Riyadh's Hidden Gems-The Diplomatic Quarter Gardens

Riyadh's expatriates are always looking for new and exciting things to do on weekends.  There are many places in and around Riyadh which are mostly unknown to the public and expats. One of them is the Diplomatic Quarter parks, the most relaxing and serene places within the city limits. Clean, green surroundings, open spaces to walk freely in and let the children play outdoors are a rarity in the desert Kingdom. All this can be found in the Diplomatic Quarters, just a five minute drive from the Riyadh city center.

Here's my article on the DQ parks including directions how to find one of the most beautiful and scenic ones with plenty of activities for the little ones to enjoy as well.  This article was published in the Women's Skills Bureau February Newsletter:

Riyadh’s hidden gems-the Diplomatic Quarter gardens

The Diplomatic Quarters hosts some of the most beautiful, green landscape and fascinating architecture in Riyadh. The Diplomatic Quarters was built on the edge of Wadi Hanifa in the 1970’s as living quarters for diplomats and the embassy area. Today the “DQ” is like a Green Eden midst the harsh surrounding desert, its parks like a refuge from the pollution and noise of bustling Riyadh.

What many if not most expats miss from our home countries is being able to walk, those free open spaces and green scenery. All of these can be found in the Diplomatic Quarters gardens. The entire DQ is an abaya free zone and resident expats can often be seen in regular clothing here. Unlike the rest of Riyadh public parks, the DQ parks are well maintained and trash-free.

There are over 30 parks, deemed gardens in the DQ, scattered over the different residential areas and along the walking track. The track is about 20 km long and runs around the entire perimeter of the DQ. Views from the walking trail down to the Wadi Hanifa valley and its hundreds of date palm trees are spectacular. The edge of the wadi itself resembles a canyon, creating a stark contrast with the sea of palm trees below. In the distance, the palaces and mosques of old Diriyah can be seen.  All that can be heard is the song of birds and the sound of a cooling breeze from the wadi.

The gardens were designed by a group of international landscape architects, their aim to preserve the natural environment using only native plants and natural materials. The seeds for the plants were gathered in the deserts and then planted in the gardens and all around the DQ area. The idea was to create a sustainable environment keeping in mind the natural flow of water and the existing formations in the landscape.

All of the plants that have been used in the DQ parks are endemic to the Arabian peninsula. Juniper, Acacia trees, Aloe Vera, Jasmine, Fig trees, Jujube trees, Prickly Pear cactus, and many others. The gardens have different flowers in bloom year round.

The gardens have been designed to have something for everyone. There are tranquil and serene areas for a more peaceful experience as well as children’s playgrounds, football fields, basketball courts and skating rinks to please the more active visitors.

There are grass fields, fountains, picnic areas, pavilions, courtyards, benches, shaded walkways, private seating areas, beautiful fragrant flowers and interesting rock formations for the visitors to enjoy. Each park has a distinct theme in design and vegetation which makes discovering new parks interesting and rewarding.

What makes the parks even more relaxing is the presence of water. The countless fountains, water channels and waterfalls create a constant calming sound of running water. This is like music to the ears for Riyadh’s desert dwellers.  Every park has at least one fountain and the larger ones have sections of the park completely dedicated to different kinds of fountains.

For families with children these gardens make for an enjoyable day out. Children of all ages will enjoy the playgrounds which have everything from swings, slides and suspension bridges to imaginative climbing gyms. The grass fields are perfect for running around and picnics. The largest parks have mosques adjacent to them and all parks have toilet facilities.

The best time to visit the gardens is in the mornings or late afternoons when lots of children come to the playgrounds. They’re open all day and everyday of the week and open to everyone, free of charge. The easiest way to pass the DQ security is to say you’re visiting your embassy during working hours and on evenings the sports club or ladies spa there.

Here are directions to the “Al Aarudh” garden, one of the largest in the Diplomatic Quarters with three different playground areas, two fountain areas, a grass field and mosque. Enter DQ from the North gate (access from Mecca rd.) immediately after entering you will see roundabout number 1. Go around it so that you take a left (the third exit) and continue on this street which goes into Hajar residential area. Drive on this street past the Indian and Guinean embassies on your right until you see the walls of the garden and shortly after the entrance to the park also on the right hand side. Park your car anywhere on the street.

WSB Newsletter can be downloaded from here:
http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1107647512759-41/WSBNewsletterFinal-Feb2013.pdf

Saudi Nightlife

Nightlife in Saudi? Yes it does exist, and I am not talking about the nocturnal road hooligans on Tahlia street.

