Well finally the day of Final Exit has arrived. Certainly have mixed feelings about leaving Saudi as all in all I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 2.5yrs here.
Definately a country of paradox's and contradictions. Apart from Japanese, the Saudi blackmarket is probably Johnny Walker Black Labels biggest market and yet it is totally illegal here and can lead to extreme measures by the authorities for anyone caught! At times it has felt that there is more of the "special fruit juice" here than water.
For a country with so much oil and little natural water (in comparison) is it a surprise that water is more expensive than petrol??? I can fill up the tank on my 4wd for around £7.50, whereas in the UK be more like £110. That is going to take some getting used to in the UK for sure. Though car washes etc are about the same price as in the UK. Until recently and the fall in the value in sterling it was far cheaper to buy cars (and better models) here in Saudi. Last year when sterling was at 7.4SAR to the £ a Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia was around £10,000 for the same vehicle approaching £20,000 in the UK. Even a full GRC Rally Spec Subaru was around £18,400 otr! Now with the £ crashing that same Subaru is £25,200 which is still far cheaper than in the UK.
Electronics and suchlike however are more expensive here than in the UK, from mobile phones to computers, from fridge-freezers to electric radiators. Even food shopping here especially for imported foods is far more expensive here. When we arrived a supermarket trolley load was around 600SAR (£81) now its more like 1200SAR with the now bad conversion rate is now £222!!!! So we get hit with a triple whammy here if you are paid in Sterling... the 10%+ annual inflation rate, the hit that the £ has taken and then the world-wide rise in prices and yet folks are going on about price deflation elsewhere?????? Cannot see it myself apart from maybe the house prices rapidly reducing in the UK.
Will be sad to say goodbye to the house...... Hazel made it a lovely home and we even fell for it enough to call it home, yep even here in Saudi. We had to get the almost mandatory house-boy but Afroze became part of the family. A pernickety member of the family at times as 16yr old daughter was wont to say a times. Think he will miss us as much as we miss him as he has been a damn good support to Hazel over the last 20 odd months for her.
In her time here, Hazel went through lots of highs and lows but she came through them superbly. Especially for her first posting as an expat wife overseas's. As i tell her everywhere after Saudi is a doddle (well maybe not but am not going to Nigeria!) Hazel like me feels at home here in the Middle East despite her very obvious misgivings at the beginning. She quickly established herself as one of the main entertainment organisors in the area and that helped her greatly to get to know people from all parts of this world of ours. As she says you never ever accept Saudi, more like you become acclimatised to the place. About the only thing she will miss is the wearing of the abaya (the long black cloak) She reckons if the fellas had to wear one, it wouldn't stay mandatory (ie society here frowns very heavily on non wearers, as do the religous police!!!!) for very long! Women are not allowed to drive here (apart from the fact that in the desert most saudi women are the main drivers herding the animals etc while the guys sit around drinking tea! Initially Hazel was most anti this but after experiencing the driving standards here and seeing myriads of accidents where people were killed she is pleased she doesn't drive here. There are strong rumours this will change in the next year, at least for some women. However they are going to have a tough time here when finally women are allowed to drive.
So yes it is with a heavy heart I leave today but a very loose translation of an arabic phrase translates as "you have to go away to come back again" and thats certainly how we feel about Saudi and the Middle East. We will be back "Insha'allah"
Definately a country of paradox's and contradictions. Apart from Japanese, the Saudi blackmarket is probably Johnny Walker Black Labels biggest market and yet it is totally illegal here and can lead to extreme measures by the authorities for anyone caught! At times it has felt that there is more of the "special fruit juice" here than water.
For a country with so much oil and little natural water (in comparison) is it a surprise that water is more expensive than petrol??? I can fill up the tank on my 4wd for around £7.50, whereas in the UK be more like £110. That is going to take some getting used to in the UK for sure. Though car washes etc are about the same price as in the UK. Until recently and the fall in the value in sterling it was far cheaper to buy cars (and better models) here in Saudi. Last year when sterling was at 7.4SAR to the £ a Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia was around £10,000 for the same vehicle approaching £20,000 in the UK. Even a full GRC Rally Spec Subaru was around £18,400 otr! Now with the £ crashing that same Subaru is £25,200 which is still far cheaper than in the UK.
Electronics and suchlike however are more expensive here than in the UK, from mobile phones to computers, from fridge-freezers to electric radiators. Even food shopping here especially for imported foods is far more expensive here. When we arrived a supermarket trolley load was around 600SAR (£81) now its more like 1200SAR with the now bad conversion rate is now £222!!!! So we get hit with a triple whammy here if you are paid in Sterling... the 10%+ annual inflation rate, the hit that the £ has taken and then the world-wide rise in prices and yet folks are going on about price deflation elsewhere?????? Cannot see it myself apart from maybe the house prices rapidly reducing in the UK.
Will be sad to say goodbye to the house...... Hazel made it a lovely home and we even fell for it enough to call it home, yep even here in Saudi. We had to get the almost mandatory house-boy but Afroze became part of the family. A pernickety member of the family at times as 16yr old daughter was wont to say a times. Think he will miss us as much as we miss him as he has been a damn good support to Hazel over the last 20 odd months for her.
So yes it is with a heavy heart I leave today but a very loose translation of an arabic phrase translates as "you have to go away to come back again" and thats certainly how we feel about Saudi and the Middle East. We will be back "Insha'allah"
loved every bit of reading and agree with every one
ReplyDeleteso it isnt ma'arsalaamah (goodbye) it is ashufeuk (see you again) as we will be back