Trip to Taif (the first)

(This was supposed to have been posted the end of January but stuff happened and the world went loony.)

Son of a gun it was cold. Rookie mistake, I didn't check the weather before I went. Big mistake was not bringing a light jacket with me from the U.S. On the other hand I did have a 'winter' jacket but I did not bring that with me on this trip. It was 5°C (41°F) and I was wearing slacks and a dress shirt (no T-shirt) and we were working in an area that was mostly outside, so, brrr. Fortunately the soldiers at the base brought me some coffee.

Taif is not quite as high up at Abha but apparently they used the same road construction company. On the plus side, someone did seem to learn at least one lesson - the road is divided for almost all of the climb. Same apes but here they are more of a pest and a little less fearsome. The most annoying thing was some guy trying to make me buy a bag of carrots to feed the baboons for 5 riyals (about $1.33 for a 2 LB bag.) I even tried to give him one riyal to go away and/or feed them himself. The Saudi I was with convinced him to leave us alone. 

Ahmed's brother-in-law was an endearing host. He's retired from the Army and he drove us both around the city and bought us dinner at a very nice place in town. His house is a fairly new place and I got to see the 'greeting room' similar to the one I recall from so long ago when I was exploring the Jizan area but much more elaborate (if cold, wish there had been a fire.) I ended up going out into the courtyard to stand in the sun while I waited them to return from Asr prayer.

Ahmed and his brother-in-law

Interesting thing, and we did see a little of it in another location, there has been some research in this area I was reading about in the local paper that someone in a university up here was studying the interactions among these wild apes, cats and dogs. It seems they coexist and cooperate to warn, protect, feed, and (I guess) keep each other company. I guess the cats keep the small vermin in check, the dogs keep the bigger pests away and the baboons play monkey-in-the-middle, so to speak.

It is quite a drop.

 The 'farmer's market' at the top of the hill was very colorful and quite busy. All the stall keepers were very friendly and they do seem to like Americans (and having their pictures taken.) 

This is looking back up the hill.

Way too long since my last post

Okay, so this one week on, one week off is wearing thin. On top of that the curfew being 24 hours except for 'necessary' trips to a grocery store or a medical/pharmacy visit is very restrictive. Oh, it was nice that the laundry shops are considered essential so I can get my shirts and slacks done. In any event, I'm living in an up-scale prison with even the local gym, etc. closed. However, not that I use them, the company did get some of the workers at the compound store and restaurant to move in to the compound so those two establishments could remain open. This is probably more for the office staff in the compound and families than anything else since they have absolutely no other reason to leave the compound.

Ramadan (which began on the 24th) curfew has been changed to 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. (from the old schedule of 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.) So technically we lose an hour but there was really nothing to do anyway.

I've been stopped at exactly one of the many check points and just held up my 'pass' letter - the guy never read it - and was waved on. On another occasion I believe the guy was going to ask for my letter but saw my badge and just motioned me to go. Last couple times getting on the base to work, the guards never even checked my ID at all. There was still the obligatory temp check at the inner gate however. All this is wearing on a person, me at least.

  

As you can see the traffic has been down to almost zero, this is the new rush hour.

Found this little buddy when I stopped in at the weight room to empty the dehumidifier bucket (since no one else seems to do this at all.) The body is about 2-3" long and he looks as if his left front leg has some sort of problem. 

He must have told his friends about me since the other day when I was getting checked out at the security gate coming back in to the compound the guard tried to tell me something as he was looking at the roof of my car. He motioned me to get out and look. Up in the middle of the roof was this guy's big brother apparently riding around like he was my pet or new ornament. He quickly scuttled away and I haven't seen him since.

More weirdness...

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop and then it did. Of course it seems like this beast has more shoes than a centipede. Late this past Monday, just before midnight, my cellphone rings, which is extremely odd. It was a recorded message from my company saying that all of Jeddah is on a 24/7 curfew/lock-down effective immediately. I checked my messages and there is the same thing - "contact your manager for further instructions". Being as it is so late (after midnight by now) and I am such a nice guy, I send a text and an email asking for direction. Didn't go to work on Tuesday since I heard nothing back. I got a call from one of the Saudis who work in our office and is on the same schedule as I am, asking where I was. I told him I did not have any letter to allow me to travel. He got my Iqama and license plate numbers and by late that day he sent me a picture of the permission to travel letter from the military.

There is a good reason for having that letter. This isn't like 'Murcia, where one might get a wrist-slap or just a verbal warning. Here they are serious. If you are stopped while out during curfew with all this panic you will be hit with a 10,000 riyal ($2,667) fine for the first offense. I don't know what the second offense penalty is but I do know that jail is in there somewhere. I don't think I'd fit in very well there. I never did hear back from my local boss although my boss in CA did talk to me about what the heck is going on. He seems like a nice guy.

At any rate, I went to work on Wednesday and picked up a hard copy of the letter. This was a good thing since as I was coming back to HAFH I got stopped and the officer wanted to see that letter. I found out from my wife that the royal family had all relocated to the Jeddah palace recently. This explains why the southern part of the city was on 24/7 lock-down before the rest of the area was. The royal palace is on the Cornishe Road just to the south of where I work.

Well, next week is 'off' for now although there was some noise about going back to a day on/day off schedule. Hopefully I will get a little more caught up here. I've got a couple posts to complete about some more interesting visits that I have yet to post pictures from. We shall see.

Oh, and my flights home were canceled except for the R/T from ORD to DTW. With no way to get there it was rather pointless that they preserve the last leg I would say. Only about a 15 minute wait on the phone to get my refund kicked off; very pleasant and helpful real-live person from British Airways.

Still no word on when the airport may be reopening.

And the beat goes on...

Well, the U.S. Embassy has announced they are scheduling flights from Riyadh to D.C. in the next few days. Of course with the internal travel ban this is only for U.S. citizens currently in Riyadh. They are supposed to be scheduling flights from Jeddah at some point. However, what would be the point in my case? I'd think that the more people I come in contact with (airports, close proximity on a plane for many hours, etc.) would just serve to increase my odds of even getting this little bug. Then there would be the difficulty of traveling from D.C. to Michigan, ugh, no thanks. I think I'm good here, besides, since I'm still technically working, albeit only from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., I'm still getting paid.

However, could the Fates be kind? Oh heck no! Apparently there was a water main break somewhere and now our entire compound is without water as of about 1:30 this afternoon. We are told we *might* get the water back by sometime tomorrow. The only good news is that I took a shower last night and washed a load of clothes. The bad news is that I can't wash my hands.

Oh, and even though it is April 1st, the above is no joke.