I'm talking about what goes on behind closed doors every weekend. Westerners planning a move here often ask me questions about the social scene and nightlife. Above all things people seem to be concerned how they are going to be able to get drunk in Saudi-Arabia! In fact if you type alcohol and saudi into Google the results will mostly be of westerners asking these questions. Is it really so important I wonder?

Many expats are in for a surprise when they realise the amount of parties there are, that alcohol is available and that they can mingle with the opposite gender. Westerners tend to come to the Kingdom thinking they are facing a years obligatory rehab therapy, but soon realise they are actually looking at more parties and drinking than they did back home if they choose to get into that scene. For many KSA is certainly not a place to detox.

So what is the nightlife like in Saudi? Well due to the circumstances it certainly is

different than outside of the Kingdom. For every restriction there are ways around them. People of all ages from different nationalities and backrounds dealing with various stages of culture shock gathering and drinking way too much alcohol can result in some pretty interesting parties.

What's the venue?

The parties will mostly be held on the largest western compounds, embassies, rarely private villas and even the desert. Some compounds have amenities centers or halls turned into nightclubs and bars. The embassy parties might be in bomb shelters. The British couldn't survive without their neighborhood pubs in their compounds.

A few times a year during the cooler months huge rave parties are held in the middle of the desert.

How to get invited?
A western woman will have no trouble entering any venues as long as she knows someone who has signed her on the gatelist. The story is different for the western and especially Arab nationality males though. This is because the residents of the compounds arranging the parties or the embassy people are mostly single males. They have the power to choose who to let in. Naturally men do not like too much competition for women, especially from those ladies favorites, arab men! So to get invited, men need to get seriously connected. For example the US embassy guys (marines and other military personnel) will allow a male on the list only if he is signed with two females.

Saudi nationals are not allowed into most western compounds. Now in my opinion this rule is ridiculous and racist since we are in their country this kind of disrespect is just incomprehensible to me. This could be a chance to meet and make friends with locals, and I dont mean by inviting them to these parties, just letting them in to have dinner together for example. Westerners like to keep in their small circles and stick to their prejudices as firmly as they hold on to their wine glasses. Anyways being invited would mean knowing someone and having to go through the same security checks as everyone else.

Socially well connected Saudi men, the rare prince and Saudis that have a foreign passport do rarely attend parties though.

What's served?

Homebrewed wine and beer and sid, the saudi "national" drink. Sid is short for siddiqi which means my friend. It s a very potent (around 90%) and potentially dangerous foul tasting clear alcohol made from dates. Sometimes it has impurities in it which may result in memory loss and other neurological disturbances, visual problems, alcohol poisoning and diarhhea among other things.

think about it before you drink it

The embassies and military compounds have real alcohol, shipped into the Kingdom by the truckload usually smuggled from Bahrain. Especially military personnel have access to a large variety because their shipments are not subject to inspection and this applies to the royals and the diplomats too. Drugs are widely on offer especially marihuana and amphetamine. Bottles of Black Label sell for around 1000-1800SAR on the black market depending on availability. Needless to say smuggling and trading alcohol on the black market seem to be a very lucrative (and dangerous) "profession" in saudi-Arabia. Every once in a while there are news headlines about alcohol or drug traffickers getting caught and the punishments are severe.

What's the dresscode?

Women tend to dress like they would in western nightclubs, and because the weather is so hot almost all year, more often than not they will have little clothing on (which explains the popularity of the parties among men). There are some more official parties which require cocktail dresses or even long ballgowns and a suits from the gents. Parties are often themed and the dresscode is accordingly. For example hawaiian, 80's,or toga themed parties. I heard of "come dressed as a Saudi" parties where expats get drunk in thobes, abayas and niqabs..Which reflects the bad attitude towards locals pretty well.

Is it safe?
Compounds in general have strict security checks, entering is by invite only. The US military compounds and the British aerospace have security checks that take at least an hour to get through during rush hours in other words, before parties.They will check the vehicles, bags and sometimes even the visitor will be xrayed. Muttawas are not allowed inside compounds however they might be outside at the gates but I guess that would only happen if someone tipped them off.
The security issue to be concerned about is the impure alcohol, harassement, getting stopped by police and drunken drivers offering the girls rides home. Since places like these are the only outlets for women and men to interact freely, some men (and women?) can get a bit carried away. If a woman gets harassed or raped in these types of situations there's not much that can be done about it. I know one nurse that got raped and many others that were harassed, and for some reason most of these men were of Lebanese nationality.

