Over the Edge, Riyadh Again [English-international]
Christmas in Saudi Arabia, part co-seven (28th December 2024)
In the previous part I’ve laid out the aspects of driving in Saudi Arabia. This time I’m about to describe the activities of voyage’s penultimate day. Let’s delve then into the beauty of the rest of attractions hidden in Riyadh…
The day began with our visit to the Riyadh office of dad’s firm. Saturday is in Saudi Arabia a day slightly similar to what we know in the west. Here it also functions as a day off, but only in the public sector, private emplyers can set working rules according to their preference. Dad’s firm has Polish organization culture, which is why we found the office to be empty, yet full of his anegdotes and fun facts.
The office building was located not too far from the hotel and getting there took us only a moment. It was a tall commercial building with multi-level underground parking, where the company had reserved few spots for its cars. To get to the office one had to go to the lift hall and choose one of the two elevators that stopped on the desired floor or opt for a less maintained freight elevator. All of the cabins opened after scanning the QR code or typing the password, which prevented the unauthorized persons from entering the business premises. The corridor on the floor looked exactly like what you can see in Grand Theft Auto, but the office itself appeared way different than the sights in the game.
The entrance segment consisted of a reception hall, which was containing as well armchairs for guests, wooden map of the world with “pins” marking the locations of offices and a xero-photocopier. Few doors led from there to the employees’ rooms. From right to left their space had:
Baha the Egyptian (in full name Ali Baha, but he preferred to be referred to by his last name), the HR manager and internal documentation workflower. His room wasn’t different to any other, the only noticeable feat being a special little carpet for prayers. Baha oprócz HR odpowiada także za dokumentację wewnętrzną. Dad holds high respect for him and his work, but Baha is sometimes disrespected by locals due to his nationality, as Egyptians are in Arabia subjects of unfair stereotypes, where they are considered to be cheats and thieves.
Poles Lech (dad’s boss for Arabia) and his assistant Ludwika. When she was hired, some of the Arab team members demanded that the office’s social area be remodeled to be more in line with their culture, which led to some interesting discussions.
The conference room with a big TV screen on the wall and table allowing to plug in one’s laptop. It was of great use on the next day, but more on it elsewhere.
Dad’s room. It was nice to see the place from which he so often videocalls home. Those who wanted could take some surplus notebooks and pens from his shelves.
The room of dad’s crew, consisting of his subordinates Sami (Syrian of Polish descent) and Alex (Swiss of Italo-Greek descent).
Social area with kitchen, two toilets and bathroom. The Polish team took care of a semblance of home, which we discovered when we saw a garbage can under the sink.
After the “sightseeing” in the office we returned to the car and headed to the tourist view site called “Edge of the World”. The road there took us a few hours and most interesting was its final part. Leaving the highway and driving for some time on an asphalt road brought us a surprise of reaching the viewpoint via an off-road desert ride. It was a bit unexpected, but very enjoyable. The trail to the edge was treacherous yet not too demanding, as we could imagine the bumpiness of the ground drive. Regularly in parallel to the main trace there came and went narrower due to lesser attendance other variants of the road. The hills and abysses were cordoned off the path by stone walls from what could be gathered on the desert, limiting the width of the lane slightly below comfortable. For a couple of times we had to pass the tracts of sand which were posing threat of beaching the car, as our SUV wasn’t destined for longer off-road drives. The wind was constantly spilling the dust, but it wasn’t to be ‘cause of a sandstorm. Beside us we met on the way other cars with tourists heading to the same place and even workers’ minibuses. Some of the former despite quite vivid trace coudn’t reach the place (another matter was lack of Internet in the desert and maps working only in the app or paper form), so we told them to followwhen they halted us. Others stopping by the trail were having toilet breaks, those we avoided from afar and reaching the wind first, just in case.
The drive through the desert took us several minutes, but the view was worth of it. Although not at first, because the final few hundred meters to the iconic viewpoint we had to cover by hiking. The weather was nice, it was warm despite strong wind. The route led through a hill surrounded by steep drops into valleys, about which warned old signs with inscriptions in Arabic and English. The viewing point on the recognizable rock formation was not secured at all - not a single railing, not even a hardened ground or pathwalk. The access there was marked by paths trampled by tourists in the limestone rock, above a precipice several meters high. We all felt respect to the force of nature and the “fall damage”, but fear of heights didn’t paralyze anyone. What was more frightening was the sight of families with small children walking not too far from the edge.
