A Saudi Christmas

Being a Christian ritual, the celebration of Christmas is absolutely forbidden in Saudi which means it is difficult to get anything like Christmas decorations and because they don't eat or sell pork you have to shop elsewhere.  That means Christmas decoration and gift shopping in Dubai and crossing a border to purchase any 'unavailable' consumable goods required for the Christmas table.  That was all done before I got there so when I arrived, the place already looked lovely and welcoming and the menu was planned.  It should be noted that although celebrations are not allowed in Saudi, what happens on the compound is the business of noone outside the compound.

We had done some of the prep the day before and I am happy to report that the cranberry stuffing that I made turned out beautifully although I was having my doubts at the sugar turning to toffee through the cooking process.  As it happens, the juices from the cranberries break this down and you are left with a tart, full flavoured stuffing.  YUM.  Apart from dressing the table and helping Brian to move furniture around that was my only true contribution to the day.  Bronwyn had everything in control in the kitchen and with the help of Josie, her house girl, things went to clock work and we were to enjoy a feast comprising 3 meats (including a handsome turkey), loads of vegetables, the afore mentioned stuffing and sauces.  Bronwyn's Christmas pudding was to die for and after a sliver each of that and pavlova, had had more than my belly really wanted to handle.  Curses for not stopping after the vegetables!  

 

From the festive table we adjourned outside to the courtyard area, under the warmth of outdoor heaters.  People slowly started to leave until there were just four of us left, making cold turkey sandwiches as we got peckish again later in the evening.

Not being able to get used to how dry it was and constantly being in air conditioning, I was tired so used the opportunity to sneak upstairs for an early-ish night.  And Josie had left almost almost no cleaning up to be done which was amazing... what a gem!

Boxing day started with breakfast and a not-so-early excursion to the Deira Souk where after walking up and down some laneways, looking at textiles, we actually found some Christmas decorations on a stand on the street - but they are not Christmas Decorations until a visitor calls them that.  We were lured in to the store by the vendor where there was soooo much more on display.  I could have looked for hours.  It was a bit like a smaller version of the haberdashery shop at Kuwaiti Souk.  Bronwyn bought some pashminas and I got two Christmas decorations to add to my international collection, and two bedouin masks (burka) heavily adorned with silver, chains and coins - which I just love.  I plan to get them framed and hung as a pair.

'Our' carpet vendor's store

Now, with 5 million people living in Riyadh, it is rare to just bang in to someone you know but it happened to me twice while I was there - well, not someone I knew specifically, but a friend of whoever I was with.  In to this small store we were in, walked the Harris's - the New Zealand Ambassador, his wife and children.  Of all the people, in all the tiny shops, it was a family that we had celebrated Christmas with the day before!  From there we all went to the very popular carpet shop of Mirzah Mohammed, with the finest selection of the most beautiful rugs I have ever seen.  Handpicked by the owners, and only the best brought back to Saudi, you are truly spoilt for choice.  I determined my selection by price.  Once we were looking in about the area of 'affordability' I looked until I found one I really loved. But as it approached prayer time, we left so that they could close up shop with a promise to return.  

The Globe

Leaving the souk, Bronwyn and I were 'Mutawa'ed' - my only time whilst in Riyadh and to be honest, I didn't even know it was happening!  I missed the moment completely.  Oh, I heard the "cover, cover, cover, cover, cover, cover" but didn't register that it was the Mutawa until too late and he had already swept past us.

To end a lovely couple of days, we were invited to have afternoon tea at the Globe, by Eric, friend of Brian and Bronwyn, and also a Christmas day guest.  Eric is GM of a hotel in Riyahd and fairly well connected it would seem.  We were given the royal treatment and had a magnificent afternoon tea, high up overlooking the Riyadh cityscape where I got some great photos.

Riyadh from The Globe

A day of many nations

"Friday the 3^rd of December turned out to be one of the biggest days so far for me. I was asked to accompany a small delegation (as DSL) from Davis to visit the Indian station being built down the road, then fly on to the Chinese station for a catch up. Well I did a stint in the kitchen 5:30-11:30am took a brief shower, grabbed my camera and a few warm clothes and headed off to the heli hut. Having never been in a helicopter before I was quite excited.  I was also excited by the prospect of meeting other people who call Antarctica their home. The flight from Davis took around 40mins. I was still very tired from the field training the day before and managed to squeeze out around 1000 yawns before touching down on a Russian supply ship......... so there you have it, just because you yawn doesn’t mean your neurons aren’t running around as fast as they can. 

