When I found out I was going to Riyadh as a special guest of the Royal Family I was very excited. I wasn’t excited about the Royal family for there is nothing about them that’s royal, they are self-appointed dictators parading as kings in a world where Monarchies don’t exist, and kings are a thing of the distant past, and childhood fairy tales. I was more excited for the experience of being in a country very few people have ever seen. It is one of the hardest places to get a Visa and it is the strictest most fundamentalist Arab country in the world. It is a country so full of paradoxes. They are tightly allied with the US to a point of even having a few US army bases there (I am not sure if they still are there) while at the same time they breed hate and export almost all terrorists from there. Sharia is the official rule of the land and although things have relaxed in the last six years some of the following rules still apply.
If you commit adultery you are killed. If both perpetrators are married they both get killed. Fraternizing or talking to any girl, even if they are single, and even if you are in groups of thirty people, it could lead to jail and lashes (not eye lashes, but leather belts struck across your back that leave lifelong scars) although I am told it isn’t like that anymore. Women are covered from head to toe, including their face, with nothing but their eyes showing, and some even have a veil covering that as well. You cannot sit in the same food court in a mall with woman, and even every line in a restaurant has two lines and two registers for men and woman which they call, single or families.
I was told the following by my driver, but then it was refuted by one of my business associates as not the norm, but only the real religious (like 30-40% ) that even when a man marries a woman he does not get to see her or a picture of her before they are married. The sister and mother of the boy go out and try to find someone attractive for their son. Which sucks for him; what happens if the boy likes blondes and the sister is into Asians? Which in both cases are not viable options for neither of those exist in that world. What is hilarious is the moment of unveiling the night of the wedding. For the groom unwrapping what will essentially be the person he will be spending the rest of his life with, is the greatest moment of his life. It is the Christmas presents of all Christmas presents. It is a dramatic moment that is so ridiculous but I respect everyone to do whatever it is that works for them.
As an experience, Riyadh is a culture shock and interesting. As a trip or vacation, it is the equivalent of going to a prison for the culture. I am a big believer that democracy is not for everyone, and I believe some people need to be tightly controlled and are better run with a degree of authority and toughness. I will however point out; I have never felt safer in my life in any country. Crime is almost nonexistent. There were massive amounts of Al-Quada four years ago in the kingdom and many bombings, but the security forces, quietly went around, just killing and torturing people and making people disappear like magic, that they cleaned up the entire country. They still export radicalism, but they don’t tolerate it in the Country.
People I have met are extremely respectful and polite, and contrary to what people believe they love Americans. They envy us, to a point of idolizing us. However most of the pleasantness I think is more of a result of seeing so few westerners that it’s a hybrid of curiosity and interest.
One of the highlights of my trip was supposed to be my visit to what’s called “Chop Chop Square”. This is where they execute all capital punishments by chopping off the heads of the inmates in public. This happens on Fridays but not on all Fridays, and although I bought a spy pen that is also a video camera to record it, they had no executions that Friday.
The funniest story that happened to me was when I was sitting in the lobby of my hotel minding my own business. I was at least a hundred feet away from this married couple eating. There was a book case separating us, and she was covered from head to toe in black with nothing but her eyes showing. If I leaned a certain way I was in the line of sight of this couple if you looked through one of the shelves in the bookcase. He came over to me and asked me to move. I still don’t know if this was part of his interpretation of being separate men and woman, or he was worried that his wife was getting turned on by me, but it was funny nonetheless.
Overall Saudi Arabia is a baron desert, that’s hot and disgusting, with gas at 19 cents a gallon, not an ounce of alcohol in the entire country it is completely illegal, no entertainment at all, and nothing to do but think about home, but as experiences go this was great, for I now know that I was born more into royalty than the king in his restricted country.
Riyadh Saudi Arabia