Beware of alcoholism. Many expats start drinking so much that it becomes their only hobby. They drink homebrew like it's mountain dew! I feel sorry for people who come here only to try and live exactly as they did back home, never leaving their compounds and passing their every weekend and sometimes weekday drinking in the same small circle of people.
I know of one British guy slowly turning into an alcoholic, which in the end got him fired from his job, robbed and thrown into jail after drunk driving. He naturally got deported from the Kingdom and went to rehab in Britain.
So if you are planning a move here, you have been warned! I honestly can't recommend for newcomers to get involved in the Saudi nightlife scene. I would suggest finding something meaningful to do instead, get to know some locals and explore your surroudings since you have the chance to be in Saudi-Arabia!

Riyadh's forgotten cats

There is an abundance of stray cats roaming the streets and compounds of Riyadh. In general they get treated like pests which I find a disgrace for an Islamic country. Islam teaches Muslims to treat cats well and that the cat is a creature to be cherished and loved.

In the hospital compound area I live in there are plenty of strays around. The compound is for female employees only, with around 700 nurses living inside. According to the policy of the hospital cats are not allowed inside the apartments and feeding them is prohibited and punishable.

Sadly the hospital seems to view these cats as PESTS that they must get rid of. I've heard that in the past the pest control people captured alot of the cats and took them to the desert and left them to die. Just awful! Actually who do these cats bother so much that they have to be killed I wonder? They might jump into trash cans to find food, but they wouldn't be doing that in the first place if nurses weren't so afraid of feeding them in fear of being punished.

Despite this a few female nurses take care and feed the stray cats on the compound and some have let them inside their flats too. These women also carried out a project that took all the strays they were able to catch to the vet to be vaccinated, dewormed and spayed or neutered. Mashallah they did a tremendous amount of work to make these cats lives easier. Regardless of their efforts hospital pest control issued a warning that the cats will be killed.

One nurse then decided to ship over 20 cats to United Kingdom to save them from being killed. She managed and now the compound has much less cats. But surely more will come, there are plenty behind the walls of the compound.

You would think that in a country that everything is (supposedly) based on Shariah and teachings of Islam, that cats would be treated with kindness. Viewing them as pests and issuing warnings not to feed them and threatening violators with punishments is just sickening to me. What is wrong with helping them out?
Mistreating a cat is regarded as a severe sin in Islam. Saudis have the fraudulent habit of tending to "cherry-pick" from Hadith and Sunnah (example of the Prophet Muhammed), especially when it comes to issues concerning women. Looks like it applies to cats too!

A Hadith about mistreating cats:
"A woman was tortured and was put in Hell because of a cat which she had kept locked till it died of hunger." Allah's Messenger further said, "Allah said (to the woman), 'You neither fed it nor watered when you locked it up, nor did you set it free to eat the insects of the earth.'Bukhari 3:553

              mugshot of Paavo the orphaned kitten

The Prophet Muhammed loved cats and he had one called Muezza. Mohammed was so attached to his cat that when he gave sermons he let Muezza rest on his lap and he also drank from water previously drunk by his cat and did his ablutions from the same water the cat had drunk from. Once when he was going for prayer the cat was sleeping on the sleeve of his garment that he wanted to use for praying. Mohammed didn't want to wake the cat so he cut the sleeve off and left the cat to sleep!

Kismet, Simba and Paavo

The cats in the saudi  petshops don't get much better treatment either, although owning pets is still quite rare. Cats are usually kept in small boxes or cages, most look fatigued, dehydrated, malnourished, dirty and sick. There are a few better petshops in Riyadh located on King Abdulaziz street that have slightly better standards of cleanliness and care. Mostly I feel appalled when going into the petshops though and that is how I ended up taking two of them home.

Our two older cats are Maine Coons from a large petshop in Riyadh, they were both kittens at the time and infested with ringworm, sick and malnourished. The male was in such bad shape they had hid him in a dark cage all by himself. He looked horrible, his hair had fallen off and the skin was full of large ringworm blothces. He was so weak he couldn't walk. They made us pay to get him out of there even I felt we are doing them a favor! Alhamdulillah they are now beautiful and healthy cats.

In addition to them we have one orphaned kitten that I rescued from the National Museum park. This kitten was crying out loud and I saw a man kicking it. I went to it's "rescue" and scolded the man, who of course looked at me like I'm mental shouting at him over a dirty street cat. The kitten then started following me, purring and he was surprisingly friendly despite just being kicked around. I just couldn't leave him there so I put him in my bag and took him home to my husbands surprise..

