As you can see below my blog are the last blogs of my companions of our trip. Im glad to be the last person to give you our final greetings ! So before we go back to Belgium, Im going to tell you about our last, interesting day !
This morning, we all woke up rather early in the morning because we wanted to enjoy every single minute of the last day of our trip ! We slept in a little hotel nearby the capital and largest city of Saudi-Arabia, Riyadh. http://schools-wikipedia.org/images/859/85910.png
This city is divided into 15 branch municipalities and about 7 million people live there. So we took a national bus from our hotel to the big centre of the city. The city has two parts, one old and one new. We first are going to the old part, which is called Al-Bathaa and Al-Dirah. There you have the Riyadh Museum of History and Archeology and the Murabba Palace. This is an old residence of the first Saudi king, Ibn Saud, which has now become a museum. We took a look at the Murabba Palace but not at the other Museum. We didnt wanted to spend al our time in museums ! But the Murabba Palace was interesting to see how a king lived.
Because it was almost lunchtime, we decided to skip Al-Dirah because otherwise we wouldnt had enough time to visit the new part of the city, Olaya District. So, we took the public transport again to go to Olaya District. This part of the city is known as the commercial heart of the city. When we arrived in that part of the city, we first decided to grab a little bite before we continue discovering more about Saudi-Arabia. We went in a little restaurant and we all ate something that the local people usually eat, namely Nejdi Kabsa and the Yemeni Mandi. These are two traditional lunch meals in Riyadh. The Nejdi Kabsa dish is normally made with chicken or lamb meat. Emilie, Anne and I split one Nejdi Kabsa and Laurens tasted a Yemeni Mandi. But there were very strong flavors in the dishes and we didnt really liked it. So when we were out of the restaurant, we went around the corner to the McDonalds. Seems that international (fast)food is also very popular in the city.
After our burger, we went to see the Kingdom Centre, which is also called Al Mamlaka Tower. It is the biggest skyscraper of Saudi Arabia ! It has a height of 302,3 meters and the total cost was 1 billion US $. It is Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal who owns the tower and he is one of the Saudi royal family.
Not far away from this tower, you also have the Al-Faisaliah Tower. It is also a skyscraper that was built in 2000. This tower is especially famous for its enormous glass globe. The glass globe is about 25 meters in diameter and is made of 655 glass panels ! But this tower isnt that high as the Al Mamlaka Tower, it is only 267 meters above the ground. In this tower you can find: a five-star deluxe hotel, 4 exclusive restaurants, offices, apartments,
After we saw this huge but very interesting monument, wewalked a bit threw the shopping streets of Riyadh and had a last drink. We went back to the hotel, packed our bags and drove with the taxi to Riyadhs King Khalid International Airport. ( http://www.riyadh-airport.com)It is the second largest airport in the world, so that was really impressing. The airport even has a mosque in it! So we went back home but we will never forget our trip !
We really would like to thank everybody who watched our blogs every week ! We really appreciate your support and enthusiasm !
Lovely greets !
Miet Cappelle (+ Emilie Dauwe, Anne Taelman and Laurens Vermeulen.)
Today we
concentrate us to the culture from Saudi-Arabia. Saudi Arabia is known for its
diverse and vibrant cultural heritage. You can feel the essence of culture of
Saudi Arabia in the architecture of the region. The mosques and local
attractions shows the beautiful culture of the Middle East.
The clothes
that are commonly in Saudi Arabia display the rich culture of Saudi Arabia. The
men in this region wear thobe (white gown), ghutra (white headdress), and bisht
(black overcoat). Women clothes in Saudi Arabia are the traditional burkhas,
and cover their heads and bodies.
One of the obligations of a Muslim is to pray
five times a day to Allah (their supreme being). Their exact praying hours are
usually listed at every local news papers. They also have a different weekend.
Muslims considers Thursday and Friday their rest days. At these days, every
stall, business places and even offices are closed.
The religion of Islam influences a Muslim's
diet as well. All over Saudi Arabia, it is not allowed to have meals with pork
in it. As substitute to pork they include in their meals the meat of lamb or
chicken. They eat most of their meals withkhobzor
bread. Drinking alcoholic beverages are also prohibited. Even foreigners are
subject to this law just like any local citizen. When one is caught breaking
the alcohol law, they are sentenced for months in prison. In some cases, lashes
can also be a part of the punishment.
