I have been in Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for almost 4 weeks now. I have not written about it yet except in emails and postcards. Today I will try to correct that by starting with a quick pictorial tour. (Click on the thumbnails for a larger photo.)

This is the entrance to my workplace at the National Guard Health Affairs, in Riyadh. Manicured trees, landscaped lawns, and a fire truck to add to the lego city feel. I’m not sure if you can tell the weather by a still as well as you can tell it from a forecast, but the weather here is hot. But hot in a pleasant way. Riyadh is a landlocked city, so there is none of the humidity that you get in coastal towns like Jeddah (located directly on the Red Sea), for instance.

A different view of the same entrance. This view is taken from the in-hospital bank branch, where I can be frequently be found attempting to extract some money, usually without success.

This is the view I see from my window at my residence, a Western complex designed for expat employees at the National Guard Hospital. Not pictured behind the wall is a security bulwark of barbed wire, movable barriers and slight, soft-bodied security guards. Behind that in the horizon you can see a smattering of villas in the desert. The silver sedan in the foreground is illegally occupying my own parking space, which would be infuriating if I had a car.

This is the basketball gym where I spend much of my free time after work. It’s an excellent, FIBA-compliant court, and I hurl bricks at the rims mercilessly every day from 5pm until 6. In the complex there are also facilities for soccer, tennis, squash, badminton, swimming, aerobics and weight training.  I have even discovered a tiny lending library, tucked away on a desolate floor somewhere, and have stolen away from it with some Turgenev, some Wilde, and some Leonard (Elmore, sadly, not Cohen).

A street view from a minor shopping street in Faisaliah. I only have a little point-and-shoot camera with me here in the Kingdom, so taking in some of the larger scenery and locales is a bit of a challenge (that I may attempt in the future). About the most you can get from this picture is the understanding that, yes, there are indeed some very bright lights here. Very bright. Yes.

The eternal question. Sweets vs. Dental Care. The sweets are more easily accessible on the street level, so I’ll take those.

For non-Arabic speakers, this sign says “The Place for Kissing”. They have special locations for that here, where a rootless couple may exchange a few riyals for a chance to kiss in private behind a solid brick wall. No, that’s not true, I am only joking. Although it does say “The Place for Kissing” on that thing; I’m not lying about that.

This is one of the dominant features of the Riyadh skyline, a pyramidal building known as the Faisaliah Center. Again, my equipment fails me here, as the picture is awful and also, curiously, tilted on its side. This is particularly curious because I just rotated it. I don’t know what’s going on here. Anyway, commerce of some sort takes place at that building, I assume. Commerce takes place everywhere in the Kingdom, and with great vigor.

My son Leith. He is not actually with me in Riyadh. But he is.