Riyadh - Development, Architecture, Tourism
[Music] hello my uh today's my second morning in Riad um I feel so much better today than I did yesterday I tried filming uh some eras we had yesterday but I was tired and jet lagged uh so I live in Singapore Singapore is 5 hours ahead of um Saudi Arabia um so I was waking up here at 3 or 4:00 in the morning uh and the same when I was in uh um Abu Dhabi in Dubai um before I came here um so this morning was a bit better I managed to wake um about 6:30 or so uh so yeah I do feel much more energetic today um also as well I had uh you know a nightmare drive from Abu Dhabi uh back up to Dubai airport on Monday so yeah it was a pretty long day I arrived here in we very late Monday um so I probably went uh got to my hotel around midnight and again woke up about 5:00 a.m. uh and then yesterday yeah I was pretty shattering so yeah feel better today I am uh plan for the day is uh it's 9:00 again here I don't have meetings this morning with uh people I know here so I uh am going to do some more exploring um and then I'm going to catch up with friends here um this afternoon and uh but yeah it's a good time to get out and uh go around the city um as you may expect there is not a cloud in the sky uh but the weather feels pretty nice again like I say I'm from Singapore Singapore is hot and humid um the weather here I think is uh hotter uh it's probably I would say at the moment it feels about 30° uh but there is a breeze uh and it does not feel humid uh in the time I've been in the Middle East the last few days uh I've not felt uh like I'm constantly sweating like I do in Southeast Asia you know I love Singapore um you know I've lived in Singapore for 10 years uh but the one thing that gets you down sometimes is the uh is the amazing amount of humidity that means sometimes you have to shower like three times a day you've been out in the morning you've been out for lunch you've been out in the evening yeah and then you come back and you just feel dirty you feel like you need to uh wash yourself um get yourself feeling fresh again um but over here yeah don't have have that problem obviously it's uh it's April now um it will be getting hotter um uh it does go up to I think June and July the average temperature here is uh um about 43° c um so June July August obviously those months are um yeah those are the months you have to really deal with and uh maybe I wouldn't be walking around uh in those kind of temperatures um um I know I I lived in Houston Texas for a couple years and um that was kind of similar would go so hot um uh it would go into the 40s uh with high humidity and then yeah you have to jump in your car so I'm just coming up to now a a busy freeway um I'm going to walk down here it's going to get a bit noisy uh so yeah I'm going to go off door you guys B [Applause] I'm uh taking cover in the shade here um it's the middle of the day here um it's uh 12:30 in um and behind me there the AL felia building um this building is is not new it was actually uh completed back in the year 2000 so it's 24 years old now uh designed by Foster and partners uh at the UK um I think it's 267 7 m tall the seventh highest building in uh Saudi Arabia and the highest building I've come to the uh to experience uh the Aliso Tower I'm I'm the only tourist here uh I I originally went to customer service and they said to come back at 1:00 and I came back 20 plus 1 and then they said oh there'll be someone here in about 20 minutes oh and then uh and then I went to the man and then he's brought me upstairs and I'm the only person here so I'm going to go have a look around it's noisy windy out here close the door oh my God can't close the door okay yeah see I've been up a few Towers I've been up the birge CIFA and uh Empire State Building and Ral Tower typo 101 few different things this is certainly the first time I've done it on my own I feel like a VIP here am I the only tourist in RI I'm not really a tourist I am kind of here on business I am meeting people while I'm here but I'm doing some touristy things at the same time this is uh if you want to be a tourist but you also kind of want to relax and chill uh maybe consider Riad uh um obviously uh the kingdom is uh investing hugely in uh its infrastructure and hoping to attract more tourists um I'm in Riad partly because of the amount of well I am here because of the amount of construction projects um I flew into the airport here which is King Khaled Airport but they are um redeveloping that airport and and building a what's going to be um the largest airport in the world King Salmon International Airport which when it's completed uh could have a capacity of 185 million passengers a year um when you consider I'm the only tourist uh obviously yeah they still need to work on bringing more tourists in um you know hopefully maybe videos like this might help you actually see it's actually