Muslims also have their own way of greeting
people. Like in any other places, men usually shake their hands when they
greet. They may also kiss each other on the cheek as a sign of good friendship.
Women, on the other hand, hug and kiss their fellow women who are close to
them. However, men and women are not allowed to greet each other in public. Men
and women who have mutual relationships are also not allowed to display public
affection. It may lead to imprisonment.
After we learned all this, we recommend a
foreigner visiting Saudi Arabia should abide and take their laws and culture
seriously as much as their local citizens do.
We passed
some of the palaces owned by sheiks, and they are so amazing and big.
As a
marketer, I will write about the marketing in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi
Arabian market is not that big. Its a huge country, but Saudi Arabia has a
population of only 25 million people (thats 2 and a half times Belgium). The
market of Saudi Arabia is characterised by customers with a lot of money.
The business
people of Saudi Arabia like it when they have good relations with their
suppliers and customers. The Saudi Arabian people are very found on their
privacy, and therefore, many types of direct marketing used in other countries,
are not used in Saudi Arabia. When you use the term direct marketing in Saudi
Arabia, people think about commercials on the television, and contact with
their customers and suppliers by phone.
New
companies in Saudi Arabia (foreign companies) will find it beneficial to introduce complete
product lines, rather than individual products, into the Saudi market, as it
will allow them to benefit from greater demand stimulation and cost reductions.
The products of the new foreign company must be competitively priced. If the
product is too cheap or too expensive, it wont make sales. Sudden price
changes and pricing for after-sales service should be avoided.
In the last
few years, many new magazines and newspapers have appeared on the Saudi Arabian
market. This had a great effect on the print advertising. The market share of
print advertising exploded. Now, print advertising is one of the most used
marketing techniques. Examples of magazines are Al-Majallah, Al-Yamamah, and
Sayidati. The rates for print advertising are low, but thats because not that
many people read them in Saudi Arabia.
I hope you
learned something about the marketing in Saudi Arabia
Yesterday
we arrived in Saudi Arabia. This is the last country we will be visiting. We
took an airplane from Aquaba to Damman. Because the distance is too big, we had
no other option than to take an airplane. Im talking about a distance of 1600
km. Thatthe same as going from Brussels to Italy. We had to sit on the plane
for 2h45 until we arrived in the popular King Fahd International Airport in
Dammam. That is the largest airport in the world. It is 5 times as big as the
airport we have in Zaventem. It
was really remarkable to see.
Here you can follow on a map where we flew with the airplane:
Saudi Arabia is the third largest Arab country. You can also see on the map how
small Jordan is in comparison. Saudi Aribia is also several times bigger than
the size of Belgium.
This is a
picture of the famous airport in Dammam: http://the-saudi.net/kfia/images/view1.jpg
Yesterday
when we arrived in Dammam we were so tired of our journey that we agreed to not
do anything anymore that day. I did some research on my laptop that I brought
along about the economy in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has the worlds largest oil reserves and is the worlds largest
oil exporter. The petroleum accounts for more than 90% of exports and nearly
75% of government revenues. Because of their power of possessing that much
natural resources, it is a rich country.
Of coursenot everybody can enjoy that. There is a large gap between the rich and
the poor is Saudi Arabia. We came to Dammam, also known as Ad Dammam because it
is one of the richest cities in the world. It is also the biggest city in the
region. Not only Dammam is rich on oil but the entire country has a lot of oil.
The country has about 260 billion barrels of oil reserves. A barrel has a
volume of 4.1×1010m3 . That is good for one fifth of the worlds
total petroleum reserves.
Before we came to Saudi Arabia, I had these certain thoughts about the Middle
East. I thought there was only desert and people with covered faces. As I
discovered, many buildings and places are already of modern design and
construction. Thanks to their income on oil, modernity and technology has came
into the county a long time ago, even much more advanced than other third world
countries today.
These
are some pictures Ive already took from the plane:
Because it
is the last country we will be visiting during our trip, this will be the last
blog Im posting.
It was an interesting trip weve made from East-Timor to Saudi Arabia. Im happy
to have done this trip with 3 good friends from Belgium, namely Miet, Anne and
Laurens.
I would also like to thank you for following our blog!
A lot of
greetings from the last visiting country: Saudi Arabia!
