Yanbu

Last week, I decided I would check out Yanbu on the weekend, so I arranged to go with an English  Co-worker. By providence, a  mutual colleague, an American has planned to go there at the same time. We'll call the Englishman "The Brit" and the American "The Yank". (No offense, if you guys are reading!)

It only takes about an hour and a half to get to Yanbu from Rabigh, and time went quickly, and we had lively conversation the whole way. Yanbu is a small city, of somewhat less that two thousand people. It's split into two areas: "Old Yanbu" (or simply Yanbu); and "New Yanbu" (or Sinaiya). The Brit and I had planned to go the bookstore in Old Yanbu, so The Yank dropped us off and went to New Yanbu to meet  his friend. Jarir Bookstore, it turned out was only one story, but very large indeed.

We went to the Jarir bookstore for the purpose of finding English books--something or a rarity if Saudi Arabia...come to think of it, if Rabigh is any indication, books in general are something of a rarity here. Except for the Koran, of course. Anyway, Jarir, had quite a good selection. I got handy Arabic phrasebook, and a copy of Crime and Punishment, which cost me a mere fifteen riyals. In addition to carrying books, Jarir, also carries electronics. I was able to price out cellphones, TVs and projectors while I was there. they even had video games and consoles. Next month, perhaps I will go back and buy a bunch of stuff. It was really big in there, and we must have spent an hour looking around. The Brit came out with a stack of books.

After a bite to eat, we took a taxi to New Yabu, which took about fifteen minutes...it's really far away enough, and certainly different enough to be considered it's own city.  Old Yanbu is nothing special to look at. It's crowded, not laid out very well. To be honest, it's rather dirty, and not much to look at, either. It reminded me of the older parts of big Korean cities. Sinaiya couldn't have been more different. Created by royal commission, the whole city was planned out--very well. The roads are of a proper width, there are proper sidewalks, the zoning is logical and convenient, there are long swaths of beautiful parkland along the coast, and best of all: it's not all covered with garbage.  

It was really gorgeous there--it didn't even feel like Saudi Arabia. I imagine Dubai is like Sinaiya. Anyway, The Brit and I did some shopping in a modern grocery store, where he bought smoked cheese, and other delicacies not to be found in Rabigh. I bought some baklava. Eventually The Yank Arrived, and we walked around the seaside for an hour or so.

The Yank was staying so he could go scuba-diving the next day, so me and the Brit went to catch a taxi back to Rabigh. After several attempts to get a cab back to Rabigh from Sinaiya, we relented and went back Old Yanbu to connect from there. We were crammed into a car with two others, minus the driver, who was trying tenaciously to find a fifth passenger. The Brit and I very nearly took another cab, but seeing we were out of patience, the driver got going. We probably should have found a cab for just the two of us, as I had to sit in the middle of the back seat and neither of us were very comfortable...but it was only seventy rials a piece, so we bared with it. Actually, the cab ride back was a lot of fun. We just told jokes and laughed the whole way back. The Saudi must have thought we were mad!

Arabian Food

When I went to Korea, I lost ten pounds in the first month. Despite getting exercise every day, I've gained ten pounds since coming to Saudi Arabia. That's the nature of Arabian food.

Arabians love rice and meat. Often that's all that dinner consists of--about a kilo of white rice and a large portion of lamb, goat, beef or camel. Where's the salad, you ask? What about the soup? It's back in whatever pansy country you're living in. You want vitamins? In Arabia, after your two kilos of rice and meat, you can have a pint full of fruit covered with honey.

Honestly, I'm not sure that some Arabians even know what a Salad IS. Besides rice and meat, other staples are: dates, soft white cheeses of all kinds, olives, flat bread, soft baguettes, nuts of all kinds, halva, and a banana-oatmeal mash covered with honey. Common restaurant foods include: fried chicken (inexplicably referred to as "broast") and fries, kebab, and chicken "sandwiches" (roasted chicken and french fries in soft tortillas). It's as if a panel of experts got together, for the sole purpose of creating the most calorie-laden national menu possible.

The aforementioned juices are a real boon. Soft drinks are ubiquitous, but only slightly less common are fresh juices. Common flavours include: orange, apple, pomegranate, guava, mango, strawberry, and avocado. The avocado juice is surprisingly good...and suspiciously sweet. Actually, you have to be careful of theses fresh juices, because unless you tell them specifically not to add and sugar, they're going to add a ton. Fruit juices are also very common at corner stores and super markets. They usually come in small glass bottle, and contain just about as much sugar as possible, while still deserving the moniker "liquid".

