Today was the 2nd weeks' first day here for me, I had full plans of Shopping for electronic goods like DigiCam and Graphics card. I woke up at 10:30 AM and was feeling Fully recovered from my sickness . As no PS2,out to repair, TV was the only time pass, so I saw TV till 12:00pm after freshening up. Then we sat in front of tv for sometime after sitting infront of laptop for some hours.
Then went out and brough back the PS2 and returned at 5:30 pm. and at 6 pm we left to Dossary towers ( a shop where we get all computer goods) . We then saw many shops but couldnt see all (only 1/3 shops we saw of all) . Among them we saw some digi cams from MUSTEK and Mercury and some other models all were very cheap (range of 300 SR to 650 SR).
And graphic Cards also ranged from 240 to 2100 SR all were very nice. We have to deicide the best one to buy for compatibility with our Motherboard so we left for that day . It was prayer time(for Arabic people) so we left. And slept at 11:30 pm after seeing Lord of the rings the two towers full movie.
Today I Woke up at 7:30 am.Then ate breakfast and freshened up and then sat in front of laptop surfing the net. Then my father returned from office and we ate lunch.Then from lunch time I enjoyed Playstation 2 till 6 pm.
Then till 8pm I saw TV(music channels) with surround sound after which we left for "RASHI"D shopping Mall, the biggest shopping mall in Saudi. We did window shopping during the prayer time .
We saw many watch, DVD , Music system, and many other shops.And in the centre of the mall there was jumping fountain . It was a very beautiful sight to see. The water was jumping so beautifully in synchronization and as if they were some kinda snakes jumping in and out of their holes. Very Beautiful.
Then we went to GO KARTS. It was a very nice experience. They were small Karts and we drove for 6 laps and I and my brother raced and I was ahead of him all the time, Actually i completed one round and was behind him,( I was driving very fast). Totally we enjoyed it a lot.
Then we ate at Mc Donalds and then ate a super big ICE CREAM cone at "cone zone" which was actually the smallest cone there . And then we returned home after the shopping at 11 pm. After returning we sat and saw "JOHNNY ENGLISH" movie on DVD till 12:30 am and then slept.
Today I Woke up at 10:30 am. And then freshened up and started using the laptop again. Today I found my friend Sundeep online so I chatted with him for some time. I missed a call from Rafiq in the morning as I was sleeping. Then I continued my chat till 12:20 pm after which we ate our lunch.
After we completed our lunch we slept till 2 pm and then it was my chance to play PS2 but I gave up my chance of playing to my brother for sleeping. Then after sleeping till 3 pm, I got an SMS from Rafiq asking me to come online. I came onine and we chatted for sometime.
Then after the chat with Rafiq I found Sundeep online again . So we again chatted for some time. I completed chatting with all friends by 6 pm in Saudi.
While chatting with sundeep my father came home from office( which is only some steps away from home) and informed us that His only boss, Mr. Hanna Dabbas, invited us for dinner at CARLLTON Hotel (5*) and then he went back to office.
Then later, we according to our plans left for DOSSARY TOWERS ( nearly 50 computer shops in here) for the second time after my arrival to buy the MUSTEK digital video camera DV4000 for Rafiq.
We looked for the things we wanted (like Sound Blaster Live 5.1 , AGP graphics card , Gamepad, and digicam for us) and found very cheap middle range graphic cards. The graphics card which is priced at Rs.37,000 in INDIA is only Rs.21,000 here, and the best thing is one of the shopkeeper had a open pack of this model and was ready to give it for only 810 riyals which was actually 2100 riyals ( that means Rs.20,000 profit for us, if we take it). That man had very good knowledge about the graphic cards. He explained us difference between each and every model of graphic cards. we finally decided to take the nVidia Geforce FX 5200 for 275 riyals.
Then we looked for gamepads for Ram Kiran, my another friend, who asked me to get 2 for him. I got one USB gamepad for him worth 20 riyals. I bought only One because I had doubts about the no. of usb ports on his system.
