57 - Saudi Arabia

'Would you like a guide book for Oman?', said the Dubai Duty Free assistant unhelpfully. You see I'd asked him for a copy of the Lonely Planet Guide to Saudi Arabia, it does exist, I know it does. You can buy it from Amazon. Why would a guide book to Oman be of any use to me if I was going somewhere completely different? It's not like it's a decent second best.

Anyhow, after a smooth two hour flight and a surprisingly long drive from the rather shabby King Khalid Airport to downtown Riyadh I am now in my (wireless equipped) hotel room which will be my home for a month until I can sort out more permanent accommodation.

My first impression as we flew in was that Riyadh looks like Dubai a decade ago. Scattered low rise buildings with roads snaking off into the dark desert. My hotel is in the shadow of the 300m high Al Mamlaka/Kingdom Centre tower which to me looks like a giant potato peeler.

The posh 5* hotel that you
can see from my hotel.

When you arrive in Riyadh as a first timer you have to give scanned fingerprints and have your photo taken, fortunately as the plane was almost empty there were no queues but oddly after my scans I was told to sit and wait five minutes before being told to proceed to baggage recovery. That was a very long five minutes, I sat wondering what the scan had revealed about me.

The shop next door will come into
its own if I need some trays.

I've brought two Macs with me and I was a bit worried that they would be impounded at the airport for inspection but I wasn't even stopped as I walked through which was a relief. My preconception about Riyadh, namely that you get whipped for only wearing one pair of trousers, was proved unfounded.