Fortunately, for those who wish to avoid early death from diabetes, there are a range of foreign (non-middle-eastern) foods available, to cater to the various foreigners. The most popular are Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani restaurants, although Filipino dishes are not wholly uncommon, and at one of the hotels here, there is even a Korean menu. Actually, some of the Indian food I've eaten here has been the best I've ever eaten--it's made with fresh ingredients, by real Indians...and it costs about a quarter of what I would pay for it in Canada.

One of the perks of the job is that I get free breakfast and lunch...and the lunch even includes the illusive Arabian salad. Unfortunately, breakfast usually consists of flat bread, various sugary spreads, and either cheese, eggs, or the aforementioned banana-honey-oatmeal. Lunch is a little healthier, but it always includes the requisite kilo of rice, sugary drinks, and sugary rice-based desserts. Buying food isn't expensive, but going out to eat isn't either...which makes it all too easy. I think whatever benefit my body is receiving from it's respite from alcohol, it's being made up for by all the white bread, white rice and processed sugar.

I've already started making and effort to eat more healthy--bringing chopped vegetables and brown flat bread for breakfast...but can I persevere? Can I walk out of Arabia without an extra forty pounds and a set of dentures? We will just see.

Also, it's not good to drink the tap water. Everyone drinks bottled water. Something about being full of minerals. I think it's something to do with being desalinized seawater.

Flora and Fauna of Western Saudi Arabia

It's of the week, and I thought I'd throw up a quick post about some of the plants and animals in the Rabigh area. I apologize, but I don't know the names of any of the plants, except for the date palm. Sorry also to those who visit this blog for the rich narrative; I fear this one may be a bit picture-heavy.

Despite being only a few kilometers from the Red Sea, it's very dry in Rabigh. I've been here for a month, and it has not rained yet. Sometimes the air gets thick and cool, and I am certain that it will start to pour, but every time, I'm disappointed. I'm told it doesn't rain much. Yet somehow, plants inexplicably find root in even the most inhospitable environments.  Sometimes even when there aren't any others for kilometers around.

 

The ground within twenty kilometers of the coast isn't exactly what I would describe as fertile soil, but despite being dry, rocky, and often barren, it's fairly tightly packed. Once you get closer to the mountains, however, there are larger and larger expanses of sand. This doesn't prevent vegetation from growing...in fact, some species tend to thrive in the sandy ground. Like the weird grasses shown below. Their roots go deep underneath the sand and they are very difficult to pull up!

As you might expect, there aren't a huge amount of animals running around. But there are a lot of animal corpses lying about. I guess no one cares to get rid of them, because often all that's left are piles of fur and bone bleached white from the sun. Sometimes they are recognizable as cats, dogs or various birds. Other times, I've got no clue what I'm looking at.

 

There is a stray dog that I see every day at near the entrance to my school.  I feel sorry for the little guy. It can't be easy being a stray in such a dry, hot place--especially for a pooch. Which is probably why you don't see very many of them around. There is, however, a stray cat in every garbage bin. Especially common is the orange tabby. Some people are kind and feed them food scraps, but others are crass and throw rocks. Sometimes they are visibly disfigured.  So, some of them might hesitantly approach you if your offer them food, but for the most part, they are understandably skittish.

In Vancouver, birds are everywhere. Yet here, I don't realize their absence until I come into an area of moderate vegetation, where, unfailingly, there will be a cadre of small finch-like birds--especially if there are human food-scraps to pick at, as in the parks.

Although it doesn't rain much, KSA needs to provide potable water somehow, and here on the coast, they do it through water desalinization. So, although water is still relatively precious, their are a few parks here and there, which are watered by sprinklers. Plant life here has adapted to the scarcity of water. It sucks the ground around it dry, and retains a lot of moisture. The grass has a particularly interesting survival technique. It seems to spread by creeping across the surface, and putting down roots as it goes, instead of spreading like the kind that I'm used to.

The Palm tree is ubiquitous. It grow wilds, but it's probably also the most common intentionally planted plant in urban areas. Palms line the highways on both sides, and sometimes the meridian as well. Sometime they even dominated the sidewalk, which makes driving more enjoyable (but walking inconvenient).

