Gulf Crisis, confidential （１２）　

１２) Off days
We didn't work everyday. We sometimes drove in Riyadh and its suburbs in a big Ford Suburban van. A Filipino driver hired by the Japanese Embassy drove. He knew the area very well.

One afternoon, we decided to visit Red Dune in the suburbs. In the city of Riyadh there was no typical sand desert. What we saw in the city was dry land like a huge construction site, which was not artistic at all. Tourists usually visited Red Dune which was a one-hour drive from Riyadh. Red Dune was a huge desert made of beautiful red sand, with continuous waves until the horizon.

In the city of Riyadh all signs were written in Arabic and English.
Outside of the city area there were signs only in Arabic. We didn't expect that and panicked. Our Filipino driver was calm enough to read the map carefully and reached the destination safely. I thought at that time foreigners visiting Japan might feel the same way looking at Japanese only signs.

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