The quest for Post Office and the Rice Cooker!

Since I arrived here at Saudi, the first thing that I've asked the people here is "where's the post office?". I only got a hearty laugh from this people, well in the age of cellfone and email why on earth I would like to know where's the post office. My answer is simple: its not of your business..hehehe joke, its because my bestfriend is in the seminary and they are not allowed to use the internet (i doubt if they have one) so the only communication from the outside world would be by snail mail.

First try to find the post office is a trip near in our accomodation. A big sign says POST but when I enter the building the local man told me they are not a post office. WHAT!?!??! Sure?? I asked. Yes, we are only a P.O. box something to that effect kind of post office..I didn't get his explanation because he's english is bad (not as bad as my grammar naman hehehe). Though the local man was kind enough to tell me where's the local Post office. He asid I have to go to the city center, and there I can find the post office. Great! City center is as big as glorietta and greenbelt combined, how on earth should I find it there! Oh well, I'll just rely on my instincts and sense of direction.

Second try was this afternoon, I didn't wait for my friend to arrive and ask him to accompany me to the city center (thank god i did coz now, he's not home yet from qatif!) so I just went there by myself. Btw, its my first time to go to the city center, and being a newbie without any iqama (residence permit0 is really very risky! The walk going to that place took me about 25 minutes under the scorching heat (its 4pm and the temp is 38C).I manage to finish reciting the sorrowful mysteries from our house to the city center (without the litany of course), that's how far the place is.

Eventhough im here at the city center i didn't know where the post office is, frustrated i am i just went to LBC branch at Al Khobar. I was about to go to DHL but my patriotism comes first. The man inside LBC asked me whether im sending a very special documents, and after I said no its only a letter he told me to just go to the Post office. Again, flabbergasted i asked, where is the Post office ba? And since the courier guy is a pinoy he smilingly told me its just besides our store.Hahaha.r Great! And before I leave the place, i asked them how much is sending a mail to Philippines using LBC, he told me its worth 1800 pesos. Afer i learned that I immediately left their premises and proceed to Post Office.

In the post office there is a Pinoy and Indian staff, and after I gave my mail and paid the postal fee (its 48 pesos only here!!!) i've left the office with a happy heart and hoping that my bestfriend would read and reply to my mail.















Next on my action list is to buy rice cooker. Im having a hard time in cooking rice in my non stick pots. Obviously this pots are not used to cooked rice but I have no choice but to use it anyway. I manage to buy the rice cooker with brand name BEAC. I heard its the people's choicee as a rice cooker, but when i visit a couple of electronics store its the ONLY rice cooker in the market. In short no choice again! waaaaaa!

After buying the rice cooker and also food for my dinner, i went home happy and satisfied, while reciting again the rosary. God is good talaga, all the time =D.

Eating "Bitay Meal"

After eating chicken adobo for a couple of days, it was a great relief to finally taste a different food for dinner. My officemates decides to eat the so called "bitay" meal at Khobar area. Why bitay meal you might asked? Well, im curious as well for the term of endearment to the food but i have some ideas floating into my mind on whats the meaning of the bitay in the meal.

We make our journey to "bayan" or so called hte Khobar area, where the tamabayan of pinoys are, to make way to the restaurant at around 6:30. It was quite a walk, long walk actually, then running on the intersection (literally run for your life, no overpass and overspeeding highway here as in!) then walking past some small malls and alleys until we finally reached our destination.

(I made a serious mistake for not knowing the name of the restaurant, but if youre here in Al-Khobar I would love to take you there, that is if i still remember it hehehe).

Upon arrival, first thing to notice of this resto is there's a lot of pinoys here. As in puro pinoys!Great i say to myself, its like in Jolibee lang =D.

While waiting, we help ourselves in washing our hands.Curious why this people wash their hands, I did the same thing. Then I remember watching a Lonely Planet episode where the host travels to Jeddah and arrived in a feast and in that feast eating Arabian style is eating with your own hand. Yikes! Thank God I have clean nails or else I'll get sick by my own fault pala =P.

After good ol 10 minutes the food arrive and viola here it is!

Bitay meal is popularly known as Kabsa or Fried rice with meat (whether chicken, beef, fish) and some vegetables. We ordered barbeque chicken, which in fairness is very tasty. The rice I' ve learned was cooked using the oil from the chicken bbq..or wherever the chicken was cooked the rice was there to cook as well..tipid right!? But what caught really my attention was the vegetable, its like a kangkong or talbos ng camote but very very very juicy. Smelss like mint as well. And the onion is like a bayabas, juicy but not smelly. If i mad a trip to the market anytime soon I'll surely buy 1 kilo of this green and leafy vegetable. Come to think of it, Persians and Arabs have the same tast for food, the like their food served with vegetables. Though Persians are more conservative when it comes to vegetables, they serve with tomato, cucumber, lettuce, repolyo,and so many other vegetables that i dont know what's their name.In arab reso they only serve two type of vegetable (see picture above) hehehe.

