I have rented a house. Unfortunately, it does not have an address. If you want to call me I can give you my phone number, if you want to send an email, I'll give you my email address, but if you want to visit me at my house or send me a snail mail, sorry, I can't give you an address.
I scanned the form lease deed in Arabic that I had signed but found nothing that resembles an address. There is no number on the building and no sign on the road revealing its name. I hear that this is common in Saudi Arabia. Most people rent post boxes for their mail. People give directions to their homes from well known landmarks. Turn left after the mosque and then right at the third intersection and then left after the pharmacy and my house is the fifth one on the right, or something like that.
This is a big inconvenience. I am buying furniture at stores and cannot give an address for delivery. Instead, I write down the nearest landmark and my mobile phone number. When the van arrives at the landmark, the driver calls me and I have to direct him to my home, which is not an easy task when do not share a common language.
I thought maps might help. In Japan, every house has an address, but since the roads are not always neatly arranged, finding an address can be difficult. So they rely a lot on well prepared detailed maps. I prepared a map of the area surrounding my house with the landmarks marked. But the delivery people, it seems, are not accustomed to reading maps.
For a telephone connection, I was told I need to give the telephone company my water connection number. I was confused because I could not see any relation between telecommunications and water supply. Now I know that the water meter number, which is prominently displayed on the water meter and visible from the road, serves as a surrogate address. If you can get to the general location of a house, you can track it down by looking at the water meters.
So if you want to visit me at my place, let me know and I'll give you my water meter number.
3 comments:
I really can not believe this !!!!May be having an address can make you a target of an unfortunate "igal"??:) :)!!!
I think it needs not years but centuries to be civilized.Money alone is not enough.Sorry,did not want to hurt anybody.
I deleted one copy of identical comments. As for the street names and addresses, I should make it clear that they do exist in the developed parts of all cities here. It's only in the developing fringes (and may be rural areas) where addressed don't exist. It's not different in the rural areas of our country. There are no house number or street name, but the postman would know everybody in the village and would have no problem in delivering letters. However, you cannot imagine this happening in the urban areas. It has nothing to do with civilization or lack of it. Saudi Arabia has a rich cultural heritage, judging from archeological relics and finds, however, it is not too keen on highlighting anything that predates the era of the Prophet.
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