Both on the way there and back again, as well as on the literal edge of the rock we took many photos, and I attempted a panoramic view while secured by Ignac holding my waist. The best ones are uploaded below, though they don’t do full justice in terms of size and steepness of the fall. Because the wind disappeared for a while and I wasn’t looking directly down, admiring the place was for me more exciting than frightening.
The road back didn’t bring any adventures, but still driving through the desert is something else. So much so that it’s lightweight effects we could see after getting back to asphalt streets. Normally brown-coloured GAC was fully covered by sand and dirt, barely anything could be seen through the windows. Also our shoes turned white due to being exposed to sand and limestone. We decided to clean and refuel as soon as possible, but we could do so only at the outskirts of Riyadh.
“Happy” to report these shoes are normally black.
Car washes in Saudi Arabia are typically located near the gas stations. They are manually managed, mainly by immigrant workers (again it’s cheaper for Saudis to use manual labour than ivest in automatic machines). That was the case this time. The client drives or allows the employees to put the car in position, they then use pressure washers, brushes and pieces of material clothes to swipe off the fruits of the desert and clean the vehicle to look brand new. They are not afraid of any nooks and crannies, although one of them, in his zeal to clean, inadvertently soiled Antek's coat while washing the space along the trunk lid. The brother, disconsolate by this, could have expressed his disapproval himself, but because of his young and therefore somewhat naive appearance, he chose the nuclear option of reporting the complaint by dad. The quarrel, or rather a complaint impossible to ignore made by the latter in accordance with the arcana of the art of Arabic haggling not only resulted in a more detailed cleaning of other car parts, but also brought a discount at payment for the service!
Very pleased with this turn of events we drove already clean car for dinner, taking a distant route through the representative district of the capital colloquially known as “diplomatic corner”. Accordingly to its name, it consisted of embassies and diplomatic outposts of major partners and allies of Saudi Arabia. Fenced villas with beautifully kept flower beds and tall palm trees predominated, all of them appearing ellegant. There were checkpoints on entrances to the zone, but no gates or fences blocked the way. Guarding the place were police forces in police cars and vans that pulled aside those willing to enter who weren’t looking to be “Western”, so we could enter and walk around the district for a while without being disturbed. To avoid potential troubles we weren’t taking any photos. After looking around we drove down to a vally located further away. It led us to a restaurant where the best dinner in my opinion was waiting for us.
The place was called “Food Farma” and it was located in a charming area. There was a wadi with a bridge for Riyadh metro trains in the distance, but the riding trains weren’t too disruptive to the atmosphere. The restaurant stood in an animal farm arranged for cafeteria, which animal inventory of cows and horses was fenced off by a solid wall. After entering the gate the guests had at their disposal tables and sofas on the ground in the courtyard, there was also in one corner a cafe garden on an isle surrounded by a moat in which swam fish. We sat down in this lovely looking area. On the other side we saw outdoor cinema with benches and TV shown on a huge piece of material, just like at summer festivals or in parish house halls. The farm’s boundaries were set by a larger and smalle buildings of restaurant/kitchen and the cafe, both with AC and many TVs. The overall atmosphere was completed by the pleasant evening temperature and the landscapes of the setting sun.
The food was delicious, we opted for mix of Arabic bread with some European meals, all of these prepared top notch. While waiting for our meal, we were entertained by watching teams from the Middle East play in the Asian qualifiers for the upcoming World Cup. This made me suggest that my father should watch the matches played here during his stays in Saudi Arabia, which he gladly accepted.
We took our time and enjoyed the meal, but upon the eventual leaving of the place the evening had came and so did the time for the final point of the day’s schedule - the so called “chop chop square” and neighbouring flea market. Wandering through the open spaces of that other city district we learned where until recently the executions by beheaing took place. Nobody exopected though ending up seeing such scenes, as according to our knwoledge conducting the death penalty had been since 2022 suspended, and even then they were performed in secrecy. Therefore we went to the market, which turned out to be a place full of not so useful stuff. Tunics, figurines, furniture, walking sticks, kettles, sculptures, woodwork, old electronics, paintings, military binoculars, someone's theses and many more - in short, there was everything. My mother was particularly amused by one of the stores whose assortment she described as a junkyard “bigger than the one of my dad’s.” So she took a photo of the stand to show my grandfather and to prove that the Arabs were capable of bigger disarray sales than the market called “Manhattan”in her native Dębica. Circling around the alleys of the fair, we were accosted several times by sellers offering to buy their goods, but we had neither the time nor the desire to haggle over the souvenir of dubious durability. Ultimately, feeling extremely tired we returned to the hotel, to get some rest before the final day of the trip.