Recently we had an addition to our household when six days ago Kismet unexpectedly gave birth to a premature kitten. It was very weak, hairless and didn't know how to crawl or suckle yet. Sadly the mother does not know how to take care of it..So my husband and I have spent these past days feeding the kitten every 1-2 hourly. We also need to take care of its body temperature and elimination so it has been very time consuming!

Inshallah he will grow to a strong cat like his father that he resembles. Sultan few hours old next to his feeding syringe.

 EDIT: over a week premature Sultan passed away 7 days after his birth

If you would like to help adopt a cat in KSA there's an organization called Saudi Paws, you can contact them at  help@openpaws.org

Read more about the organization from American Bedus site:  http://americanbedu.com/2009/11/12/adopt-a-cat-from-saudi-arabia/

Riyadh To Do Guide

I often hear people complaining or boredom and lack of activities in KSA, especially here in conservative Riyadh.
Yet I for some reason am always short of time to do things!
Of course it depends alot on yourself, how active you are in trying to find things to do. It IS more difficult here, but it doesnt mean that theres "nothing to do".
I ask these people, well what did you use to do back home on your freetime then? Often they'd reply: go to cafes, bars or nightclubs, restaurants, friends homes,the gym, shopping..Well you can do all of that here too! Although I'm not going to publicly post where all these activities might be, by asking around you will find quite easily if you're an expat and interested in some of those activities ;)

As an expat in KSA you will have more variety of activities than locals, depending on if you're male/female. By more variety I mean expats can get into all western compounds, that have all kind of activities ranging from dance classes, language courses, theme days for families, rugby or soccer matches, concerts, etc etc. Embassies also arrange concerts, art exhibitions, national days, and parties. The problem is you must know someone to get into these places, and security is high of course.

As for cafeterias and restaurants, the choices are endless, and that will be a topic on its own.I will only mention my favorites: Brazilian restaurant Il Terazzo in hotel Faisalia, outside terrace with open oven bbq overlooking Faisalia tower!Or Sitta shams -the ultimate arabic food experience, the restaurant is huge and even has its own parkinghall and elevators. Romaizan is the best the compound restaurant which offers tasty food and drinks in relaxed atmosphere. Dont miss having "High Tea" at the Faisaliah tower Globe. Expats often take off their abayas and the atmosphere is relaxed. Upstairs is the more intimate Cigar Lounge for romantic evenings :)

the shooting range at Dirab Golf club

Tahlia street boasts cafeterias and restaurants one after another. You can walk around the 'boardwalk" and see really nice cars driving by! Ferraris, Hummers, Porsches..The downside is that if you're a lady you will attract alot of attention, so best you walk with your husband or in a group of friends and just ignore the eager beavers.
For men there is numerous terraces you can sit outside and enjoy the warm evenings. Unfortunately at the moment I dont know of any that allow women to sit outside..they are all single male sections :( Although I have on couple of occasions spotted some women sitting with their husbands.
EDIT: 3rd floor Centria mall Lenotre cafe has an outside sitting mixed sitting area!

Theres plenty of male only gyms all around town, but female only is a bit more difficult to find, but they do exist. There is one in Almultaka center, Yibreen spa, Almanahil inside DQ (diplomatic quarters)to name a few. There's also a walking/ running track that goes around the DQ.
If you want to start golfing there are many good places to get started and have lessons like the Intercontinental right in middle of the city has a golf course. Also Riyadh golf club and Dirab golf club have courses, the Arizona compound has their own course too! Dirab also has polo and horsebackriding. It requires membership though..

Females are allowed to golf and even drive golf carts in saudi :)



There are places just outside Riyadh about 20-30 min drive away where you can rent quadbikes for couple hours and drive on the dunes. Yes women can drive them too :) My favorite is Thumamah area, on weekdays its almost empty, you can have the vast desert to yourself, but dont get lost!Weekends it packed with young saudi men, who sometimes get a little too carried away when they see western women driving around. On the way to Thumamah you can pass by the camel souq and haggle on one of the 1,000000 Saudi riyal camels.

The Red Sands area west of Riyadh along the Mecca highway is aa beautiful place to go just for the scenery. Also possible to rent quadbikes there.

There are numerous other desert treks and picnicking spots around Riyadh, but again I will only mention my favorite Rawdhat Khuraim. Once you get there you will not believe you're in Saudi-Arabia, its so green!Its about an hour drive from the city, on the Dammam higway then take the Remah rd. It's a huge green area with trees and a small stream flows through it during the winter motnhs (if its rained).

