Morning came way too fast. Met with my boss in the downstairs's restaurant and couldn't find decent food. The restaurant looks really nice but the food selection sucks. The OJ and coffee were the strongest sides from the breakfast.



Worked all day on this above food. Didn't have lunch. When we had free few minutes everything was closed for prayers. Only the tea boys were bringing us coffee every 30 minutes
Finished work late and when we got to the hotel we went next door to Red Onion. It's kind of Indian food. I love Indian food, but this food was bad. We didn't want to deal with the traffic to go to some decent place.

Next morning dejavu. Bad breakfast, no lunch, and dinner in the hotel's restaurant. With the chicken they serve, you can seriously injure somebody if you throw that chicken at them. Food was dry and bland. Best part of the dinner was fresh OJ and some cakes.

Tuesday December 19

After bad breakfast my boss checked out from the hotel and we went to the office. He had to leave by noon and I've stayed in the office by myself. An hour later he texted me asking if I've heard that explosion. It was strange because he wasn't anywhere near the office and he heard the same thing. At first I thought that it was some car backfiring. Then the news hit the town that Saudi military intercepted Yemeni Houthi missile by shooting it down with Patriot battery.

You can read about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...capital-riyadh

In the town business as usual. I didn't feel like nothing happened. It made me nervous, but safe. If the Saudi military is using Patriots and they know how to intercept the missile, I guess I'm safe.
Nobody in the office was talking about it. The only people who were excited, were the Uber drivers.
That was another first for me.

After another long day in the office I was starving. I didn't want to go far, nor eat in hotel's restaurant nor in Red Onion.
I found place next to hotel which sells only camel liver. I never had camel before, I would love to try it.

The place is basically right next door to the hotel. When I walked in all the locals were looking at me with confusion, then they were laughing under their noses. They stopped laughing when I ordered camel liver and camel soup.
Probably they thought that I got there by mistake and didn't know that it's only camel food there.

I took the food to go. The soup was absolutely bland. No flavor whatsoever, but the camel liver with onion and hot chilies was pretty good. It's not the food I would eat every day, but certainly I wouldn't mind having it once a month. The soup and the liver set me at 12 SAR (probably $4). It was definitely better than food in hotel's restaurant.



After that I was buying food in the restaurants near the office and bring it to the hotel.

During my last day in the office, one of the guys asked me if I would like to have typical Saudi dish. Sure, why not.
It was some kind of meat on the top of the rice and two types of pasta, fried onion and garlic/mild/spicy sauces to make it moist.
They gave me a lot. That food immediately put me to sleeping mode. Tea boy was making the runs to my office every 30 minutes again
After coming back to my room I wasn't hungry, so I skipped the dinner that night.

Yesterday morning I woke up very early. I was anxious to visit Saqr Aljazeera Aviation Museum. The museum open at 4pm so I had 10 hours to kill. That's when I started this trip report

Early morning on Olaya street



Metro construction next to the hotel (they work on the metro 24/7)



Then I've remembered that I didn't take picture of the view from my room. Yes, that's my view...




At 3:30pm I was downstairs ordering Uber. The driver dropped me of at the wrong gate. I was actually trying to enter Air Base They've told me that I have to walk 300 meters then turn right.

My main goal of the visit was Saudi Lockheed L1011 in 80s green colors. Got great shots and I continued to the next exhibit which I really wanted, Saudi B707 in the late 80s desert sand colors. After shooting all airplanes on the outside, I went inside to photograph airplanes in the building. BTW - all pictures in this trip report are taken with my cellphone. In the museum and in Dubai I was using my proper Nikon camera. So sorry for the poor quality.











That was highlight of my stay in Riyadh. Happy to get those airplanes. After the museum I went to hotel's restaurant to eat something.
I was informed that there is not enough guests to have buffet open. Everything is ala carte.

I've got Margarita pizza. Fresh mozzarella, tomato, fresh basil. That's what the menu said.
What I actually got was microwave blasted yellow cheese on defrosted pizza crust with few sprinkles of dried oregano...
With glass of OJ it was only $30...

This morning I went for my last breakfast. Had the usual dry omelette with beef sausage and spongy hash browns. Never again.
All day I'm counting the minutes before I depart from this hotel.



At least I know that my next stay in Riyadh will be in hotel for minimum of $250 a night. There is no way that I will stay in dumps like this Hilton Garden Inn.

I'm going to shower now, and in 60 minutes I'm departing and heading home.

I'll continue this trip report after I get home.

Merry X-mass