A Night on the Town

Feigning Liberty in KSA
It’s a strange thing, but I never discovered Riyadh’s thriving but illegal pub scene until I was preparing to leave. With a month to go, a Brit flooring salesman came to see me. He said I looked like I needed a beer and said I yes, of course I did. He said he’d pick me up after work and we’d go for a pint or six. Naturally I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t.

We first of all went to his house which was on one of the fabled Western compounds that I had so miserably failed to gain access to. He said there was a bar there but it was only open on Thursday and Friday. He let me sample some of his home brew while he had a shower and got changed.

Then off we went and he blagged our way into a British Aerospace compound. All of the stuff for sale in the clubhouse there was home-made, but it was a million times better than the stuff I’d made. I had a pint, and then we went off to another place. When I left, my buddy put me in a taxi and told me to remember to bribe the driver with at least 50 Riyals, otherwise there was a good chance that he’d take me to a police station instead of my apartment. Ah, more paranoia.

Unfortunately (for me) the exercise was not repeated because this guy was leaving Riyadh in a few days’ time. Got himself a new job in Dubai, so he did.