"Out and About in Riyadh" Riyadh Travelogue by kazak

You know, one thing that dawned on me when I started to build this page is, I don't have many photos of Riyadh!

Isn't it always the case, you take heaps of photos from your journeys but so few from the home you live. Still, my excuse is, you have to be careful taking photos here. People quite often take offence and I have heard of stories about people getting into trouble doing so (taking photos of the wrong things). Plus, pulling the camera out tends to draw lots of attention to oneself, especially to Westerner's like me. This is probably more so given the recent events within the Kingdom.

I promise to post more when I get them.

Riyadh Cityscape

To show you Riyadh is just like any other big city, here's a view from one of the buildings. As you can see, Kingdom Center features prominently again. FYI. The two main buildings in Riyadh are Faisalia and Kingdom Center. In my opinion, they are two of the most amazing buildings I've ever seen.

The Globe restaurant at Faisalia

You might notice the big ball at the top of the building. Well, that's the Globe restaurant, one of the 5 star restaurants in Riyadh, where an entree can set you back 20 USD and the most expensive main 100+ USD.

Kingdom Dates

Dates ... yuummm!!!!

Before arriving to Saudi Arabia, I couldn't stand the site of dates.

Thankfully, I was coerced into trying some fresh dates last year. Haven't looked back since. The fresh date season starts around August and goes for a few months. It's now date season. Yipee!!!

The fresh dates are simply awesome, so tasty and sweet. I've actually found I like them best just as they're about to start turning brown. Eating them too raw is like eating a green banana.

The only problem is I've discovered they're 70% sugar, which means lots of calories.

Once the season is over, you can get fantastic dried dates at places like Kingdom dates, but they tend to be a little expensive - If you know a local or shop around you can get them much cheaper. They get covered in honey, or stuffed with almonds or covered in chocolate or .... it goes on and on ...

Herd of Sheep

The US influence is clearly evident in Riyadh with the worlds greatest delicacies - lots of sarcasm here - including McDonalds, Burger King, Donut King, Pizza Hut, KFC plus other local burger places, Dajen broasted chicken, etc.

Cholestorol paradise.

Add to that Turkish places such as falafal (fantastic) places, bbq, eat all you can, Indian, Pakistani, etc.

One thing is for sure, there is fantastic, cheap eating here, so long as you bypass those burger joints.

I'll get some photos of the souks and post them - the spice souk, the car souk, the carpet souk, the gold souk, the clothes souk, the satellite souk, the computer souk, there's a souk for just about anything. Oh, a souk is an area where there is a large collection of similar shops all selling the same thing.