In a kingdom with no movie theatre, IMAXs are the kings!

Yesterday we discovered an IMAX theatre at the Sci-Tech Museum of Al-Khobar. Since we had spent most of the afternoon chasing flamingos we decided to save the museum for a later visit and checked what was on at the IMAX. Needless to say, no Hollywood movie was on; instead, some Nat Geo documentaries. We decided to go to the next showing, which promised us a journey to Mecca. We’re only a thousand kilometres away now, yet a physical journey there is impossible for us non-Muslims, so we simply let ourselves embark on a virtual trip to Mecca…

A journey to Mecca – in the footsteps of Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta is the Arab counterpart of Marco Polo. They were almost contemporary: while Marco Polo took off in 1271, aged 17, Ibn Battuta left his Tangier home in 1325, aged 21. His first goal was to perform the Haj (Muslim peregrination to Mecca), which he did after 18 months of travel. He then decided to carry on travelling and discovering new cultures. Just like Marco Polo, he only returned home after 24 years of travel and then dictated his story to a scholar. But while “The travels of Marco Polo” was already a popular book in the 14^th century, Ibn Battuta’s “Rihla” (journey) was only re-discovered in the 19^th century and the traveller has grown in fame since then.

Travels of Marco Polo (red) and Ibn Battuta (green) 

Doesn't it give itchy feet?

A sparkle of pink on a cloudy day!

Rainy Thursday, cloudy Friday, sunny Saturday... It seems the weather's playing games just to increase our confusion:

- Look, this is gonna be a nice day!

- What day is it?

- Saturday, perfect!

- Oh crap, gotta go to work!

Anyway we still enjoyed our cloudy Friday, and driving on the Khobar corniche some colourful ladies brightened up our day. We indeed spotted... wild, pink, elegant, gorgeous flamingos! (I insist they have to be females: they look way too graceful to be males!). Lots of them, and many more birds which I would not be able to name. The surroundings do not look very nice, there are tons of garbage around, but somehow they still manage to find decent food, judging by their pretty pink colour.

Have a good weekend!

Today I discovered...

-        … a lovely very cosy coffee shop at the local mall. Will definitely go again as soon as I get the chance (and make sure to take a picture next time!);

-        … that Arab ladies are very friendly in the feminine environment of a coffee shop on a weekday. Some take their headscarves off, showing their smiley face for once and say hello to the other customers. Unfortunately you would never suspect such warm faces would be hiding behind such dark, impressive outfits;

-        … that the Afrikaans language, although having the same roots as Dutch, is not so easy to understand for a Dutch-speaker, and the other way around;

-        … that the Belgium politic crisis is not quite the thing French papers seem to want me to believe;

-        … that South Africa and Mexico have so much in common – good and bad;

-        … that Belgian Egberts coffee is one of the best coffees on earth;

-        … that it feels really good to find a fellow Spanish-speaker in the compound – even if she’s Argentinian ;)

-        … that South Africans are born multilingual and switch naturally from Afrikaans to English and back (while I’m trying to make some sense relating it with German somehow!);

-        … that I’m blessed to be here and get to know such nice people!

Lazy Friday afternoon

Yesterday was Friday, the weekly day of rest in the Gulf countries, and it feels exactly as a Sunday in the Western countries – obviously except for the morning headache! The sun was high and bright when we got up, so we thought a nice walk along the Corniche would be perfect.

The city of Al-Jubail actually has two corniches (seaside roads). Unfortunately, the older corniche faces the high chimneys of Jubail’s industrial corridor, the biggest in Saudi Arabia, hosting 160 industrial companies. Did we really want this kind of view on a sunny Friday afternoon? Not really!

So we headed to another park with its own little corniche, near the new city centre of Jubail. It’s made up of several malls, restaurants, boutiques, banks, etc. in buildings not older than 10 years old and with very neat streets, unlike the old city centre (which will be worth a whole article as soon as I get the chance!).

Have a nice week end!

Turkish… delights?

Intimidation starts right at the door!

Having travelled mostly to European countries before, I’d never thought I might one day find it quite intimidating… going to the toilet!

Around here it happens to me every time I go to a public toilet at a mall or a restaurant.

Here are a couple of rules to get over this delicate situation:

1)   Don’t go during prayer time, for the corridor leading to the toilets will probably be crowded by ladies kneeling down on their prayer mats, which can be quite impressive at first sight.