nice here it's relaxed it's chilled people are really friendly um it's a fairly clean and tidy city um everything you need is here all the shops restaurants obviously no alcohol um alcohol is still legal in the Kingdom there you know it is a dry country um there was some news that uh a shop had opened uh I'm not sure if it was in the airport but they they'd opened a shop somewhere uh that can now sell alcohol this happened a few weeks back um but it's only for diplomats I believe um not for the wider public um for anyone that's been to uh the UAE or Qatar you know that um those are kind of dry countries but they're not really because they sell uh well they're not really dry countries because they sell alcohol um in hotels um so you don't actually have to be staying in those hotels to to drink there um so there is kind of a fine line between you know what hotel and what is like there are places you go in Dubai where you can sit outside with a beer um because the kind of beer garden era is attached to a hotel if you haven't been there before um I think we're ways away from that but they are with neon and Red Sea uh and all the major tourist um developments uh developments that were happening um not to say that they would need alcohol but you know I would imagine that uh I don't know that might change uh over time as more International tourism comes through that's for now I will enjoy my experience here maybe sit here and chill for a while I can see stairs going up here how do you get there door here go in ah okay w not um not immediately of this push okay no can't get through there says push but does not needs to be locked right sort of he sort of just left me up there's no other stairs is there's only stairs going down here right okay yeah the stairs come down there do you go down look the stairs the stairs going up how do you get there someone coming up go up expence the globe top okay pressing buttons nothing happens Str I don't want to go back down if there is some way to see something else never been so confused there's nobody it seems like it's all locked does it slide no okay I'll go back down I guess how do you even go down but so we going down I don't know okay let's return again is that go up oh maybe the other one goes up maybe this one goes up no okay the buttons don't do anything so I guess I'm going to go down very strange about down here so bizarre this is very weird so strange I guess this is not yet popular with tourists I'm the only person here I mean to be honest I know uh people have made videos on YouTube about trips to R I could have sworn I saw that some people have been up here it's not like I'm the only person that's ever been up really feels like I go outside there it's very strange I did as I kind of uh Googled it before I did see that um comments saying you can only stay inside you can't go outside sorry if the camera's a bit shaky my selfie stick melted while I was in Dubai uh people oh there's someone here hello hi this one Foundation this Foundation starting yeah this one starting after uh 96 after uh 96 starting this one 96 996 there a grand down this one basement yeah this basement starting after this constuction starting uh 97 starting after the 97 starting all this building top 98 98 98 this one one top yeah it's like a global financial crisis and Stu happening 98 same thing 98 98 after going this 9 98 this FL FL 1 by 1 by floor this8 after this this this first this second yeah this second comy starting this this more more more after building constuction this top coming tops uh floor this B hole B hold function function hold oh function yeah this okay basement this is the plaza coming time plaza plaza this coming starting this a glob Top This Cube this one isbe I'm the only kind of tourist this good M okay do you know where the contractor contractor this oh Sor been lad groupg a yeah the design was uh Foster Foster yeah this this coming am coming this yeah okay great great I'll get to meet you uh I'm John yeah s s sand sand India India yeah uh UK Wales W continuing my sightseeing in R uh I just ran up the Aliso Tower uh kind of an unusual experience uh because obviously I was the only tourist well non-local up there um and uh yeah good to see the view I do want to check out the Kingdom tower uh at some point as well and uh take a look at the view from up there I'm sure it'll be pretty much the same but you know it's nice to see the um different experiences so [Applause] yeah King Fahad Library um was established back in the 80s um as a service and then this building I believe opened in 1990 um obviously it's been redeveloped over time uh refurbished uh and developed to a higher standard of sustainability um so I think it's actually part of the vision 2030 uh for Saudi Arabia you know making every building in the city really more sustainable certainly the government buildings and um buildings backed with