The Beels in Saudi Arabia: Eating out in Riyadh

I know what you are thinking - doesn't she do anything else other than eat and shop? Not prepared to answer that.

Lots of lovely Indian food here. We went to a restaurant that the locals frequent and of course because when men are in the company of women they are no longer crazed animals but respected individuals deserving of comfortable chairs.

We were recommended to go to Makani restaurant for Indian food by a Saudi and so we did. There were loads of families there and I kid you not we waited nearly 3 hours for a table. The single men section next door was empty but the family side was heaving. It was somewhat reminiscent of the old fashioned doctor's surgeries before receptionists ruled your life and the patients managed to work out who was next in the queue. We sat in 2 rows facing each other. I say we, Martin and David had to stand and all the ladies accompanied by the children sat down. The kids were amazingly well behaved to be able to wait that long without being violently whispered to or shouted at. They ran up and down of course, babies were passed to each other to be entertained and children wedged themselves between two women and then got up 15 seconds later to repeat this process between another two women. They were all veiled up but I have become an expert in identification and believe I can identify family members by the eyes and the uppermost part of the bridge of the nose. Glasses are a big hindrance of course. But I am confident as ever in my observational abilities and managed to work out that the 3 women opposite were definitely related.

I played finger spiders with beautiful pre-toddlers chasing their feet and hands with my tarantula fingers to ease the boredom of waiting for sooooooooooooo long but they preferred their mother's mobile phones. Sigh - kids of today. The Dads were supportive as they took the restless ones away before they got too bad and brought them back again to take the next one out.

Martin and David managed to hold out and not nip off to the men's section for some peace at least. By UK standards, eating out is relatively cheap. This cost us £30 including drinks for the 3 of us.