Although the greenery here isn't as common as I would like it to be, it's still here. It's an encouraging reminder of life's tenacious ability to adapt to harsh and inhospitable environments. I often wonder what the landscape must have looked like two or three thousand years ago. I wonder how and when the Arbian ecosystem transitioned from the verdant savannah it must have been at one time to the mostly dry and barren place it is today. I wonder how the process could be reversed.

One idea I have is to set up large fields of solar cells on the fringes of the desert, creating a canopy to prevent water from evaporating, and then using the collected energy to pump in desalinized water to saturate the ground, and allow things to grow underneath. If this were done on a large enough scale, it would effect the water cycle, encouraging rainfall and a self-sustaining ecosystem...food for thought.

Culture Shock

Although I am getting to be something of a veteran  traveler, foreign cultures still surprise me on occasion. Sometimes they make me confused or amused. Sometimes they get me frustrated. But good or bad a bit of culture shock is the price that you pay for moving to a country like Saudi Arabia.

 

One of the most immediately obvious differences between Saudi culture and my own are people's driving habits. Saudis (and expats in KSA), tend to think they are the best drivers in the world. They are not. Drivers here speed. If the sign says seventy, don't be surprised if you see someone driving one hundred forty or over. In big cities like Riyadh, there are cameras that will register your license and automatically send you a speeding ticket. Unfortunately, here in Rabigh, on the fringes of civilization, no such futuristic technology is employed.  Besides the excessive speeding, motorists tend to pay little or no attention to pedestrians--a disconcerting reality in a city without any sidewalks. I was nearly run over a couple of weeks ago by a man in an SUV, going to quickly around a corner, into the wrong lane of traffic. The worst part: I believe he saw me and just expected me to jump out of the way.

My home country is largely atheist, whereas KSA is completely Muslim. As I am beginning to see ever the more clearly, Saudi culture is so infused with Islam that is impossible to imagine what it might be like without Islam. Wahhabism is the style of Islam practiced in KSA. It is very strict. Muslims are expected to pray five times a day. Dating is not allowed. Drinking and taking drugs are not allowed; and women must be covered when out in public. When all of these factors combine, they culminate a totally different social experience.

People don't go out to socialize the way we do in the west. I don't know about elsewhere in KSA, but in Rabigh, there are no cafes (although well paid expats like myself will hang out in hotels). There are no cinemas anywhere in Saudi Arabia, and there are obviously no bars. There are many specialty stores, and there are restaurants, so most of socialization in city centers tends to focus around shopping and eating. There are a few parks here and there, and the beach is very popular. The common social experience here seems to be more of a long, protracted event, relaxing on the beach, camping, with close friends or family, rather than going downtown for a night out with friends.


One of the most difficult things for me to adjust to thus far has been dealing with the shop closures during the four o' clock prayer (asr), the six-thirty prayer (maghrib) and the eight 'o clock prayer (isha). Work finishes at three-forty, and by the time I get downtown it's four. Most of the banks close at four thirty or four forty-five, but the prayer lasts until four-thirty, so the few banks that are left open, attract massive queues. So, there is a window between four-thrity and six thirty, when I can eat or do shopping, and after that, there is a window between six forty-five and eight. After maghrib, shops stay open quite late, but that's little help when you have to get up at six in the morning. Despite the insistence of one of my colleagues, shops have to close during prayer time, or they will get a visit from the police.

Saudis pray hard, but do they work hard? The consensus seems to be resounding "no". KSA is a welfare state and most Saudis seem to do quite well, despite the fact that it's (relatively) rare to actually see a Saudi working. So who runs the shops, sweeps the sidewalks, and builds the buildings? A massive contingent of foreign workers from places like the Philippines, India and Bangladesh. Engineers and skilled tradesmen come in from places like Japan, Korea, Spain and Germany; and educators come from all over. From what I've noticed, Saudis predominantly occupy administrative positions...although its also common to see them working as freelance taxi drivers in Rabigh, at least. 

Because the ratio of foreign workers to native Saudis is so high, the government has implemented legislation requiring employers to have a baseline of  Saudis on the payroll. I've heard stories that some companies will put a Saudi on the payroll, expect no work from him, and just allow him to come by every month and pick up his cheque. I'm a little skeptical, but if I take my students as a clue, I can see it happening. My students (trainees), get hired by companies, then are sent to school to learn English and technical skills to prepare them for their future positions. Their room and board is paid for, and they are given a monthly stipend. Some of them are hard-working, keen to learn, honest and intelligent. The majority, however, possess only one or two of  those qualities. They are for the most part smart guys, but laziness is the rule instead of the exception. This, I'm told, is the legacy of a lack-luster education system. Contrary to my own education, the one Saudis get doesn't seem to teach them about environmental stewardship, either.