uh Government funding and uh yeah inside um is obviously historical documents and uh um Arabic uh books from Arabic culture now I haven't been to kind of have a look around I did have a peep inside but obviously uh you know I'm not going to go and take books out so um I wanted to see the building just like I say it's so close to iala building um yeah interesting building to see no shortage of coffee here in R uh I just came past Paul's Cafe uh Coffee Bean uh there Tim Horton Starbucks um yeah there's like malls everywhere on this street here I'm sure behind you uh behind me and there was Ms uh that just came from down there uh where a new Riad Metro station is there's some more further down the road here so yeah no shortage of coffee options and uh place to sit down and get a bit of work now I'm going to go grab a coffee got myself a super healthy breakfast carrot cake not Singapore style carrot cake but cake that has carrots in uh and a blueberry muffin Starbucks so I ched with uh people that work here um everyone kind of behind the counter speaks pretty good English uh a lot of people from the Philippines um working here um same as you find in other parts of the Middle East uh and uh I asked them about the Metro um they were saying yeah it's still being tested um still going through testing and commissioning and uh um yeah operational Readiness before um before they open the doors on it they did mention that a lot of tourists have been asking whether the Metro is going to connect to the airport and uh they were saying it's only going to go around the Central City locations but I'm not sure I will check on that um obviously yeah if it would connect to the airport or at least another um kind of uh Overland rail up to the airport that would be pretty ideal I'm sure if it's not already part of the um Network that's opening now it must be part of the future plans [Applause] [Applause] behind me is one of the uh stations for the underground section of the Riad Metro um this Project's been ongoing for about the last decade or so um it's a huge project to build uh around about 175 km of uh metro rail network around the city um over six different lines uh talking to people here they say there may be some stations opening uh this year maybe July time certainly by the end of 2024 we should see some of the network open um and uh yeah the developer for this with being a government project was the royal commission for Riad City uh lots of different uh International contractors involved as well as local ones as well um 176 km line I believe with 85 different stations around the network okay it's an afternoon in Riad and I'm by the Dion Mall malls here in Riad very modern very chilled out uh I'm here in April um and it's 32° today not too humid there is a bit of a breeze so people will sit outside um in the shade not so much in the Sun but certainly in the shade people will be sitting outside and having a coffee now like I say it's April 32° once you get to June July the temperature here is 43° is the average um so yeah I guess there won't be so many people sitting outside then but if you take June to August out the equation the weather here is kind of um certainly livable it's not like I say not as humid as southeast Asia um you know I'm based in Singapore and yeah the temperature is always 32° there but it's humid you sweat constantly all you around here you can kind of relax and sit in the shade and have a coffee the entrance I came in through was the Four Seasons Hotel looks very nice Starbucks as always apparently I can walk through to the mall from here lovely and cool in here I mean it wasn't too bad outside but inside here temperature is cool ah [Music] yeah after being on my own in the eisel tower this morning uh to then coming to the uh Kingdom Tower in the evening is completely different so much more people here so much more activity seems like there's both tourists and locals uh coming up here to enjoy the view um which I'll show you here um so this Tower is is the fifth highest building in uh Saudi Arabia and the third highest building with a hole in it uh the highest building in the world with a hoing is in Shanghai the second highest is in gong in the south of Taiwan and this is the third highest building with a hole in it so something a little different there uh certainly the uh it's set up nice here I mean the viewing platform here this is the sky Bridge um on the top of the tower yeah it's a nice place to come and enjoy the view and downstairs is a modern mall with amenities and uh yeah everything you need really so it's a nice place to come and hang out uh the surrounding area has been uh cultivated as well and uh yeah you can see north of uh the city behind me uh and then I'm facing the IIs or tower that I went up this morning is just acrossing the other side so yeah [Applause] guys [Music] H where 1 15 160 is the I
2024-08-19 22:01