Why bitay meal is because the meal is served in big serving. It's lke 5 cups of rice was served and 1/4 chicken. After eating you can die na for kabusugan, hehehe.

I've eaten my part for 20 minutes, without any leftover (sayang kasi!),and the cost was 15 Saudi riyals (or 180 pesos). Expensive yes, but worth it for a monthly dine-out.

Chicken Adobo Ala Bachelor

After eating noodles for the past few days and buying some needed groceries at Carrefour last weekend, this is my first time to cook chicken adobo after so many years.

It's been almost 4 years since I last cooked my own adobo meal, thanks to my nanay who cook it perfectly, i have no reason to cook this cuisine naman. But now, since I have to cook my own meal here at Saudi, i have no other choice bu to cook my own fod. And the easiest food there is: Chicken Adobo!

After office, i immediately went home, nad excitedly prepare the things for my cooking activity. Nyak! When i check the chicken at the freezer it was solid frozen (duh!). Here's what it looks like as a frozen chicken.






















Oh well, since its still frozen, I prepare the other ingredients like soy sauce, vinegar, laurel, pepper.

(mantika is not included in the ingredients ha!)




















After 20 minutes, dyaran! It's malambot na!

(Are you ready??)


















(Chop-Chop chicken)


















And since i've mentioned earlier that its been a long time since i've cooked my adobo, what I did was I just mixed all the ingredients plus the chicken in a deep fryin pan (i dont have any choice!!!), without thinking how much is the soy sauce to put nor how many laurel leaves to be put in, Bahala na si batman what happen!

(Halo-Halo together!)


















(Ayan sizzling Adobo na!)


















And since it takes a while to cook adobo, i decide to clean my room muna.


(Kitchen is now clean, while the adobo is cooking)
























(Hallway is free of dirt as well)
























(Banyo is squeaky clean as well)
























(Bedroom looks untidy pa)























(Always connected to the outside world =D.)


















(Never gonna be hungry again!)




















After 30 minutes of cooking and cleaning my room, finally the adobo finaly has come into reality. With matching Thai milagrosa rice and an apple I had my delicious dinner in my newly cleaned room. The verdict:

PUEDE NA MAG-ASAWA!

Why not?!

Airport Hopping

After 1 year and 3 months ocne again i set my foot @ NAIA International Airport. But this time im not heading to Iran but to Saudi Arabia naman. So typical Filipino expat/ofw diba?

My trip is scheduled @ 6:15 pm boarding EK333 bound to Dubai. I insist our HR manager that I should ride this plane because (1) the food is great (2) 30 kgs. of bag allowance is unbelievable (3) stewardess is accomodating and (4)I wanna see Dubai's new airport.

Earlier before the flight i tried doing the on-line checking little did I know that it was way so cool to do it. Super convenient. No long line in the counter and preferred seats as well. And in fairness to me, i manage to keep my baggage to a minimum 30 kgs. That's another yey for me, to think that I almost got into fights and too much begging at the excess baggage counter before due to too much lucky me pancit canton and de lata.

What time will they be open?

Tagal magbukas ng counter!

After checking in, my next stop is the most scariest portion of the airport which is the "Immigration"! Flashback 3 years ago, I was almost detained in the Immigration room because (1) insubordination (don't you know our compnay?sikat kaya kami duh!) (2) questionable location (officer: diba may war sa iran? me;duh, 2 years ago pa yun!) (3) lack of docs (yan lang ho bingay ng HR namin, promise!) Maybe due to prayers of my friends and family 9thanks guys!) I pass through the immigration without any fuss and long debate.Thank God!

Nothing is much to blog about our airport.Didn't take an effort as well to take picture. IN short we really need to open NAIA terminal 3 for International Airport where it is more beautiful and exciting! heck, Tehran's airport is much bigger and better than our NAIA =P.

The ride with Emirates is pleasant, though there was a long turbulence from Vietnam to India due to bad weather, which is a major headache! The only thing that I hate about riding a long haul ride is the sleeping part (not enough space for economy class) I have to endure a 8 hour flight with almost no sleep and a turbulence pa.Waaaa

Personal tv monitor for passengers

Dubai's Airport is huge! Its twice the size of the old airport. And the duty free is so large as well! It's very tempting to shop here, thank god i don't have time to shop, my money was saved hehehe. The airport is wi-fi area as well, and I had a chance to update facebook, twitter, yahoo mail, etc.

trip to Damman from Dubai only took 1.5 hours, and since acoording to my travel guide, its not advisable to take picture here in KSA, I refrain to do so. But when I was inside the car, I took some shots of the countryside in early morning!

Let's all rise up and build!!




Hello and Welcome to my Saudi Life. It's gonna be a wild ride!