Once Again Riyadh...

There seem to be some truth in Elmer’s remark that every time I say that I will never return; I end up visiting Saudi Arabia for some reason or other.

This time too I landed in Saudi Arabia once again on 16th Sept… although for a short… rather shortest visit ever for seven days..
But this time the trip was full of fun. Primary reason was that it was only 7 day trip. We had a workshop for clients and then back.

I got to spend time at home while going...as well as coming back. Thanks to Air India… they have issued more confirmed tickets than the flight capacity. So passengers in Mumbai could not be accommodated. So we got the next day flight and a hotel stay. I refused the hotel stay and went home ;-)

After the workshop was over I stayed there for three more days because of unavailability of return tickets. Those three days were full of time pass (within the “Saudi” limits of course)

There were a few things I did for first time in my life.
For first time I went on the top a 300+ meter high building. The Kingdom Center in Riyadh. With 302 meters height it is currently the 33rd tallest building in the world. As well as the Al Faisaliah Center this is currently at 64th position. Below is a snap from the top floor of the Kingdom Center.



It looks awesome from the top. Something that can only be compared with the view one get to see while plane landing. Although from google earth we can get the brief feeling but it is no match for the actual experience.

Also I got to eat Ostrich Meat for the first time. I saw the Ostrich egg also for the first time. Even though it is as big as a small coconut, it looks too small for the size of the bird. They were giving the eggs as gifts whenever available. Unfortunately I was not lucky enough.

But the biggest fun was escape from Ramadan… last year I had spent entire month of Ramadan in Jeddah…I still remember all those “Hungry Days”.

This time I left just one day before the Ramadan Started. On my way back, I once again spent the weekend at home before going back to Bangalore.