Then theres alot of historical sites to explore around Riyadh, like the ancient  City of Old Diriyah. Its a historically interesting site to visit including the famous Salwa palace. During 1745, a strong Islamic reform movement took place over here. Besides this in the past the old city of Diriyah was also considered to be the largest in Arabian Peninsula. However, in the first part of 19th century Turks destroyed this city and afterwards Riyadh captured it. Walk amongst the ruins of mud and brick built houses, palaces bath houses and mosques. Best visited in cooler months.

The summer heats are a good time to visit The King Abdul Aziz Historical centre it's located near the Masmak fort in Dirah area. It includes a remodeled mosque, the old original Murabba' Palace with main Diwan renovated as "living museum", the "Memorial Hall" on the outlines of an old courtyard house, a modern exhibition hall for the car collection,  the new Al-Dara main lobby and multipurpose hall, a documentation center with a separated men's and women's library each, an art gallery and a large internal garden.

Nearby and definately worth a visit, The National Museum will take you a good three hours to walk through. I went on a bachelors only evening, but they still let us girls in, so I guess they are not too strict about the visitors genders.

During June 2010 there is an exhibition on King Khaled in a separate building. The whole area is surrounded by parks, waterfalls, fountains and picnic areas. It's especially nice to stroll around in the beautiful evening lighting. It's possible to walk to the now restored old water tower, there is a restaurant on top with nice views of the city. The whole Historical Centre area covers some 360,000 square meters!

Just a stones throw away is the Haia's aka muttawas headquarters next to the the infamous "cho-chop- square. The area is called Dirah, there is a clocktower next to the huge souq area.You can spend hours wandering around the antique, gold and carpet, abaya, souvenir and furniture souqs of Dirah, haggling and having endless cups of tea with the shopkeepers. Most of them are Afghani and have interesting stories to tell.

For families with kids, (small or grown-up) you can go to various theme parks and amusement parks on the outskirts of town, just make sure its singles/families/womens only day accordingly :) Most of them are situated along the Thumamah highway.

Theres many parks for picnicking around central Riyadh, although most are for families only.Theres also a man made river/lake area on Sitteen street where you can rent peddal boats and have picnic in the cottges. Snow world on King Abdullah rd is a smaller version of Dubais inside winter wonderland. They dont have a large skiing slope but you can play in the snow and have fun with your kids!

And when it comes to shopping, new shopping malls seem to be sprouting like mushrooms after the rain :D
One of the newest is Riyadh Galleria which has a nice little river and fountains among cafeterias in the middle.
Most of the biggest malls (Hayat, Granada, Faisalia, Riyadh galleria) have huge entertainment areas for children, the noise is overwhelming though!Alot of families will leave the children there with nannys or their older children to look after while they go shopping. Some even have iceskating rinks and rollercoasters!



For a very different experience visit the huge sheesha cafes on Damman highway. The biggest one is over 10000 sqm and fits 2000 people at a time!if you're a football fan go on a match day and the place will be packed and the atmosphere is fun and welcoming. This activity is mainly for males, but they do have family sections also

If you're into bowling, there's couple places around the city centre you can practise your skills. This seems to be very popular among philipino expats! Theres one in Khozama hotel next to Faisalia tower, one in the Intercontinental hotel and King faisal hospital has one too, but you would need to go as a guest of an employee.

Another popular family activity is rent your own "villa" or whole green area with football field, park, kids rides, swimmingpools and the likes. I dont know what they would be called in english..Like resorts where you can rent your own villa and private pool. Because saudi culture is private, they like to rent out these places for weekends for the whole family to join. Some people rent them for special occasions like birthdays. Its actually quite affordable and there is staff if you want to take care of catering and looking after the kids. In the Almarsa resort on Sharqi rd you can rent family villas, and the Wahat al Noor resort you can rent the whole place for a day and stay the night. Its a nice change for expats too if you are bored of your own compund!

This is a great chance to start or try out scuba-diving!Riyadh has two good diveshops, Blu Reef Divers and Desert Sea Divers. I f you are already a diver, explore the untouched Farasan Islands in southern KSA.

Every month or so there are women only exhibitions held at hotels or exhibitons halls like Nayyara and the Kingdom ballroom. I will post about any upcoming events, they are highly recommended by me :)

Culture Shock!

Everyone who moves to a foreign country or environment will go through culture shock. There are 5 stages of culture shock, each of them with their typical characteristics. Some people go through all phases quite easily, while others have serious problems, or they do not progress at all and hence do not overcome culture shock.

