Charafantah's Cave

So! am finally back from hibernation

It’s been a long time since my last post, there are A LOT of things that happened here is a brief of what has been going on lately:

• I came back from Saudi Arabia, in one piece, no more problems.
• I took a week off of work
• I went to visit Egyptian monuments, to refresh my memory and clear all the remains of the Saudi experience.
• I went to the country side for one day.
• I went to Sokhna for a day. (The amount of food eaten on that day, is enough to feed 10 Ethiopians families for a week)

I came back from Saudi after midnight, i haven’t told my parents am coming back, because i had an all-day meeting in a few hours, my parents would go crazy if just leave them after all this time in Saudi.

Luckily, they were staying in out other apartment in Shorouk, so i went home and had some sleep, went to the annual meeting, it was held in Fairmont (Sheraton Heliopolis), it was nice, but as usual, some minor bad luck.

I decided to leave early and missed Dolly Shahine, i would really love to put a picture here to show you what i have missed (specially that I JUST CAME BACK FROM SAUDI #@$*& ARABIA), but i can’t because it would be indecent

Just to give you an idea….imagine a beach in Marina…she was wearing exactly the same things worn on beaches….except there was no beach, no sea and nobody else was wearing anything *NEAR* what she was wearing, beside everyone was just STARING at her..eh…ehm…ma3aleina   (in case you want photos, check facebook )

Here are some pictures i took while am here in KSA, with my comments at the bottom

Main two buildings in Riyadh, Al Mamlaka (at the back) and Al Faisalyah (the one we got robbed at )
There are no other high buildings, most buildings are less than 5 floors.

Al Saraya Turkish restaurant in Talatiny Al Olaya St. ثلاثين العليا
No comment many countries would get offended if i commented on that one

On my first days in Riyadh, i thought that tamwenat is a brand name for a chain of super markets….
Then i discovered that a supermarket is caled tamwenat here
Its very common here, they are eveywhere.

El 7′eyata el regaleya IT IS EVERYWHERE this is where they make the galabeyas and the shema3′
هنا بيفصلوا الجلاليب و الشماغ و الحاجات دى……مع أن الجلاليب كلها بيضاء…بس فى 100 نوع قماش و 100 نوع ياقة و 100 نوع جيب و زراير و حركات.
بس فى الأخربرضو, كله جلاليب

The worlds largest Plasma TV Panasonic 103 inch (HOLY CRAP!!! CAN YOU IMAGE THAT!)
And the price tag says: 270,000SR (yes, thats almost 72,000USD and 400,000EGP)
أكبر تليفزيون فى العالم ب 400,000 ألف جنيه بس,,,يا بلاش!!!! كنت حجيب 2, بس للأسف مفيش مكان فى الشنطة

Al Tahleya St. something like gam3et el dowal st in egypt its where all the youth gather and go out, a lot of shops etc…..except you don’t see anyone walking in the streets (that’s how it is in KSA) and you don’t see any females (damn it! i haven’t seen a girl for LOOOONGGG time now)

Me and Osama in Dr. Cafe, few minutes after this picture, we were thrown out, because prayer time came and they had to close.

The only thing you can do in Saudi Arabia, EATTTTTTT
i think i gained like 6-7 more kilo during my stay here. the pic was taken at Chilli’s

It was a slaughter, thats what remains from the chocolate fudge with ice cream (yummmmyyyyyyy)

Me and Rami, stuck in the elevator

At the Faisaleyah mall, it says Single men are not allowed. You can’t enter the mall on weekends if you’re a single man, families only!!!!!! (holy crap)!!
ممنوع دخول العزاب!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Juice center!!! no comment
مركز عصير!!!! و كمان ماما نوره؟

أبح!!! كان فى حاجات تانية مش لذيذة,,بس قولت بلاش فضايح عالنت

It’s been a few days since my last blog, a few things happened, but i was so busy to blog (specially that i have no laptop now, so the only chance to blog is from the office, which as you might notice, i would be SO busy, so i can get out of here as soon as possible)

A few good things happened too, i can’t deny that finally things at work began to move a little bit and i made some progress.

Regarding the disasters, nothing really major, except that my tooth was hurting me really bad, dentist said it would cost 800SR just to fix it….it’s much better now, the pain is gone, i hope it’ll stay that way until am back to Egypt.

