Riyadh: City of Malls, Pt. 1

We arrived in Riyadh on Sunday night, and after a painfully-slow customs experience that made the efficient and organized Canadian in me want to scream, found our driver, and made our way to our hotel.

The education fair didn't start until Tuesday, so Monday was our first day, and also our only free day, so my colleague and I decided to make the most of it. The Canadian embassy in Riyadh was hosting an event Monday evening that we had to be back for, so what was a pair of foreign women to do with a day free in Riyadh? Well, go to the mall. ( The historic city centre was also on our list, but the old souk closes at noon, so it wasn't an option.)

Riyadh is INTO its malls. You've combine a country with lots of money, a culture that loves finer things like luxury and foreign brands, and scorching hot climate where the air conditioner is king and the mall becomes the place to be. Also, in terms of gender roles, it's a place that's outside the house but is not the street, where women and can go and hang out. Although there are separate line-ups and seating areas in the food court for men and women, both genders co-exist in the mall.

Our first stop was a more everyday outdoor-style mall, which my colleague had been tipped off was a good place to buy gold. My colleague was after some rose-gold both for herself and her daughter. After a quick stop there (and realizing that the jewellery was serious bling with serious prices), we headed to Al Faisaliyah Centre. We got there just before prayer time, meaning everything was about to close. You can stay inside the mall, but can't buy anything, so I made sure to get a strong, cardamon-scented Turkish-style coffee before prayers started, and we sat in the food court people watching ( which was more of our reason for being at the mall than shopping in the first place.)

We were in the "Family" section, which in Saudi means women are allowed, as opposed to the "Singles" section, which refers to men only. So if a man is alone or with other men, he sits in the singles section, but if he's with his wife  and/or kids he sits in the family section, as do groups of women unaccompanied by men. We were surrounded by black-veiled women with their kids in strollers, or groups of teenage girls eating fast food, or pairs of women having dessert and coffee. Basically, the same thing you'd see in any mall food court, except the rowdy groups of teenage boys were nowhere to be seen.