Having come directly from Vancouver, where there is a garbage can on every block, recycling is commonplace, and litter is met with contempt, I'm astounded at the low quality of waste management here. If you buy even a bottle of water at the store, they will put it in a bag, which you are expected just to throw on the ground, along with the bottle, when your are done with that. Foreign workers clean the streets and haul the waste off to some central location, but outside the city the garbage never gets cleaned up. People treat county like one big garbage dump. Perhaps it is needless to say, there is no recycling program in Rabigh.Unlike some of my colleagues, I do see a lot of beauty in the environment here--but too often, that beauty gets glossed over, by garbage.

So, there are the challenges, but I don't want to get too caught up in the bad. It's not my purpose to dwell on the negative, only to point out some of the differences because it's interesting. And actually, there are a lot of positives here as well, which I will write about in a future post.

Sand Bogging

Yesterday, I had the awesome opportunity to experience some genuine Saudi culture with some genuine Saudis.

Earlier in the week, I was looking around, trying to find a bank that would exchange some Canadian cash into riyals. Not yet having acquired my residency card (iqama), I wasn't able to open a bank account and exchange my money. I did, however meet a friendly Saudi who worked at one of the banks, and who had spent some time in Canada. After chatting for a while, he offered to take me into the Jebel mountains on the weekend, which I accepted, with only a little hesitation.

So, when the weekend came, I gave my friend a call, and half an hour later he pulled up in a Lexus SUV. I got in and we zoomed out of town towards a small town in the direction of Yanbu. It took about half an hour to get there--but keep in mind that this is half an hour of Saudi driving, so it might have taken me forty-five minutes. This was the first time I had been outside of Rabigh since arriving three weeks ago, so I was very happy to get out.

My Saudi friend's home was a small village, of modest looking, single-story houses. My friend told be that its inhabitants were mostly Bedouins. There, we dropped the Lexus and got into my friend's pick-up truck, and headed farther north. After some time, we slowed down, and turned east off the road, at a place which seemed to me totally lacking in distinction from any other place a kilometer up or down  the road. By my Saudi compatriot, told me he came out this way every weekend, and in fact, only a few generations ago, his family had lived out in the mountains, where we were headed. After a few hundred meters, we stopped the truck to let air out of the tires because with the tires full, the truck would get stuck in the sand.

I'm a bit embarrassed to say, but I did have some small worry that I wasbeing lulled out into the desert on false pretenses only to be chopped up with scimitars for the crime of being a white devil and infidel. Then again, I was going quite far out into the wilderness with someone I had had only just met. Perhaps it's only natural to be a little bit on edge in those circumstances, regardless of what country you are in!

As we got closer the mountains, I got to enjoy a range of ecological features. The ground changed from earthy to rock to sandy and back again. Here there were grasses and shrubs, there there were trees, and in another place there was no vegetation to speak of. As we got higher up, the sand eroded and gave way to pile of huge rocks. There was one gigantic granite boulder that that had been cleanly split in half. According to my friend, it had been struck by lighting, a few years before. We drove around and took pictures for a while, and eventually came back to the main camping grounds.

At the main area, I met some of my host's friends and relatives.  Instead of chopping me into pieces, they offered me coffee. A few of them spoke English nearly as well as me. We had polite conversation, while their children ran around playing. Not far off, you could see vehicles climbing a giant sand-dude and after I while we decided to go to the top. I got a ride on a ATV, and some other when in an SUV.

From the top, there was a landing area and on either side, there were two huge bowls, in which several people were driving their pickups, SUVs and ATVs, racing up the sides and drifting along the lips. It was impressive. It made me think of my home town of Grand Forks, and people riding their snowmobiles in the winter time.

After a while we went down, and had tea and more conversation. After that I got another ATV, ride and before I knew it, the sun was setting and it was time to go. It had an excellent time thank to my excellent hosts. Perhaps saying so sounds a bit contrite, but this was an experience that reminded me that the differences between people from different cultures are for the most part superficial, and that where it counts, human beings are the same, wherever you go.