The Beels in Saudi Arabia: We moved again

As you recall we moved into a bedsit into a cheap hotel after we were told to leave our first hotel that was being paid for by our agency SBC. It consisted of a bedroom, kitchen and a bathroom and cost us 3250 riyals which is about £550 a month. Eating out may be relatively cheap compared with UK prices but accommodation is decidedly not. It was furnished - just and while we were grateful to find something at such short notice (we were given 2 days including a working day) to find another place; after a week it was horrid to come home to. Nasty decor, poorly maintained and the essential air-conditioning sounded like a jumbo jet. Even when you turned it off, you could still hear the other resident's aircon going off. I could make a long list, but luckily I'm not going to, but fortunately we had only committed and paid up front for a month.

Another problem with this hotel was that although it was just across the road to where Martin works it necessitated crossing a dual carriageway. Nose to bumper 4 lanes in 2 directions with a wall serving as a crash barrier to climb over in the middle. Not a nice experience.

There is another island in the middle and it is very early so no traffic

Martin found another hotel across the road last Wednesday but when we both went to look again on the Friday both of the apartments that he had viewed had been let. They showed us a one bedroom apartment with lounge, kitchen and bathroom which was lovely and cheaper than the ones he had looked at before so we took it there and then and moved out even though we had 9 days left on the other hotel. This accommodation costs 4300 a month around £720. It is a far cry from the luxury compounds with pools but this would cost around 100000 a month (£1700) a month. We were a bit misled (under-exaggeration) before we came here about a number of things.