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!!!