It has such a huge impact on the emotional stability of a person, that psychologists have compared symptoms of culture shock to psychosis and severe depression!

The Oxford dictionary describes culture shock as “disorientation experienced when suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture or way”.

So why do people go through culture shock? It’s a normal reaction for humans encountering anything new and out of the ordinary. It triggers the same kind of psychological responses in us. But when we are moving to a different country and culture, it becomes far more intense.
Everything is different, the people look strange, you don’t understand the language, the religion, the customs, you don’t know how to get around, you can’t even find anything to eat at the supermarket!When a westerner moves to Saudi-Arabia the shock will be very severe, it will seem everything is done the opposite way or upside down than what you are used to..

So what are the different stages of culture shock?

Stage 1-the Honeymoon stage
This is when you first arrive and everything seems so wonderfully different, exotic even, and you want to experience and explore your surroundings. It’s the same feeling people have when they are on vacation. This phase usually lasts up to 2 months.

Stage 2- the Distress stage
You start feeling confused, and things don’t seem exciting and new anymore. You start to miss home and familiar things. The new culture starts to feel frustrating.

Stage 3- Withdrawal stage
In this stage you start feeling more hostile toward the new culture, the people and the environment. You see faults everywhere; you criticize and mock everything. People start comparing everything to their own “superior” culture, refusing to accept the differences they encounter. One might find the behavior of the locals “backward”, and unpredictable. At this stage you start to feel anxious and withdraw and isolate yourself.

Stage 4-Autonomy stage
You start coping better with the culture and problems you face, it has become more understandable and tolerable. You feel less isolated because you have started interacting more with locals.
This is the first step to acceptance.

Stage 5- Independence stage
You start to feel comfortable and confident in your surroundings. You embrace the culture and even start preferring some traits from it rather than your own. You might have adapted some of the local traditions, while still feeling yourself. It feels like this is your new home away from home.

I went through all these stages when I came to KSA. At first it was like being on a holiday, new and exciting then things started to appear weird and I didn’t accept the way they were. To me it seemed so illogical, HOW can they do those things, say this or be like that. It was just incomprehensible to me at that time. But slowly, alhamdulillah through my work and local friends I started to adapt to my surroundings. I started to notice how great some things are here compared to Finland. I started to learn about the religion and no longer had prejudices about Islam. I realized I had indeed been very ignorant!
What I dont quite understand is why some expats here in Saudi don’t seem to overcome the third stage of culture shock.ie they remain in the “withdrawal stage” for the whole time they live here. I wonder why is that? What prevents this progress, is it fear of the unknown, arrogance, sense of supremacy, or even lack of intelligence? I have met people who actually managed to live here 25 years and not learned to speak enough Arabic to order food at a restaurant. Or even worse, the only arabic they know is “mafi mushkila”(no problem). They dont know any Saudis, nor do they wish to interact with them. They call saudis animals, apes, rag-headded idiots and the likes..
These people are unfortunately mostly fellow westerners, living in their own isolated compounds. Maybe that has a negative impact on their lives which they are blind to. They try to continue their lives exactly like it was back home inside those walls. But in the end, they are only hurting themselves. I feel sorry for these people who continue to have no respect for the culture they live in, they have no interest in getting to know locals, yet they slander them with the cruelest most unfair words imaginable. That is called prejudice, which in Saudi-Arabia is sadly the norm amongst western folk. It's so easy to live in a bubble inside the compound, and deny everything thats going on outside the walls! Most of these compounds go so far as to not letting saudi nationals in AT ALL! And this is their country! Ridiculously arrogant and racist if you ask me. They dont even allow western people to wear thobes or abayas inside some compounds, not even for halloween! Really! Some go so far as banning hijab (headscarves) from ALL women, even western muslims. Maybe they are trying to "get back" to saudis for having to wear abayas outside their compounds. Very childish, or is this incurable culture shock?

Imagine if it was the other way around, arabs would build their own compounds for example in the States. They would wall them and have high security. US citizens would be striclty prohibited. All other nationalities including Canadians are welcome. But NO americans. And no one can come in wearing anything other than "arab dress". Only thobe and abayas allowed. Oh, but if you are U.S citizen, but happen to have dual citizenship with say, Lebanon, you are welcome in! If someone dares wear western dress they are kicked out of the compound. Sounds like utopia huh?Are westerners in KSA creating their own utopia inorder to avoid dealing with the outside one?