Kingdom Centre

As I said in my previous post, Saudi isn't just about desert, camels, mosques and burqas. The country's economy is experiencing economic growth due to oil revenues and the recent boost in oil prices. And despite current contraction of oil revenues, the economy's still thriving on last year's budget surplus.

The Kingdom Centre's just the ex-libris attesting this recent development. It is the tallest skyscraper in Saudi Arabia with a height of 311 m. The Tower has a total of 99 floors and is situated in the busy King Fahd Road in the growing business district of Olaya. Beside offices, it contains a five-level shopping centre, a luxury hotel and the highest mosque in the world. The skybridge atop the skyscraper contains a public observation deck and a view of the entire city of Riyadh. When I first came here in March, we went up to the skybridge and had this amazing view over the city.

Zara model

You''ll probably have to magnify this picture, otherwise it might not be clear what they did.

This picture was taken today in a shopping centre nearby the office, where we had lunch. Saudi isn't just about desert, camels, mosques and burqas. In Riyadh you can find the most modern shopping centres, featuring the most expensive luxury brands, as well as many other chains and brands from the western world.

However, some of them might be subject to censorship, like in this case where the model's face, arms and legs had been concealed.

Woman in bikini

They greyed out the woman in bikini!!!!! I just had to share this with you.

This picture was taken this afternoon on a local market downtown. You get rapidly used the sight of women wearing burqas but this is just unique.

Many Muslims believe that the Quran requires both men and women to dress and behave modestly in public. However, this requirement has been interpreted in many different ways by Islamic scholars and Muslim communities. In Saudi Ariaba, one of the most strict countries on this issue, wearing burqas is mandatory for women although the burqa is not specifically mentioned in the Quran. It is strictly forbidden for women to show any part of their body whatsoever. The greyed out woman on the box is just the result of such a law.

Weekend in Saudi

For those who don't know, weekend in Saudi is Thursday and Friday. However, if you work in the private sector, you're working Thursday morning too.

That means that this morning weekend hadn't started yet and we had a company presentation at a golf resort, just outside Riyadh (20km North). Riyadh is located in the centre of the Arabian peninsula, in the middle of the desert, which means that when you leave Riyadh you're right in the middle of the desert. It's kind of unreal, this green spot in the middle of this desolate wasteland. I just don't want to know how much water is required to keep it green...not to mention the energy, as most of the water used in Saudi is desalinated. I figure that the second biggest oil-producing country isn't really concerned about that, but I just think it's unsustainable and environmentally irresponsible. Anyway, we didn't play golf, we just used the business centre there.

I spent the afternoon resting and at the swimming pool at the hotel.

First days in office

Well, these weren't exactly my first days in the office here, I spent 2 weeks here in March. Anyway, we've gots lots of nationalities here. People from Thales we have Germans, French, Indians, Portuguese and Dutch (that would be me). Also, from Stesa, a local partner of Thales, we have Saudi's, Egyptians, Philipines, Somalis, Bangladeshi and Palestinians (so far I counted only one). Not everybody has arrived yet, but in total we'll be around 40 people in this office working on this project.

For those who don't know, this project is about the implementation of all the signalling and telecommunications of 2400km of new railway in Saudi.

There are multiple sub-systems and I'm coordinating a team of 5 other guys and we are responsible for the SDH network, the core network over which all other sub-systems are running. Our job is to work out the network architecture, prepare all the technical and project documentation for the customer, prepare the installation plans for the guys in the field who are doing the physical installation, do the logical configuration of the whole network (this is all done remotely) and finally run the acceptance tests.

We'll stay most of the time at the office in Riyadh, except for some surveys we might have to carry out and during the acceptance test phase.

That's it for today, champions league final is about to begin...I'll have to watch it on an arabic channel...

Welcome to my Blog

This is my first post on this blog, which I'm going to keep as long as I stay in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (supposedly 18 months).

It's my second day in Saudi, I arrived yesterday evening. The trip was just fine (stop in Frankfurt), I entertained myself watching a whole season of 'Friends' on my iPod. Troubles came on arrival where I had to wait for 3,5 hours to get through passport control. I had been to Saudi before in March (2 weeks) and it took just 20 minutes. This time it was a complete mess, with the people and the officials messing up with the queues. Afterwards, I was told that this is the rule and that last time was the exception....Anyway, I guess I have to get used to it.

Fortunately, the driver the company sent to pick me up was still there.

I'm staying at the hotel just next to the office, but this is just temporary. As soon as the paperwork is ready we are moving to a compound.

Temperatures are around 45Cº, it really hit you in the face when you step outside the door. This I already came mentally prepared for. What did surprise me was that by night temperatures don't drop significantly. The termometer at the entrance of the hotel marked 38Cº at 21.00. This, taking into consideration that sunset is around 18.30!!! And worse is yet to come. In August temperatures may range between 50 and up to 60Cº.

And this is it for now. Need to get some sleep!!!