15 – At The Villa

From our roof: a compound across the street

The villa is a three-story, five-bedroom compound.  Yes, it’s a compound; the building is surrounded by a ten-foot tall concrete wall.  You enter through a heavy wrought iron door with frosted Lexan inserted between the wrought iron layers.  It slams solidly enough to make you careful about finger placement.  This is what Rasheed led me through after we arrived.
 

From our roof: a compound across the other street

Just inside the door is a brick courtyard large enough to park two cars – which is what it is designed to do.  The steel ‘garage door’ is the kind that rolls up and down, very like commercial storm shutters or the things shopkeepers pull down in front of their store windows in the sketchy parts of a city.  Two large canvas umbrellas suspended from steel frames provide shade to cars parked within the compound.

  

We climb three steps to the double-leaved front door with colored and frosted glass. A polished marble floor, marble stairs, ornate wrought iron bannister … it’s an amazing blend of niceties and strangeness.

The materials are incredible; the workmanship less so.  And all the details are slightly off: light switches flip down to turn on, air conditioning is by internal units above the door to each room (with remote controls), the range fits into half the slot in the kitchen counter because the propane tank needs room, the bathrooms have bidets and floor drains covered by chrome disks.  Bathrooms are cleaned, I later learn, by hosing them down through the drain -- even bathrooms in a home.



Entry to the villa

I had arrived with no Saudi riyals.  My bank had warned of excessive fees when doing business in KSA, and of the $5 flat fee for ATM withdrawals, no matter the sum withdrawn.  Hey, I decided, let’s have an adventure looking for an ATM!  My bank suggested using the RiyadBank, since they are somehow affiliated.  Google said the nearest RiyadBank ATM was about 1 km from the office/villa, and my first Saudi adventure was planned.  

Except that after work that evening I went back to the villa, checked Boston emails and, terribly jet lagged, fell asleep.



Cooking with gas!

Woke up about 10:45 and immediately was concerned about making the walk at that hour and – more importantly – being too late to find food.  About that time, two guys from the office walked in the villa’s front door.

“Walking in Saudi is dangerous only from the standpoint of getting hit by a car.  There’s negligible crime here.”

I’m about to find out.

  

Outside was like a sauna, but not unlike the Southland in summer.  Got my bearings quickly and set off.  My hiking reflexes made me note the time:  11 pm.

  

The Danube (a Jeddah-based grocery store chain) was at the end of the block, and it was hopping.  Busy as could be, with cars and pedestrians darting every which way.  I turned left at the corner and headed northeast on Hira Street.  There was a strip of restaurants adjacent to the Danube, and they, too, were hopping.  Starbucks, Roody’s, Baskin Robins, and two or three chocolate shops.

 

Danube and Jeddah from the office: looking away from the Red Sea

Auto traffic was thick and horns were honking from all directions, but not at me.  I checked my watch again: 11:10.  It’s dark, so that would be 11 pm – this was a little confusing, and I force myself to think extra slowly when I am confused.  (Can we blame that on jet lag?  Thanks!)

   

There’s not really a sidewalk on Hira Street.  Some stores and buildings have sidewalks, but it’s intended to be a convenience for customers coming to visit that building, not as a corridor for walking along the street.  The piecemeal sidewalk is not lighted.  Each section is at a different height, from a inch or so difference to as much as two feet.  This is not walking to the ATM, it's hiking.

  
So I stumble along across parking lots, empty lots of sand where there is no building or sidewalk, step up and down to sidewalks where they exist, and clamber across utility pipes.  Strip shopping centers, vilified in the US, are welcome on this  walk  hike: they have level, wide, well-lighted sidewalks.  I pass high-end stores selling designer labels (the big stores are legit, the small shops are counterfeits) and stores selling high-dollar furniture, lighting fixtures, and chocolates.  I pass many cars parked halfway onto the sidewalk, an improvement over the cars parked in the right hand travel lane back at the Danube.  I pass a Bentley pulled diagonally onto the sidewalk with his windows rolled down and six feet of car sticking out into the street.

Typical street: fast lanes left of the concrete separator with occasional access, park wherever you want, and, of course, there no sidewalks

Everybody’s honking their horn like it is a status symbol.  Thawbs and burkas are on 98% of the people walking around, there are a lot of people walking around, and it's almost midnight. 

The RiyadBank is closed.  Not like “Too late, sorry; come back tomorrow.”  Like locked, windows papered over, plywood where the ATM was located. 

No problem.  I’d passed at least two ATMs on the way.  “Let’s turn around, and get some cash at the first available ATM.  Tomorrow will be too busy to get to the bank.” 

There were a couple of guys hanging around the ATM.  I noticed them from a block away, but soon realized they were waiting for a man and his son who were inside.

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The three men and the boy all had on thawbs (pronounced THOBB), which can be as fancy as the burkas mentioned in an earlier chapter.  Embroidered cuffs and plackets, Nehru-style collars, hidden or exposed buttons. 

The men also had traditional Saudi hats: a ghutra.  Other Arabs wear kufis, which are beaded skull caps.  Ghutras come in the traditional white (sometimes textured or with sublimated patterns) and the checkered style alá Yassir Arafat. 

Thawbs look pretty snazzy, actually, because they’re starched and bleached white-white, just like the plain white dress shirts I prefer.  Ghutras look like very practical headgear; the excess can be used to wrap your face to keep out sand or sun.  I'd look pretty cool in Saudi threads.

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Fish killer

 

The minimum withdrawal is $500 SR (about US $125), so that’s what I got.  Stopped at the Roody’s fast food joint to honor one of my daughters-in-law, and was confronted with non-English speakers.  At least that’s what they said.  They were watching a big public rally with lots of chanting on TV, and simultaneous camera views from at least six different cities.  Perhaps they didn’t want to converse with an American while watching an anti-USA rally on TV.  (You do know about my paranoia, right?)

 

Ordered an Arabic Shawarma – which came with the universal side dish of fries – and two cans of Mountain Dew.  Walking in a sauna at midnight will work up a thirst.  Food was good, service was good, TV was interesting, and cans had pop tops that removed from the can.  Haven’t seen those in thirty years.

 

Exhausted, I fell onto the bed fully clothed and slept until 8 am.