A walk around town

I walked around Al Khobar with my camera this afternoon looking for photographs. I couldn’t find anything that interested me apart from the long queues of Asian workers waiting by the foreign remittance offices. I felt very self-conscious as I walked passed - everybody turned towards me. They were bored and it is unusual to see a white man in Al Khobar these days.

The exchange rates have been getting progressively worse for many of the expatriates here in Saudi - those paid in Riyals and without homes in the US at least. It was SR5.5 or better to the Pound Sterling when I came here seven years ago. The Riyal hit a low of SR7.5 this week. I don’t know how the Peso has been fairing but perhaps that is why the Filipina maids have put up their fees by five Riyals to SR20 an hour. That has caused some distress on our compound. The fact that they have been charging SR15 for years doesn’t seem to bother anybody. I wonder how people adjust to life without servants when they return to life in their own countries. For that matter, how will I?

I finished editing the photographs from the China Climb Expedition and finally posted the last of the galleries on the school website. The photo here is from Yangshuo market.