Guest speaker, Terry Moroney, a member of the Rotary Club of Albert Park, arrived at our meeting looking like a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Yasser Arafat.
He was in fact donning the normal headwear worn by men in Saudi Arabia. He spent 5 years there working for a German telecommunications company in the 90's. He was originally contracted for 18 months but the contract kept getting extended.
Terry proceeded to give us a warts-and-all overview of life and culture in the Middle East. It would be fair to say that it wasn't all fair sailing and, based on some of his stories, it would seem he was lucky to return to Australia in a vertical position.
Some of the facts about Saudi Arabia are:
It is officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
It is ruled by King Salman, who has handed control over to his son, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman who has started to introduce some radical changes to the country.
It's population is 33 million. Of these, 8 million people are non-nationals from countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Terry was based in Riyadh, the capital. There are many roundabouts with water fountains.
It is not uncommon to see 12-lane highways with many under and over passes.
The streets are mainly the domain of men. Women tend to stay indoors.
Alcohol is illegal. Supermarkets can sell non-alcoholic beer. However, it's amazing what can be done when you add yeast and sugar. The same goes for white and red grape juice.
There is a public place in Riyadh called Chop Chop Square. This is where people found guilty of murder have their heads chopped off and thieves have their hands cut off. Terry never felt the need to pay a visit to this place.
Expatriates, like Terry, lived in compounds. He lived in a 3-bedroom house.
You take your life in your hands if you drive in Saudi Arabia because the quality of driving is atrocious.