairly hectic few days. Needless to day, I have already been in contact with most of you by now and updated you on how the new job was going.<br><br>I, along with another colleague, rented a rather batter, manual gear, Hyundai Accent and took it for a spin for about 24 hours around Riyadh and also out to Ad-Diriyiah. Al-Diriyah is a town in Saudi Arabia located on the ...

... traffic like salmon through a stream not adhering to any road markings but just slotting in where it seemed appropriate using the full width of the road. It was quite a spectacle to see all the other cars doing this too. We were only travelling at about 50 miles p/h but it was a small wonder that there weren&#8217;t any accidents on the way. Aidan also called to confirm that I had arrived safely and promised that he&#8217;d get in touch the next day.<br><br>After about 30 ...

... the Faisaliah are impressive. Being Ramadan there wasn't much traffic...more on that later.<br><br>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 :)

Four weeks later it was time to head for home. We loaded up our car again, although this time our luggage rack on top of the car was completely full, and left Jeddah in the early afternoon.<br><br>We passed through Makkah again on our way, and inevitably we got lost. They have gotten so much better about having street signs, but even so and even with a detailed map of the city, we followed the roads and ended up at a dead end -- specifically a road that ...

When you are entering Riyadh from the east, you pass a lot of agricultural spots -- date farms, dairy farms, fields with modern irrigation equipment. Leaving the city heading west it's as if you have come to the edge of a vast cliff and are now headed down into an enormous valley. Our ears ...

We reached Riyadh close to midnight. My husband's aunt's (by marriage) brother lives in Riyadh, and we usually sleep at their villa and have a meal before heading out again for the longer segment of our journey. Riyadh is a huge city; unfortunately it has only been a stopover point for us, we haven't had the opportunity to spend much time exploring. <br><br>After dinner and a night's rest we left, making a short stop at Starbucks for a Frappucino. I ...

... to prayer is heard over the loudspeakers. You can't interrupt a patient whilst they are praying. You must be ever so mindful of the female patient not wanting to expose her hair - and when transporting female patients, they like to put the sheet over their head to cover until they get back to the ward, where they are allowed to wear their headscarf again. Its a very different feel, and I'm getting there slowly I think! Certainly an interesting experience so far :) Kat

... and around the pool area under these massive fans drinking cocktails... It was like being in a resort! Im fast realising how low standard our compound is in comparison to these! We had a good night there, saw heaps of people I knew from our hospital - it seems to be the place to be on a Wednesday night. I had an absolutely wonderful time at a BBQ I was invited to at another private compound over the weekend. I'm lucky to have found some really awesome friendly people here... Lots of ...

... finding anything. We stopped at several sites, but none yielded the hoped-for results. With the hour getting late and Colin needing to do his homework, we set off for home. We arrived back in Riyadh just in time to (a) be almost out of gas; and (b) right at the start of prayer time. The two make a not-very-nice combination because gas stations are not open during prayer time. Oh oh! So, we found a gas station and sat at it until prayer was over and our tank could be filled ...