trip to riyadh

My family has not joined me yet. When I call home, my younger son, aged seven-and-a-half, always asks me if I have seen any camels. I have to explain to him that contrary to his expectations, there are no camels inside the cities here. He is used to see cows, goats and horses strolling free along the streets and grazing in the fields in our city, so it is hard to convince him. My consistently negative response to his queries over the past two months was probably making him wonder whether I really deserve the high opinion he has about me.

I have finally put his doubts to rest. I recently made a trip to Riyadh by bus. It was an evening bus, so I didn't get to see much of scenery on the way. But I boarded a daytime bus for the return journey, and sure enough I spotted lots of camels along the way. I called my son and gave him the news. My status as the most amazing man in the world is no longer under threat.

The SAPTCO (I guess that stands for Saudi Arabia Public Transport Company) bus that took me to Riyadh was a 'VIP' bus. The bus that brought me back was an ordinary one. The fare of the former is almost 150% that of the latter. It has fewer seats, and food (a sandwich and an apple) and beverages (juice and tea/coffee) are served by an attendant on board. Otherwise there is not much difference. The drivers are careful and polite.

I had been warned not to hire a car/taxi, as the drivers have a tendency to cruise at suicidal speeds putting the lives of their passengers and themselves at risk.

Photo credit: kevin (iapetus)

this is a book, in case you don't know

This is the second time that I am going through an extended period of residence in a country where language is a handicap for me. My earlier stay in Japan was easier, because I was enrolled in a language class where I learnt rudimentary expressions used in day-to-day life in Japan. Never mind that the only people who undersood my Japanese were other students from the same school. I tried my newly acquired skills on some Japanese and they apologetically informed me that they didn't speak Greek.

But here in Saudi Arabia there is no such arrangement for us to learn Arabic. I can only rely on what I had learnt at high school. We had two years of Arabic education. I think one of the books was called Alkitabul Jadid (the new book). I don't remember much of what I had learnt. There were sentences like 'attilmizu swalihun' which means something that I can't remember. There was also the sentence 'haza kitab' which means 'this is a book.'

Unfortunately, such knowledge of Arabic is not only inadequate, but also of no practical use. Try to imagine a situation where I might be required to inform someone that 'this is a book'. I can't think of any. If, in fact, I try this phrase on someone, the person spoken to would at best have pity on me, assuming that I have gone nuts; or, in the worst case, take it as an insult assuming that I think he is an imbecile who can't tell a book when he sees one.

I would rather keep my mouth shut than utter inane phrases in Arabic. Khalas.