2)   If you’re lucky, you can pass on to rule 3). If not, and it’s almost always my case, the first door you will push will open on to a relatively clean yet horrible Turkish toilet (squat toilet)! And if, like me, these things traumatised you as a child, you will then have to take the expression of disgust off your face and carry on to the next door to see what’s hiding behind! Repeat until you find a proper toilet seat.

3)   When you’re finished and go wash your hands, you should then avoid looking in the mirror: it’s no place to check your hair or make-up: Can’t you see you’re the only one showing your hair and wearing make-up here? While you concentrate on not looking in the mirror, you can observe that the Saudi women, instead of looking in the mirror, take up their face veil and wash their face thoroughly (I’m talking about great splashes of water here!) 

I suppose wearing a face veil must feel like wearing a face mask; after a while the skin just feels kind of dirty and sticky.

4)   Concentrate on looking “modest” until you finally come out of the toilet with a triumphant look on your face: you made it!

Meet my lovely neighbours!

Once settled in our new home it was about time to introduce ourselves to our neighbours (without any basket of muffins, I’m not so desperate to be liked… yet!).

Each house is divided into 2 symmetrical homes
Left part of the house: our neighbours / Right part: us

So there we were, knocking at their door, not knowing who it would open on… And so we met Gregory, who immediately called his wife Ronelle and his son Timothy to come and meet us, then invited us to sit and have a cup of coffee. They’re South Africans, as apparently most of the people on the compound, have been here a year and plan to stay in the Gulf for another couple of years. They explained that living in the Northern Hemisphere is of great advantage for them, since they’re able to travel to many more places than they would from South Africa. Everything is at a reasonable distance, easily covered with any, say, Emirates flight (Dubai remaining the biggest hub in the region). Their son studies at an international high school in Jubail and particularly enjoys French lessons there (his dad says it might be due to the French teacher; I wouldn’t be surprised, this happens more often than you’d think!).

So they seem to enjoy life here, and they’ll probably have useful tips for us newbies in the city. Did I mention they’re really nice, and we’re lucky to have them as neighbours?  

I am Filipino, hermano!

Yesterday I had lunch with a Saudi entrepreneur and his assistant Jayson. As his name doesn’t tell, Jayson is Filipino; he’s part of the million and a half Filipinos working in the Kingdom, and had some very interesting facts to share!

Jayson came to Saudi Arabia through the intermediary of a work placement agency in the Philippines, which helped him find a job in Saudi Arabia and obtain a visa. So he landed 3 years ago in this foreign country and started working as an engineer in a Saudi company. Of course his first month salary had to go straight to the work placement agency, but still the salary he would receive in the following months was much of an improvement compared to what he used to earn back home.  

The Philippines, he says, is becoming overpopulated and it’s getting harder and harder to find a job. In 2010, the population was estimated over 92 million people, and given the relatively limited size of the country, the density is over 300 men / km2, which is 25 times Saudi Arabia’s! That’s why more and more Filipinos are coming to the Kingdom; Jayson is even considering bringing one brother along, or should I say one “hermano”???

Well “hermano” was the first Filipino word of my lesson!  It wasn’t a language lesson though, but a history lesson I’d like to share: the Philippines were indeed conquered by the Spaniards in 1565, and they remained there over 300 years (during which they were administrated from Mexico City! Only until 1821, but that’s another story…). They left a large Catholic community, an “Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española”, and several Spanish words incorporated into Filipino / Tagalog, such as: servesa, kabayo, bentilador, bangketa, kabanya, and of course hermano!

First step into Saudi Arabia

King Fahd Causeway - Coming from Bahrain

Arriving to Saudi Arabia by land from Bahrain, my first encounter was – logically – with an immigration agent at the border, in the middle of the King Fahd Causeway. 

King Fahd Causeway
Entering the KSA and looking back towards the border

I can’t really say much about this first Saudi encounter, since it seems all immigration agents are alike: not very talkative, and (almost) always more interested in their private discussions with their colleagues than in clearing you.

Anyway, the Saudis khaki uniform does impress a bit, and since I already knew the procedure I quietly pressed my fingers onto the reader’s glass (first the 4 fingers –    index to little finger, left and right hand, then both thumbs), and I patiently waited for him to take my picture.

 And there I was, cleared into Saudi Arabia!