I had been on an official trip to Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar) and UAE (Dubai) and to Oman (Muscat) on the way returning back. This trip was on behalf of my employer - Wipro Ltd and it was between 25th of March 2007 and 12th April 2007. I wrote my travelogue in 5 parts and it is now available for your reading.
Here goes the travelogue Part III....
My third and final write-up about Saudi and being in Saudi.. Am writing this from the Saudi airport. In some hours, I'll fly out of Saudi..
I wrote earlier that women in Saudi should wear purdah rite?? I only recently understood that its applicable not only for saudi female, but to all female in saudi, even other countries, other religions - whoever it may be.. in the city where i am - al khobar, the black dress is sufficient. but in Riyadh (capital of saudi), they need to fully cover their faces so, only the eyes will be seen, even the legs are to be covered with socks...
I told about Family section in restaurants rite?? Even in that family sections, there are internal partitions (screen clothes, windows etc) so that the male of one family doesnt see the other family's lady... (I was wondering how unlucky young boys and girls are)
Getting people for working is bit difficult here in saudi.. infact, once a proj manager needed to convince a new job applicant saying that he will tell his wife to speak to the new person's wife to that saudi is not a bad place to work.
but inspite of all these, people (incl women) are happy only, adapting to the situations and leading their life..
In the absence of theatres or other forms of entertainment, the time pass areas are big malls, parks and restaurants.. u can find a lot of these in saudi.. as these are the only places where ppl can spend their time...
May be some of you will know this.. The city in which am is Al Khobar. In this, the term "Al" is a very very common term, almost all names, all places will start with Al... It stands for respect like Shri / Beloved / respectful.. If i stay here for some more days, my name will also change as Al Gowri Shankar, (u know, even the king of saudi is very respectful to me).
One more word i want to give meaning - "bin".. Its not ur dust bin / recycle bin.. Osama bin Laden... bin means "son of".. That is they name people with their name + bin + father's name., In our example, his name is Osama and his father's name is Laden. It can also be kept as "My name" + bin + "father's name" + bin + "grand father's name".
If i ask you in what direction are letters and numbers written in arabic, you will unanimously answer "right to left". But if this is your answer, you are only partly right.. Number are written only from left to right like any other language... Confusing?? If you want to write Internet in arabic, u'll write "TENRETNI" (read right to left). But if you want to write "Internet 420" in arabic, you will write "420 tenretnI". Thus, For writing "Discount 50%", it is "%50 tnuocsiD".
When the king of Saudi is referred, the phrase "Custodian of the two holy mosques" is added to his name... Its obvious that the 2 holy mosques are mecca and medina..
There is no income tax for indiviuals in Saudi ( guess the case is same in other gulf countries as well). whatever you earn is for you only... no excise, no sales tax, no service tax... Only 72 companies are listed in Saudi stock exchange and there are a very few big companies, but those are very big.. Saudi treats US as its close ally and thinks only bcoz of US, it grew like this.. A very big company here is Aramco - its nothing but Arab America Oil company.. US has its air base here (particularly used in the gulf war against Iraq).
Saudi Railway organisation was recently launched and there is only one route - Damam to Riyadh.. Yesterday night, i wanted to see the train and i went to the railway station. But its like airport, only if u have ticket u r allowed inside the platform and your baggage is screened in the gate.. Since I was not allowed inside, couldnt gather much info about it..
Do u equivalent of paise to sadui riyal? its called halala i.,e 1 riyal = 100 halala...
Thats it as of now. If i remember anything more, will write you later..
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