Then we looked for people who would buy our second-hand digital camera, but no one was ready to buy our digital camera. Just tell me if anyone is ready to buy my D-Link digicam for Rs.2000 only with the drivers and all cables and it is in perfect working condition.
After that we looked for sound blaster live which was around 150 riyals last time we saw it ( 2 days back). We looked in 5 shops for it and finally bought it for 115 riyals at a known shop where my father is a regular customer.
We couldnt find a good digital camera for us. So we just went to the shop where we saw the mustek dv4000 DVC for Rafiq. It was priced at 650 riyals but we bargained for a price of 620 riyals and got it. Its features include the following: 4 Megapixels , max resolution 2032X1786 , vdo recording for 22 minutes with audio at 30 fps, Mp3 player also, voice recording, lcd screen and for more info like looks visit the website and find it out. It was the last piece in the whole dossary towers. We bought it and then left at 7:55 pm, as it was prayer time.
Then we sat till 8:30 pm at home . I read the manual of the camera and used it for a demo and took it out. We went there and waited for the host to arrive . One was american (Mr.Dabbas,boss) and other was lebenese(vice president), Both were very smart. We then proceeded to the Dinner table beside the swimming pool, It was beautiful place for dinner. We ordered for some drinks and then talked for sometime .
They saw the camera and asked some things about it. The best thing was that they knew about my computer craziness. They were also computer geeks type people. While eating and after eating we Kept on talking about ccomputers and related things till 11:30 pm.
The food there was nearly completely non-vegetarian. so we had a problem eating there. There were 3 rounds for eating. First was salad round. The only thing vegetarian was salad there. We took many salad things and ate . There was Spinach samosa which we ate happily.
Then after salad round it was food round. The food was very horrible, I mean fully non-veg( BEEF, GOAT, PIG and many many Non-Veg items including these things,nearly 20 items) and the only 3 things vegetaian food was rice, Steamed vegetables and some Stuffed vegetables. I kept rice in my plate so to eat that rice I needed something , so I went to the 3rd round i.e DESERTS round and took chocolate pastry to eat with rice. I ate ate that and then again returned for 3rd round.
In the third round there were 3 big tables full of desserts (Pastry ,Cakes, sweets, Double Ka meetha etc). I Cut out Very big pieces of pastry of each kind and ate like crazy .(nearly 20 varieties were there) . Finally I enjoyed The dinner very much.
Then we talked till 11:30 pm and the bill was paid ( 500+ riyals = Rs.6500+ for 6 people) by Dabbas uncle. Then while leving I took some pictures and then we left and came back to home. Then I loaded the photos onto the System and observed that i forgot to set it to better resolution. I took all the pictures at the minimum reolution. The video quality was good. but the photos were not clear coz took in the dark without flash. But the photos taken in light were very very clear and good.
Then at 12:30 am I was forced to sleep by my mom.
Today I woke up at 08:00 am and then as usual freshened up and then sat in front of the laptop to update the site. I wrote the very big description of the trip , as u must have seen above. Today again after sitting till 12:00 pm in front of the laptop I went and slept in the front room till 1:30 pm coz I didnt have anything to do and the room was very coool due to 2 ACs in it, As my brother was busy playing PS2 I couldnt play Ps2 and couldnt talk to him.
As it was thursday it was Half day for dad's office, he came a little late (1:30 pm ,usually 12:30 pm). Then we enjoyed the lunch and after that I started a new PS2 game called "SPHYNX and the cursed Mummy". It was so interesting that I kept on playing that game till 6 pm , which was our time to leave for outing.
I became ready and took the camera but forgot to charge the battery. Then we went into the car and left for King fahad amusement park. It was the only park in saudi to have a big roller coaster called "COBRA". Many people who operate the rides were Indians (especially from the south) . People from different states and districts come here for that ride.
We reached the park at 6:40 pm. Then we looked around gave the time of returning to the driver and moved on. The park and outside the park area was very beatiful. I took some 4 pictures and the battery was over :(. There was horse cart riding . Train ride outside and inside the park many huge rides were there.
