From Jeddah to Wadi Al Dawasir and back to Riyadh

It’s 22 February – Saudi Founding Day! That means I have a compulsory break from visiting today. And tomorrow too, because it’s Friday and I can’t make any appointments. So that means time for writing and organising. I still have a number of confirmed appointments for the coming days, but without a specific time. As I communicate with most companies via WhatsApp, which is common practice in the Middle East, I can still reach one or two contacts despite the public holidays.

After breakfast on the rooftop of the hotel I’m currently staying in, it’s far too hot for me, so I retire to my room. After a few hours, it’s clear that I’m going on a trip to Wadi Al Dawasir, about an hour’s flight from Jeddah, on Saturday. There, in a relatively remote location, is a large water bottler with whom I have been in contact for some time. In the late afternoon, I get hungry and decide to have dinner somewhere by the water near King Fahd’s Fountain. The fountain is the highest artificial fountain in the world and was modelled on the Geneva Fountain.

The taxi drops me off at the waterfront which is buzzing with activity. I stroll along the path for a while and cross the road towards my restaurant, Caffe Aroma, where everything is beautifully decorated for Saudi Founding Day and most of the staff and guests are wearing traditional clothing. Obviously unmasked as a tourist, I am immediately asked to take a seat in a specially set up photo corner in the style of a traditional tent and have my photo taken.
The food and mocktails afterwards are excellent!

After spending Friday organising and writing, today, Saturday, I’m on my way to Wadi Al Dawasir, a place in the south that is practically surrounded by desert. As I leave the mini airport, the heat beats down on me.

Luckily, a few minutes later I am picked up in an air-conditioned car by my contact Mostafa Al-Anany and his colleague Mr Tamer from the water bottler Rest Water. The first stop is the hotel and I realise on the way there that you don’t get lost here as a tourist. Exciting! I’m told to rest briefly at the hotel as there’s another audit at the water factory and we can’t do the interview until the evening. After about two hours, the two of them are back at the hotel and invite me to an sumptuous dinner in an adjoining room that has been specially prepared for us. We then drive to the factory about 10 minutes away, where I get an intensive tour before we discuss details for a long time in the meeting room. I am finally back at the hotel at around 22:30.
Tomorrow I’m off in the direction of Riyadh!

It’s Sunday and I’m walking to a sensational little coffee shop where we stopped for a coffee-2-go on the way to the factory yesterday. As on my trip to the Emirates in December, I realise that the Saudi coffee from these small roasteries is absolutely amazing.

Sitting in the lounge of the mini-airport of Wadi-Al-Dawasir with biscuits and coffee, I am quite surprised that there is a lounge here at all with just two gates and aircraft access via a ground-level tarmac crossing.

When I arrive in Riyadh after a quick hour’s flight, the first thing I notice is how cold and windy it is here compared to just now. It’s a good thing I have my winter coat with me. I have booked an Airbnb flat in the north of the city for the last few days of my tour in Riyadh. When I get there, I realise that the flat, which is very nice in itself, is obviously a smoker’s flat, which is rather unpleasant for me as a non-smoker. So I have to air the apartment thoroughly, unpack and then go out again to get some towels – unfortunately, there are none available here.

It’s a good thing that the malls here are open until 23:00. A quick snack at one of my least favourite fast food chains in the same mall is also possible, but my goodness, it’s no fun. Tomorrow I have an appointment with a fastener manufacturer that is actually located 400 kilometres away in Ar Rass, but whose GM happens to be in Riyadh tomorrow and has time for a meeting.

The last week of the Saudi Arabia leg of the tour has begun. I’m sitting in a café, which is also a co-working space, talking to the boss of Cap House, Mr Yousef Alassaf, who tells me all about his business and how it came about.
After coffee and cake, he takes me to his favourite restaurant here in the city, where the interview continues and I get a whole range of sensational local dishes for the first time on the trip, including camel meat in deep-fried balls. We get on so well that we quickly decide to meet up again in the next few days, time permitting, as Yousef is still in Riyadh until Wednesday and then has to return to his work in Al Rass.

It’s Tuesday and I’ve been able to make an appointment with the bottler Nova Water at short notice. There it is again, the flexibility that I always have to be prepared for, but that’s what I’m known for. The plant is about an hour and a half from Riyadh in an easterly direction. When I finally arrive, I meet Project Engineer Mohammed Atieh and his team. Unfortunately, the interview is short and there is no tour of the plant, as they first have to obtain extensive authorisations from higher authorities, so I am back on the road towards Riyadh relatively quickly. This can also happen on tours. But at least we’ve got to know each other now and the rest has to be done somewhere else.

My last day here in Saudi Arabia has begun, tomorrow I’m going back to my hometown. But that doesn’t mean I can sit back and relax, because today is another full programme. I’m on my way south shortly after 7.00 a.m. because I have two appointments to attend. Firstly, I’m invited to the preform and fastener manufacturer Oasis in Al-Kharj, which is around 100 kilometres away. Once there, I meet Quality Director Ahmed Hassan Ahmed Ali, who shows me the production facilities, which are spread over several buildings in the industrial estate. Around 30 million preforms and closures come off the production line here every day.

Then it’s on to Pure Beverages, another 30 kilometres further south, where Plant Manager Shibin Kungaran welcomes me. The bottler produces the well-known Oska and Ival brands and has experienced immense growth over the past three years. In terms of technology, they rely entirely on equipment from Krones.

After the tour of the bottling plant, I make my way back towards Riyadh. The traffic in the city centre is so heavy that it takes me half an eternity to get back to my accommodation, where I now have to do a bit of tidying up and packing. As I still have about an hour to spare in the evening, I arrange to meet Yousef from Plasticap for a second time and we go to a very nice café near his sister’s apartment block. After a slice of honey cake and another delicious coffee, we walk around the houses because he wants to show me the really beautiful neighbourhood. The villa of star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, who moved to Saudi Arabia last year, is also located here.

The evening is mild and windy and I slowly say goodbye to my first and, I must say, impressive experience in this exciting country, which is developing and growing so rapidly. Yousef is kind enough to drive me back to my flat, where I stow away the last of my things and get ready for my return journey in the early hours of the morning. I’m already looking forward to the next sections of the Middle East Road Show. Until then, dear readers, you can look forward to great interviews and success stories in your PETplanet Insider!

Best wishes from Riyadh at night!
Your Kay Barton