Back in the sands...

Afternoon all!

Another week goes by and I do another trip to Saudi Arabia, my most favourite place in the world, not! I did a job in the middle of the desert in the south of Saudi Arabia. This site was as remote as they come. We were 200 km from Sharoura and 160 km from Najran. Nothing but the cement plant in between. The only thing that was good was the drive back to Najran. We were on the main road to Najran when the saudi driver asked me if I fancied a short cut. Well, driving the deserted roads in the south is boring at the best of times so I agreed. It should knock of about half an hour of the 2 1/2 hour drive...

So the guy hits the brake and leaves the road and starts racing across the sands!

At some point he tells me that one of his mates has a camel farm just up the road (well, road...) and would I like to see it... So we swung by and low and behold, in the middle of nowhere there was this herd of camels eating the sparse grass... The tents were where his mate lived... They were bedouins...

Thats the camels... Smelly bastards...

This was the view 360 degrees around for half an hour... Luckily we were driving a big Toyota Landcruiser Patrol with big balloon tires on it...

When we finally made it back to the road this was the first availabe gas station... Modern stuff 'ey?

When I finally got to England after a two hour flight to Dammam, a 7 hour wait at Dammam airport, a 6 hour flight to Amsterdam and a 1 hour flight to Heathrow, I arrived at 7 in the morning and it was snowing. So in 24 hours from 35 degree heat to -2 degrees was a bit of a shock to the system... Then when we were bombing down the M25 we saw at least 5 shunts and crashes in the snow on the motorway. When we made it to the A120 my taxi driver took a corner a bit too fast and he lost it. We ended up sliding across two lanes before we ended up skirting along a banked side of the road. The car nearly ended up on the roof but with an incredible amount of luck the car swerved back on to the road and we managed to get back to Sudbury with only some cosmetic damage to the grill and front bumper... Scared the crap out of me though... (Ron, if you want to wake me up in the taxi you can just shout you know...)

By the way, KLM was on top form again. They lost all my luggage on the way back. Saved me having to wait on my suitcases and having to carry them myself. They dropped them off half a day later, incompetent bastards... At least I have made Platinum again on Skyteam...

Next week I believe I am off to Ecuador. I have to go back to Guayaquil for a small 4 day job. After that I should be Turkey for a week and that should be it for the year... Thank god, it has been a hectic year, I will not forget 2008 in a hurry...

Cheerio,
Alex.

Saudi Arabia (The Sandpit...)

Afternoon all...

Its been a while since I updated, I have been busy, private stuff...

At the moment I am in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh doing some training for a few customers. The work is going ok, at least the weather is nice. When I left England a few days ago it was snowing like the clappers but here its nice, a balmy 25 degrees. I've got one more day in Riyadh and then
I'm off to Jizan in the south. I was going to post some piccies but this bastard hotel (Holiday Inn) won't let me upload anything on to their PC. For which they charge me 5 quid per hour to use...

Yesterday after work I went to visit the Kingdom tower. This is a new 99 story building in Riyadh. When I got there they charged me 25 riyal to go up to the top and then they confiscated my camera as there were no pictures allowed from the top. When I got to the top on to the Skybridge (950 foot up) there were loads of Saudi up here happily clicking away with their cameras. So I had to sneak some piccies on my mobile. I'll post some when I get back from the sandpit (Saudi Arabia).

I also went shopping in the Batha Souk in Riyadh last night. You really can tell the difference between 15 years ago, when I lived here for a year, and now. I was the only white face on the streets, no other foreigners anywhere. Still, the grilled lamb kebabs were good and if you are in the market for 22 carat yellow gold, this is the place. 15 years ago the place was full of expats doing their amateur haggling but now its all indians and pakistanis doing the trading...

One thing was great, when I was here in 1991 my favourite restaurant was Al Nafoura, a lebanese showarma place. I was hoping to find the place again and wheyhey! I did! It is now a chain of three restaurants and one of them is just outside my hotel, ace! I have eaten there every night for the last three days, they still do the best chicken kebab in the world. Tonite I might have to eat there again, I'm already drooling for more...
(There you go, that is what a non-alcohol country does to me, I turn into a gastro freak. No booze here, no bars, no women, no nothing, only Al Nafoura!)

OK, I'll update again when I get access in Jizan on the Yemen border,

Take care,

Alex.