The entry ticket was 5 riyals each. We heard that the park entry was 25 riyals each and every ride inside was free, but we found it to be false info.. Anyway we went in and then found it to be very deserted (it looked like one of those SCOOBY DOO cartoons' HAUNTED AMUSEMENT PARKS). We moved in .
At first we could see only small childrens ride, but as we went in we saw many huge rides. Ticket of each person for each ride was 10 riyals.
We took 3 and went on the 1st ride which was some eagle ride. Only we 3 were on the ride , no one else ( as mentioned earlier, the park was very deserted). It rotates very fast for some time and then takes us high into the sky and rotates us there for sometime and brings us down. It was a very enjoyable ride. At first we dont feel anything but at the end when we come down we feel very heavy and feel like The gravity has increased. Very exceiting ride.
Then we moved in and went on to the bumping cars, the usual one but with larger moving area. At first only I and my brother were on the cars but later more 5 arabbi people came and dashed us very horribly. So we followed them and tried to hit them also. But the arabic people are very odd people, If we hit them they said not to hit. So we casually went on with simple driving. Then they came and asked our names and we started enjoying together. The operator gave us extra time for riding coz we were enjoying very much( nice man ) .
Then we moved on to the main ride and the biggest of 'em all, THE COBRA RIDE. It had Goku's( Dragon Ball Series) picture on it and the ride was actually "the snake way" from DragonBall Z. We went and asked for the ride, The man said minimum no. of people on the ride is 8. So we had to wait till more 6 people come to the ride. The operator was from Karnataka, but his mother tongue was telugu so he started talking to us in telugu .
We then moved to look for any other intersting rides, but all were known rides and non thrilling and for small kids. So we kept on walking and found snow world. The entry to it was 25 riyals and it was only for ladies. The man said the ladies here are very fast. Ladies go for the dangerous rides more than men . The snow world actually had skiing and sliding on the snow for children below 10 and ladies. My mom wanted to go but what she will do alone she thought and left the snow world( and we already saw "ALASKA world" in Bangkok so she didnt have any problem leaving the snow world unvisited)
Then in the prayer time from 8 to 8:40 pm we sat on a bench and ate popcorn and drank coke tins. And then when the prayer time was over. We thought we will ask for cobra again but we went for refund of money and they said no refunds. So we thought of selling the ticket to some person who wants tickets. But they were also looking for cobra, so when they heard the requirement for cobra ride , they left .
We then ,to use the ticket , looked for more rides. We found the "breakdance" ride a little bit interesting and the closest to us so we just went on that ride. It was nothing like the Breakdance of Ocean park. This was very very fast and furious.
We went to baskin robins ice cream and took a Ice cream shake ( big one) for 16 riyals . He added 4 different flavours of Ice cream and some chocolate syrup in the bottom and cream on the top and some raisins and nuts. It was excellent for 16 riyals (~200 Rupees) . I and my brother enjoyed it and then we went out of the park.
Out of the park there were horse cart riding and trian ride (for 15 riyals, not per head). We went on the horse cart for 1 km and returned. The view was very nice . The park was very very big and the fountains also were very nice. We took some photos with the non digital camera there and sat in the park for some time and then our car came and we left.
We went to one shop for buying some groceries. The shop was beside the "PC NET" . The shopping place for the whole computer needs. I will tell about this place when I go there next time for shopping, which is in 2 or 3 days.
I went and looked for some cell phone covers and many nice ones were there but none suited me so i didnt buy.
Then we returned home and saw another movie on DVD, "RAT RACE"-comedy till night 1 am. As it was thursday and fridy is holiday for Dad. We get up till late night coz no problem if we get up late on friday.After the movie we slept.
Today I Woke up at 10:30 am and then found my dad working on the laptop coz it was holiday on friday and was the last day of the week for the stock market. After he finished at around 11:00 am , I sat in front of the laptop and continued my usual work of updating my site. After that I looked for any friends online and then went offline.
