Old Shemaissy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Old Shemaissy, my home for the last 4 years of my stay in Saudi Arabia, it's an area teeming with life and culture from various ethnicity. Here you may find living together Filipinos, Pakistanis, Indians, Bengalis, Sri Lankans, Saudis, Badus (Black Local Saudis), Yemenis, Syrians, Jordanians, Turkish, and some Chinese. One can just wonder the mingling of these people, it's like a mini world within a world.

I have had my own fair share of life's experiences here, one fact is that for the last four years I have move six times around this small area, yes six times! But I think I am settling with the last, otherwise I told myself no more for moving out and in a new place is not for the faint hearted, it is not easy!

Here, I find everything I need without going far (unless I want a more uptown atmosphere, I'll go to the malls), grocery stores or "bakalas", bakeries, barbers, tailoring shops, mosques, fish, chicken, vegetables and fruits stores, banks, atm machines, restaurants with choices of Indian, Arabic and Filipino foods, or if you want the commercial fast foods, you'll find KFC, Kudo, Pizza Company, Pizza Hut, Seattle's Best, Cinnabon and Krispy Kreme, what is unbelievable is that ALL of these are just a few walks from each other!



I also have a lot of experiences meeting all these ethnicities here in Shemaissy, and you get to know their lives and cultures in one way or the other, some were nice people, others were too proud of theirs, some are only nice because they need something from you, others doesn't even care, there were those who thinks their the best people, whence others I feel sad because they do the lowliest work just to survive.

But regardless of that, I found real friends here, a handful, one-handful that is. I found life here, find new experiences everyday and I am not sure how long will I stay more, but I am sure I will be missing this place when I leave, and when I look back, I could say that in one small town far, far, away from where I was born, along the winding streets, mud houses and twisting corners, in a busy town called Shemaissy in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, I was there, and the memories will linger on.