First day in Saudi Arabia

Tue, 7 Apr 2009 15:37:41 +0300

We had the chance to visit Paris yesterday. We were all a bit jet-lagged (some more than others), but it was great to visit Notre Dame early in the morning and have a café au lait with my mom and sister Sarah who are there.

A bit sleepy on the RER into Paris.

Graffiti in Paris

Mom and Sarah and Manolo
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I'd like to stress that the BELOW blog is all from opinion and first impression and any information contained may be inaccurate. This blog is strictly based on our very short term experiences in the areas and are intended not to be biased, but rather purely first-impression experiences.

Today, we woke and ate breakfast in the hotel lobby. Most of the food was the traditional "English Breakfast" (eggs, beans, bacon, etc) with a few local dishes like potato bread and some kind of green curry dish. The bill was 90 riyals per person (or about $30), but luckily, it's covered by the rooms. We went out into the city to visit a huge fortress that was built in the early 1900s. From this castle was launched the attacks that unified all the Saudi tribes into a kingdom in the 1950s. Riyadh was a population of 7,000 about 25 years ago. Now it is over 7 million. The walls are 2 meters thick and have long holes where long gun barrels could shoot any invading armies.

Across the street from the fortress was the square where on Fridays (which is the equivalent of their Sunday, prisoners or murderers are executed. See picture below:

It's very, very bizarre to walk down the streets and see absolutely no women. None. If you see one, they are completely covered up down to their toes. Even their eyes are covered by dark sunglasses. The liberal women may show their eyes, but that's it. There are "religious police" who can arrest women for walking around without supervision of either their brother, husband or father. Women can not drive and only 5-10% of the work force is women, who are doctors or to some high profession. If a man goes to eat lunch, his kids and his wife must wait outside and not enter the room with him.

We then visited the market where every vendor essentially sold the exact same things: incense, sandals, funky jewelry. There were a few women around, but they were from eastern Asia. We saw only two kids during the whole visit.

The "old part" of Riyadh is crumbling and the idea of "preservation for old buildings" has not yet come across.

Tonight, we will play at the residence of the Ambassador where they have set up a nice stage with the American flag as the backdrop. They setup a small dance floor, amusingly. Woman of course are not allowed to dance, so I feel the dance floor will not be used. We are the first Cajun band to ever play in Riyadh, but I believe Beausoleil was in Jeddah about 18 years ago (which is where we will be on Friday).

Middle East

First day in Saudi Arabia