Riyadh Kingdom Saudi Arabia

My next destination after Johannesburg was Riyadh Kingdom Saudi Arabia. I wasn’t here before so I was looking forward to it, even though I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The airport definitely exceeded my expectations:

Also, my hotel looked nice. It was a bit dated and could use a little makeup here and there, but look at these pictures:

The following day, I started walking around to discover the city.
I noticed this building with its fascinating architecture. It turned out it was the ministry of defense, and I wasn’t supposed to take pictures of government buildings. Please don’t tell anyone!

I started walking at 11 am, and it had already hit 42 degrees Celsius.

What I didn’t consider was that it was dry heat. That means the body doesn’t sweat a lot.

That’s great and much better than high humidity, as long as you don’t move.
Unfortunately, I did.

Sweating is a way for the body to process heat exchange. If that doesn’t work, there’s a fail save: The body increases the heart rate and blood circulation. And while that’s functioning, it comes with limitations. 
On this day, I discovered it the hard way:

After an hour, I noticed some dizziness and returned to the hotel. The situation worsened over time, and each time I stopped walking for a few seconds to check my phone for the shortest way to the hotel, I felt like I was going to faint.
It was a close call, but I managed to arrive at the hotel. I drank two water bottles and didn’t move from the couch for an hour.
Not my brightest moment.

The next day

Fortunately, I was fit again the following day.
We reserved a space in the Spazio restaurant with a great view all over the city:

They had already prepared what was called “a snack for the morning”:

It was a relatively small audience, as we just invited business partners.
In this picture, it looks as if I’m singing. I promise I didn’t!

Nonetheless, I managed to entertain my audience. Talking technology doesn’t have to be boring:

My girlfriend texted me, “don’t overeat,” but I failed as we went to an attractive Turkish restaurant in the evening:

On the following morning, we took a plane to Dubai.

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