Breakfast with Uncle Marv and then the Beach

 

 

Uncle Marv took us out this morning for a traditional Saudi Arabian breakfast.  From left to right:  Mark, Moe, Katie, Loy, Faisel, Uncle Marv and me.  We had a great time and some great food.  The only thing that I can remember what it was called was Saudi Arabian Foul.  The first time Moe came to our house he made Egyptian Foul for us.  The other stuff was good but I never did really understand what it was called.  Uncle Marv is quite a story teller.  We enjoyed good food and good conversation.

 

We aren't quite sure who Loy is.  We met him at Uncle Marv's office.  Last night he was at Uncle Marv's house.  Today he came to breakfast.  He was even on the flight with us from Washington D.C.!

 

 



 

After breakfast we made a quick trip to the big fish market.  That is where the fishermen unload their catch and then sell it at the marker.  (Souk)  We got there, walked in and saw just a few things when it was time for prayer and they started closing up so we left.  Really, it was so hot and smelled so bad that we wouldn't have stayed very long anyway.

This was an octopus.

 

 

There were a lot of wild skinny, scrawny cats running around.  This one got a little fish.

 

As we were leaving, there were several fruit stands.  This one had a table full of watermelons.  They looked just about like Knox County watermelons.

 

 

We had no plans for this afternoon so we decided to go to the beach again.  This time we went to another private beach where Katie and Moe have their application in to join but have to wait on a waiting list for people to not renew their membership or move away.  It was nice. It even had 2 giant resort pools.  They had brought in white sand which is nice because it reminds us of Alabama.  The other beach was brown sand.  This water was even clearer than the first beach.  When I was in up to my shoulders I could clearly see my feet just like it was a swimming pool.  I only saw 1 six inch fish and a group of about 50 minnows.  I was taking pictures when we first entered but a worker came up to me and said no cameras allowed--so sorry, there are no pictures.  I did learn that even if you go out over your head you don't have to move or tread water to stay afloat.  You can stand straight up and down, without your feet touching anything, and not move a muscle and still keep your head out of the water.  I was amazed.  We stayed at the beach for a few hours but it was very hot.  We left and had lunch (at 4:30) at a steak house.  We are skipping supper to rest and catch up on our sleep because we have an early start for tomorrow.  We are going on a boat trip and going snorkeling at the coral reef.

 

Gas here is very cheap.  It is a higher octane than what is even available in the United States and it is only $0.50 a gallon.  Moe has a 20 gallon tank and can fill up for $10.00.  The first time we stopped to get gas, the station was out of gas!  That was a surprise to me.  Here we are in Saudi Arabia where gas is cheap and oil is plentiful and the gas station is out of gas!  We just went further down the road to another station.  All stations are only full service.  Every gas station has the same price.  It is subsidized by the government so there is no price competition.

 

60% of the population in Saudi Arabia is under 25.  In the United States, 35% of the population is under 25.

 

There have been 6 kings of Saudi Arabia since the first king in 1932.  Moe's maternal grandfather worked for every king except the current one, because his grandfather is now retired.  The crown prince is the prince who will become king after the current king dies.  We drove by the palace of the crown prince who approved of Katie and Moe's marriage. He died not very long ago so he never became king.  After he died, the royal family chose another crown prince.  He is a brother to the king.  They go through all of the brothers before they move down to sons.  Each man in Saudi Arabia is allowed to have up to 4 wives at a time.  Then when they want another wife, they just divorce one of the 4 they already have and they can marry another one.  No one in Moe's family has more than one wife.  Moe said that he didn't think it would be worth the trouble.