Life in Saudi Arabia

Happy Saturday! Today I will share my entire positive lifestyle I had when I was in Saudi Arabia for eight years and about the reason why I love the place. I've been here in the Philippines for two years now and I haven't visited my beloved hometown in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Since my father is already working here, there is no chance for me to go back any sooner. But with all hope, after college, I'll go back because I miss the country so much.

ABAYA & TARHA
Abaya is a lose black cloak that cover up the whole body of a woman. All women must wear abaya and tarha because of course the place is an Islamic country and it's a rule that all women must cover up. Mutawwa (Islamic police) always warn women to cover up their hair with tarha because not all actually wear it properly but I can't blame them because not all women in Saudi are Muslims. I remember when I was still using the abaya before, I feel like I was a witch in Hogwarts, lol. Example of abaya is shown in the photo above.

UNLIMITED AIRCON
Middle East is known as a desert place that exceed 40 degrees celsius of weather in summer. But no, as experienced by truly yours, it doesn't bother me, because aircon is everywhere. Plus, the electricity bill in Saudi is very cheap compare to the Philippines. So unlimited aircon 24/7 isn't a big deal as it is here in the Philippines. And brown out doesn't exist in Saudi unlike here in Zamboanga City, we deal with brown out like 2-3 times a day and I'm sure other cities are also struggling with this.

FAST INTERNET SPEED
I'm sure a lot of people who were from Saudi would definitely agree with me. The internet speed here in the Philippines is poor. But either way, as long as I have internet and it doesn't bother my patience, it's alright.

LIMITED JUNKS IN GROCERY LIST
When we go for a grocery in the mall, we only pick our most necessity and pick just a little bit of junk food. We only buy like 1-2 chips for the whole week. And my father loves fruits, so he often insist to buy loads of those and I'm going to pick my yogurt and milk, that's all. I have this favorite yogurt drink that was strawberry flavored, and I unbelievably forgot what it was called. My love for milk is everlasting, however, I don't fancy much the milk here in the Philippines. I'll forever love the Saudia brand. And Almarai too. My weight increased when I went here in the Philippines because I can just go wherever I want and eat. If I'm hungry, I eat. I don't know why but back in Saudi, I don't eat too much as I do here in the Philippines.

GORGEOUS PEOPLE
Before Kylie Jenner, there's Modern Arabian Women that grows all over the crowd everywhere in Saudi. Yes, I'm talking about the lips, hips, bum, and boobies. I actually have this Arabic teacher back in highschool which wear this brown lipstick everyday at school and she intentionally overflow the lipstick on her lips to make it look like a chubby and bigger lips. And her body figure is Kim K. Sometimes there are people who are gifted to have larger lips like Kylie that you can just normally see in Saudi. There are also loads of Zayn Malik look alike that walks around like a boss, well sometimes, Arabs are really humble, or aggressive (like narcissistic guys), or they just don't care about me because I'm Asian. Oh there's this funny story about the guy I met in Jarir Bookstore, damn he's cute. I will just talk about it more in different post.

HALAL FOOD EVERYWHERE
Arab food, I miss you.
Oh how I miss choosing restaurants and food stalls freely and don't have to think if they put pork or pork ingredients on their food. Because Philippines is a Christian country, most of the restaurants and food stalls here sell pork. I'm a Muslim and we're not allowed to eat pork, so if you have Muslim friends, please treat them well, and serve them halal (non-pork) food. It's a major deal to us. So, looking for a pure halal restaurant is hard for me so sometimes I just choose eating sweets over a proper meal in a restaurant, fast food chain, and others. And since halal food doesn't compose of any sort of pork, then it doesn't make you fat. Well, lots of Arabs are big, maybe because they eat way too much or their metabolism are slow.

COMFORTABLE TRANSPORTATION
We had a Fortuner back then and the transportation is luxurious and very comfortable. I sleep way too much in the car, like most of the time I sleep in the car on our way to school or home or anywhere else. I even change clothes there, lol. And I don't have to commute cough college students cough. And the traffic is bearable but most of the time there's no traffic. Here in Zamboanga City, we don't struggle much about the traffic because the city has fewer vehicles than in Manila. I've read so many tweets of my friends in Manila complaining about the traffic in EDSA and in some places, they actually take hours to get to their destination. It's horrifying.

ROADTRIPS
I haven't been into a roadtrip here in the Philippines because first, the driver isn't my father, and second, my mom thinks I'm gonna get raped and die if I'll ever go to a roadtrip without my father, which I think is very sweet but after all, I'm not really into doing that. But I enjoyed every single roadtrip we had back in Saudi, to Jeddah, Dammam, Al-Khobar, Jubail, and Madinah & Makkah. Happy memories.

WINTER SEASON
I don't like summer, I've been very vocal about that for a long time now. And a lot of people in America and other countries love summer so much. Why?! But wait, what if you guys try to live here in the Philippines and those Filipino folks that doesn't like summer will live in the winter side of the world. Sounds great. I love the winter in Saudi, the coziness, laziness, negative degrees, and when we speak there's this visible cold breeze that comes out of our mouth. And we always blow and show each other's breeze. I mean, come on, I miss and love that so much because all we blow here is sweat, amazing right, yucks.

PARKS

I remember that we go to Salam Park all the time because my mom loves parks. Where it came to the point where in I get upset and annoyed when we go there. But honestly now, I want to go back and enjoy every second of my time in that park. I'll eat lots of ice cream and corn and batatas (potatoes). There is this dried potato swirled in a barbecue stick and they put sauces in it which I really really love, I already forgot what it's called though, damn it. But I think, it was dried batatas(?). When I get back to Riyadh, I'll definitely visit Salam Park often.

ESTERAHA
or Villa
We rent Villas for parties and most of the villas have swimming pool which I really enjoyed back when I was younger. I remember, on my Grade 6th graduation, we rented Esteraha and I invited all my friends and it was the best party ever because basically we spend the day in the swimming pool which was funny but really memorable. I will never forget that. Renting for Esteraha isn't that expensive that's why lots of Filipino folks love renting Esterahas.

CORNICHE
I have to admit that when I was still in Saudi, I don't like Corniche. But now I miss it. The photo above is me and my sister, Fhar, in Al-Khobar Corniche.

WOMEN SECTION IN THE MALL
Yes, you read that right. Some malls in Saudi actually have their own private women section, because you know it's an Islamic country and they separate guys from girls. But it doesn't mean that guys and girls are actually separated in the mall, it's just, there's a women section which obviously only women are allowed to enter and the sellers are women as well. Basically mostly like 90%, the sellers and cashiers are men. I love to go to the women section because it makes me feel more safe and comfortable because what could go wrong when you're with your fellow sisters.

CHEAPER PRICE
I miss this so much because back when I was still in Saudi, I don't convert the Saudi riyals to Philippine pesos at all. Chocolates are 1-5+ riyals, Clothes are 30-90+ riyals (there are still 100-500 riyals but I don't buy things like that because I don't like wasting my parents' hard earned money), and chocolates here are 50-100+ pesos and clothes are 100-600+ pesos. It blows my mind.

That's it for now! I would like to proclaim first and foremost that these are all based on my experience and I'm sure lots of my friends could relate. I just miss Saudi Arabia so I wrote this Saudi Arabia appreciation post because the country deserves it and for you to be able to see the positive side of the Middle East. And I feel so grateful that I experience the luxurious lifestyle in Saudi, it's something I will never forget and will forever be grateful for.

Love, Fads