Glacier ice formations

The chopper flight was awe inspiring, flying over all sorts of rock and ice formations and colours not easily replicated on a paint palate. I finally saw the enormity of my surroundings..................absolutely astounding.  Large ice fields as far as the eye can see were dwarfed only by the magnificent Amery Ice shelf in the distance as we made our way closer to the Indians.

Landing on the Russian Ship

We landed on the back of the Ivan Papanin supply ship, disembarked the chopper, met up with the Indian station leader and made our way to the front of the ship and into a small meeting room. Once in the meeting room we were asked to sit around some tables facing outwards from the walls. There were chairs placed around the rest of the room facing us. It defiantly felt and looked like a political briefing or maybe the meeting of two prize fighters before a match, then the big cameras came out and I was almost ready to say “no comment”....................LOL.

We chatted amongst ourselves for about half an hour....................as the awkward pauses presented themselves more frequently it was decided to get off the ship and have a look around the Indian station (construction site). The station is set to be operational by the end of next summer. Wow, there is a lot of work to do. The Engineer of the project explained to us his vision and time lines for the base. It all seemed very impressive and looking at the sketch of the finished product, very pleasing on the eye (unlike a lot of buildings around the Antarctic).

From on the ice next to the ship we said our goodbyes and took off in the helis headed for Zhongshan only ten minutes away.

As we landed a couple of the Chinese expeditioners came to greet us and show us to their meeting room. The station leader came in and introduced himself to all of us .................we then sat down at a table ready to go through the motions all over again. A mass of people then entered the dining room across the hall from us. It was a Russian delegation from Prospect station (which is only one kilometre away from the Chinese). 

New Chinese Living Quarters

Well from then on the mood was lifted and everybody became a little more social. A couple of the Chinese team gave us a tour of their station. There are a lot of new buildings being finished to modern standards......their new LQ (living quarters) is fantastic and very large .....I believe it is able to accommodate up to 150 people. It has a bank of offices up stairs, an extremely large kitchen with dining, wash up and storage all separate and a basket ball court just metres from all this. The kitchen the chef is using at the moment is about the size of my bedroom here...................not very big at all ...............poor bastard. When you watch the movies set in small villages or tight little back ally dwellings in china.............the camera always seems to pan around and into a tight little kitchen with one or maybe two people surrounded by woks, oil, food and 20 years of grime..............well this is the movie set for all those shots.

Chef, Justin and Chinese DSL

Anyway after our tour of the station which took in the power house, Met building, the new atmospheric building and various other facilities we went back into the dining room ready for a late lunch.........early dinner (5:30pm). The food was laid out in chafing dishes inside the kitchen pass, and a table was filled with drinks in nice neat rows, Chinese red and white wine, Chinese rice wine, rice liquor (which smells and tastes like bile), sprite, coke, orange juice and of course, vodka. Speeches were made, gifts were handed out and food was consumed. We ate fresh omelette spring rolls, battered prawns with chilli sauce, a toasted sesame salad of rice noodles and bean shoots (the bean shoots are grown from seed in various jars around the kitchen and then cut when needed, these looked like pea shoots), roast duck, grilled corn and rice, pork dumpling and finally a non descript sweet savoury sort of mini pasty thingy. All very nice, I was starving so I went up for thirds...............just as well cause when I was on my way back to the table a couple of Russians pulled me to the side and asked me if I wanted a vodka...........................well?  Hey you can’t say no for more than just diplomatic reasons, and so down the hatch it went. Two more glasses later I was feeling very good about my situation. The Russians drink orange juice slowly after they down a vodka in one hit. It’s not the vodka orange I’m used to but when in Rome.   

Saying Goodbye

By then end of our visit I had managed to down more vodka in two hours than I had in two years, also I had managed to drink a fermented rice paddy, half a bottle of rough red and two cups of coke (I needed something for the toasts and it’s all I could see), made friends with the DSL, Chef and a Chinese guy who was having his birthday on this very special day, danced in  a circle with arms on shoulders shouting oye, oye, oye in a Cossack kind of chant while some guy screamed into the karaoke machine, and taken away a lot of very surreal memories.

By the time we flew out I was ready for bed. 

From the chopper

Home Sweet Home

The flight home was even better than the flight there.  I didn’t yawn and managed to get in a couple of happy snaps. Hope you enjoy them."