It Never Rains In Southern Riyadh

Written on 3-26-10

Last night I was missing everyone real bad and I decided I really needed some good sleep so I got myself a full 8 and a half hours, made me feel great. When I woke up I got myself some breakfast and then I was off to the cleaners up the road from the compound. I brought a bunch of clothes because the guys here that use the cleaners always get hangers in return. So soon I will be able to hang up some of my stuff. I went up to the cleaners with my friend from Australia, Tony. Great guy, really almost all the people I have met here have been really great people. Everyone is down to earth and can joke around with each other.
After I took my clothes in I went for some exercise so I walked down this trail that runs outside of the compound. Since I am injured I have not been able to exercise the way I need to. I tried to do a little work out the other day by doing a bit of swimming in the pool but my ribs hurt like hell after and I decided I need to give myself way more time to heal. So this walk was a much needed thing. It is a weird feeling walking down a rocky road and there are not really any people around. It is a very sobering experience. Worry not my friends Carlos kept his head on the swivel while I listened to some hip-hop in my Mp3 player. Just a walking and hearing music from home creates a feeling of normalcy in my mind. Also I saw a police car drive back and forth every 10 min. I think because I was walking near one of the Saudi Families Palaces. In my picture you can see the high wall and a small part of the Palace in the background. So I got a 45 min work out in and on my way back to the compound the wind started to kick up more than normal and with wind comes sand. I was ready though, I had my bandana put it on my face and I was good… Well almost I was fortunate enough to suck down a good amount of sand before I got the mask on, but real men can breath sand ; )
After the walk I took a ride with Tony and my cab driver Amin. Amin took us to this car sooke. This place was massive and there were cars everywhere. It’s hard to explain how big this area was and how many cars were out there.
The place was alive with people yelling and trying to make deals and vendors selling peanuts, water, soda and food. If I stopped to look at a car for a sec the guy who was trying to sell it would start talking to me in Arabic. When I try to explain “ no Arabia ,Amerikii” they lean back look at me and think I’m full of shit. I heard more than once “you no Saudi?” It was a really incredible experience.
Me Tony and Amin walked around for a hour and a half and only got to look at a 1/16 of all the cars in this place. Amin was real great cause he would tell us which cars were good and which ones not to bother he would also speak to the guys selling the cars and work deals. When you look at my pictures of this place keep in mind what you see is only what can fit in the frame. I will try to take a panoramic shot of it the next time we go.
My goal is to find a car I would not normally get in the states. Here gas is not a problem. For example I saw a 2002 Lincoln LS with a V8 for 17,500 Saudi Ryials which is about $5,300 American. I would love to own this car, but we will see. I’m still keeping my eyes open for a Imprezza Sti or a Mitsubishi Evolution. Oh and gas here right now is 17 cents a liter, which is 68 cents a gallon. Anyway, the place closed before we could see everything so me and Tony decided we need to go back another day when we can spend way more time.
After that I had Amin drop me in downtown Riyadh so I could eat dinner with my buddies at the hotel. After dinner we walked to the mall, walked around and stopped by starbucks to sit outside and drink some coffee. While we were sitting outside it started to rain. It drizzled a bit last night and that blew me away but today it actually rained. Now Saudi Arabia averages 4in a year and I think this was the whole years worth of rain today. I have never been so happy to see rain.
After the guys went back to their rooms I waited around for Amin to come and pick me up so if you know me I didn’t just sit in the lobby of the hotel I went out and explored for about a hour. In the main part of the city it’s much harder to get lost. So I stepped out of the hotel and just made a right and explored. I found some real cool shops and I also found a area where they sold a bunch of computer stuff. There were these guys in the street that would walk up to me holding disc in hand but instead of movies they were selling pirated computer programs, but a few strides away I found a guy who sells the movies” Praise Jesus!” I finally found me some movies. So I picked up 6 very recent movies for 10 ryial each which is about 3 bucks(”Yeaaaaaaa !!!)
Tonight my goal is to post all the pictures of today, so you can see what I saw. FYI, I also posted some other pics on facebook.
Talk to you soon.