Then we started watching the other movie on DVD, "Lord of the rings - The return of the king" from 12:00 pm. We with very much interest started the movie, then we took a break at 1:30 pm for lunch and the after lunch my dad was feeling sleepy and mom was feeling bored of the movie, but We made them watch the movie completely. The movie finally ended, after a long waiting time for the ending, at 3:40 pm. They then happily went to sleep for 1 hour coz we had plans of going out at 5 pm.
So I thought I would continue playing the game ,"Sphynx and the cursed mummy", but my brother wanted to play so I sacrificed my chance of playing and slept again like everyday.
Then I woke up at 4:45 pm and we left for "Bahrain bridge", The 25 km long bridge with the man made island at the centre for visa and passport checking. We took the mustek digital video camera with us for testing in bright light.
The trip was very peaceful. We reached the island( halfway to bahrain) at a speed of 110 kmph on our Toyota corolla. We took around 25 photos from the car of the island and the bridge. After reaching the watch tower we took a walk around the island. It was full of greenery. There were also some restaurants like KUDU, McDonalds and many more.
We then went to the newly built beach on the island. U must be knowing about this island coz to many of my friends i have told about this island.
The island is fully man-made and is symmetric on both sides of the visa checking office. What ever is on this side of the office the exact image is present on the other side, i.e. The watch tower, mcdonalds and beach and parks are also present on the other side also. Its like a mirror image.
The we took many picture in the beach. It was very peaceful. I took totally 100 photos,some are here ,in the beach with the DVC. The beach was very nice new improvement . Some arabic people called me and looked at the camera and were very surprised to see such a small and nice camera. We sat till 6:45 in the beach and then we moved to mc donalds for dinner. It costed 44 riyals for 5 meals ( Veg Burger, French fries, and coke), While in "RASHI"D shopping mall's mcDonalds the price for 4 meals was 52 riyals. We took the driver uncle also with us for dinner . We sat in front of a big fountain and ate. The we took some pictures with the fountain and left for home.
We reached home at 8:15 pm and then we saw tv and then slept late in the night.
Today after waking up at 8:30 am I ate my breakfast and then saw tv for some time, after freshening up. Then today I didnt sit infront of the laptop. I Saw tv then ate lunch at 12:30 pm.
My dad during lunch told us about a very dreadful thing which happened earlier today in khobar. Not too far away from our compound 12 americans were killed (murdered) by terrorists. Among those 6 one was a malyali, indian also and they also killed a small 10 year old girl. (The whole thing will be written in the next days eenadu paper, read it for more information)
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Because of the murder helicopters were roaming in the sky from morning till night looking for the terrorists. Very much checking was going on. So bcoz of this our plan of going to PC-NET was cancelled.
After lunch we saw "hello yama" on Etv. Then the parents slept and took rest and I continued playing my game ,Shphinx and the cursed mummy, till 7 pm.
My dad was very happy with the photos taken yesterday that he took the photos to office to show his colleagues. He was saying "Ranju aane tak humne itna enjoy nahi kiya".
Then As our plans of going out to PC-NET was cancelled, my bro went and bought KUPPUS, Roti of size 5 times greater than normal indian roti, and Coke tins and parathas. Mom made mutter panner and we enjoyed our dinner.
Then after the dinner we saw another movie on DVD , Bean the movie, till 10:00 pm and we enjoyed the comedy very very much.
After the movie, I saw tv and then slept at 12:00 pm while listening to the Radio.
Today, on the last day of my second week, I Woke up at 9:30 am and the day went on as usual.
After playing PS2 till 4 pm, we saw tv and then I waited to go to PC-NET, but my dad said we will not go out even today bcoz of security reasons which has been made even stronger since yesterday.
fs
Reetu and dad went to bring kuppus and cheese kuppus . We ate it at 08:30 pm and then Dad said we'll go to TAMIMI,shopping centre, on foot as we didnt go out since 2 days. We enjoyed some shopping after so many days. and the walk also was good.
Then we returned at 10:30 pm to home and I slept at 12:00 pm.