Apart from that, nothing really serious, just minor stuff, like we go to eat, we all order grilled chicken sandwich, and i am the only one who gets his sandwich with all the salad and topping but without the chicken (it’s ok, i returned it back to the restaurant)

Maybe also that once, where i was waiting for someone in front of the mall, and that weird dude in his car came and tried to “give me a ride”…it was so disturbing

But hell!!! life is much better now (compared to what it was a few days ago, it’s very relative…… moving from -100 to -20 is a great improvement, but you’re still in the minus )

Regarding the passports, we still have to complete some more papers before we could get new passports, we’ll see how it goes, police here is so bad (worse than egypt, can you imagine that?) and the Egyptian embassy is as bad as..ehmm i dunno,, as an Egyptian embassy

Happy Valentine to all you of who celebrates Valentine’s day…please if you DO celebrate valentine DO NOT READ THIS POST!

You have been warned.

If you still want to read, check the more link continue reading…

I had many people speak to me, saying that i am not so unlucky and there is no such thing as disasters magnet and that it’s all just a coincidence and that probably me putting all these thoughts in my mind is what causing it.

So i thought to myself, and i was like “Yea, it could be true, i’ll just not think about that anymore”

But here’s what happened:

All the Egyptians in the company working in Riyadh at the moment gathered in the office to watch the final match between Egypt & Cameroon (WELL DONE EGYPT!!! i never really thought we could make it….well done)
Thank God we won, or they could’ve killed me if we didnt

Our office is in a HUGE building called “Al Faysaliah – الفيصلية” which is one of the very few massive buildings in Riyadh.

There are 5 elevators in that building, so after the match we all decided to go back to the hotel and so, we get into one of the elevators and it’s really neat and clean, the elevator is BIG the sign says it fits 15 persons, it’s made by Mitsubishi and it’s really advanced (DOH! it needs an electronic access card to operate)

We were 7 inside it, less than half the allowed capacity, while the elevator moved down, a few shakes hit us, but it’s okay.
Just the minute we are near the ground floor, the elevator stops.

Opps, we’re stuck in the elevator!!!!!

We tried every possible button combination one could imagine, shouting and screaming and everything (the alarm button did not seem to work)

After a few minutes, we called our friends from the office who were lucky enough not to get into the same elevator as us to call the security, just seconds later, the speaker in the elevator worked (looks like that alarm button was working after all )

A saudi speaking guy, saying stuff i didn’t understand, later they translated to me he was telling us to wait, and asked how long we’ve been here.

They try to open the door, they successfully do, but we were afraid to jump, as the elevator was stuck between two floors, if it moves while someone is jumping, it could cut him in half

so we told them to leave the door open for a few mins to get some fresh air in, and to try and move the elevator from the main control unit. To do so , we had to close the door first (so the elevator can move)

But hey! no luck

It was more than 20 mins passed since we’ve been stuck in there, so i was really tired and i decided just to sit on the floor until we get out ( i have some pictures will post them later)

So we decided that if they can’t move it, we’ll risk jumping out of the door if that’s our only choice…. but (why must be always a but? ) they cant open the door again…somehow, for some weird reason, the tool they use to open the door, or the door itself i dunno, became loose and doesn’t want to open.

It’s like, i gave you a chance to escape and you refused it, now you’ll be stuck here forever
Many people decided to sit down like me, as we were all tired

we called the police to ask for help.

After about 45-60mins they managed to open the door again and we all jumped out safely.

You have no idea what looks everyone gave me , you know in the movies, when they catch an evil witch in the 17th century, how everyone look at her? i was the evil witch

So yea, 7 of us got stuck in an elevator for almost an hour

looks like i will have a disaster to blog about everyday, so wait for the series. You know what, the only good thing about this, is that no one gets hurt (so far, ya rab dayman)

After breaking two teeth while am in Riyadh (i don’t know what the heck is wrong with me, is the food?) i could no longer take the pain, i also couldn’t eat anything, specially that each broken tooth is on a different side of the mouth.

I had to go to a dentist, after a few calls to the office, they gave me directions to a dental clinic they recommended, so i took a cab to there.

The place i must say is nice and clean, the girl at the reception greeted me and took my personal information (do not be surprised, YES she was a girl, but she was wearing the moving tent, and convering every inch of her body and face)

I waited for a few minutes, during this few minutes i looke at the price list…and OH OH!!!! am in deep $hit…prices are the same as the prices in Egypt (remember my previous post about dental care pricing?) just multiplied by 2 or maybe 3 so i was scared to death i’d end up paying 1000 Riyal to kill the pain…it would have caused pain in my walled and i cant support that one.

Anyway, i got in, the doctor was Syrian, he was friendly, i told him what happened, he examined my teeth and told me that the temp filling i asked for will probably not last until i come back to Egypt.

But well, knowing the prices, i insisted on the temp filling
I am much better now…i haven’t eaten anything since then…but i *REALLY* *REALLY* hope that when i eat nothing else will break, or the temp filling will fall.

A good solution is to live on glucose w محاليل بقى والكلام دة