After the glittering towers of Dubai arrival in Riyadh is something of an anti-climax, seemingly moving back in time to the late 1980’s. Indeed the skyline something more akin to the Dubai of 1988 of Michael Palin’s account of ‘The Creek’ in the BBC TV series ‘Around the world in 80 days’.
My Saudi adventure began in 2010, arriving at the end of August during Ramadan. For those first few weeks I was living in a hotel with a great view of the city. The first day was a bit of a revelation, having arrived at 5.30 in the morning I was wide awake by 8.30 anxious to make contact with the people who had recruited me, to find that the office is two doors away, having understood that there is no rush, I take my time to get ready and step outside at about 10.00. Now when I experienced the middle east in January it was a ‘pleasant 28 degrees. I have just stepped out of an air conditioned environment into 48 degrees...wow that is like stepping into a furnace, so a short walk across the forecourt of the adjacent hotel, across the shared forecourt of car rental offices, and into the cool of the lobby that is going to become very familiar to me in the coming months, and no sweat, I mean literally there is no perspiration at all the air is so dry that it has evaporated off
I had heard that women are not permitted to work in Saudi, but it was still a shock to step out of the lift and see three young men sitting behind the reception counter, and to find myself in a totally 100% male office. A quick tour of the office and introduction to my new colleagues many of whom very quickly became my friends, it seems that nobody is expecting me, it has only taken two months of bureaucracy to get here! So it is a find out who is on vacation and use their desk until they return scenario. Having been located in an office and set up on said absent collague’s machine, it is time to find out what we are working on, and ‘learn the project’. Apparently I have two weeks to learn about a joint venture with Foster and Partners, and in the process learn about far more than the project, about whole new cities being built, high speed rail links where there is currently only desert, and a Kingdom that is serious about modernising albeit at a slow controlled pace as opposed to the mad rush of Dubai.
As I mentioned it is Ramadan so consumption of food and water in the office is forbidden, in fact I have not heard the word 'forbidden' used so much as on arrival in the Kingdom, so it is a return to the hotel and order room service routine, on returning to the office for the afternoon stint, the office empties at 4.00 except for the non-Muslims who have to work the full hours, and the consumption of water and coffee is permitted to resume. The next morning the office is still only populated by the sparse few expatriates that I met the day before, and it is only after 10.00 that the food and drinks have to be put away.
The office like the hotel is west facing has a stunning view of the skyline, where the skyscrapers number two, as opposed to the rapidly approaching two hundred of Dubai. Viewed across a constant plane of blocks punctuated by the occasional tree, the two towers define the main strip that runs North-South and are about a mile apart, Foster’s Faisaliah Tower at the South end and paints a delicate silhouette against the orange glow of the setting sun, Ellerbe Becket/Omrania’s Kingdom tower at the North end takes on an ethereal appearance as the light reflecting on the facade causes the tower to blend with the sky, almost disappearing then reappearing as the colours change. In between the two towers mid-rise blocks and blocky stumps with the occasional tower crane hint that the two towers are likely to be joined by a few more in the coming months.
The evening call to prayer from the Mosque opposite forms a tranquil soundtrack to the sunset, as the light reflects off the rooftops before fading to a dusky glow and then the fall of darkness. The hotel begins to fill up as people gather in large numbers to open their fast, actually large numbers of men as women are quickly whisked away into a blacked out room where ‘ladies parties’ occur, this new life in the Desert is going to take a bit of getting used to...
No comments:
Post a Comment