16 – Miscellaneous Photos

Text can be soooooo boring.  Let’s take a look at some photos!

 

Malls are everywhere.  Haven't been in this one, but I bet it looks like all the others in the world.

Note text in RED for EMPHASIS:  DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKER.

Written Arabic is indecipherable to me.  Like Greek, Japanese, Chinese, and Cyrillic, its alphabet has nothing In common with English.  Did you know it's read from right to left?  Why, of course you did!

 



"Minor sandstorm", he said. "Hardly worth slowing down."  Even with reduced visibility and blowing sand?

Video of the "minor sandstorm" -- make sure to maximize the picture

Turn?  Straight?  Exit?  Honk?  No lane lines, so drive wherever you want; just honk a few times.

King Abdullah

   

King Abdullah Sports Complex, just outside of Jeddah

STOP!  Enough already!

OK.  King Abdullah is indeed the king.  Actually, "Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques", is the King of Saudi Arabia.  He's 88 years old (in 2013) but only ascended to the throne in 2005 when his brother, King Fahd, died.  (Yesterday there were rumors King Abdullah's comatose or functionally dead.) 

The royal family is descended from Abdul Aziz bin Saud who starting conquering neighboring tribes on the Arabian peninsula in the early 1900s.  He unified almost the entire peninsula by 1932, when the kingdom came into being.  The royal family owns everything that hasn't been sold into private ownership.

That means the vast expanses of desert, under which hides almost 25% of the world's oil reserves.

Like most Kings he wants to be remembered.  One way is to build a big soccer stadium in the nation's second largest city, build a port from nothing, and build an economic city in the middle of the desert.  Another is to send bright young people to college for free: like Marlon and Daniel, my roommates, and Faisal from Jeddah, my seatmate on the Munich-Riyadh-Jeddah flight.

All three got engineering degrees, completely free, with no obligation to the King or Kingdom, from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.  Locals -- like me, now -- call it KAUST.

And the stadium, city, and port are required to employ a minimum of 15% Saudis and to purchase local materials if they are available.

That's a nice way to be remembered.