Updates on Jeddah
Posted by: amellie
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Price increase is one of the most discussed topics ever since I arrived in Jeddah 2 months ago. People in Indonesia would probably react: “Price increase? That’s ‘normal’. We get it every year or so.” But… believe it or not, since the first time I set my foot on this land in 1989 (about 20 years ago!), the price of basic commodities has never changed! Let’s take an example: Al-Baik chicken (a Saudi version of KFC, but much much much better than KFC!!). A meal package of Al-Baik chicken, which contains 4 pieces of chicken, french fries, and a bread, used to cost 10 Riyals (= Rp. 20 thousands), but now it has gone up to 11 Riyals (= Rp. 22 thousands). The same thing happened to Al-Tazaj BBQ chicken, which used to cost 10 Riyals, now it costs 13 Riyals (= Rp. 26 thousands). This is because the price of most (or maybe all) of basic goods, including chicken, rice, and milk, has risen. And although there’s only one to three Riyals difference between the old and new prices, a lot of people complain about it. Sometimes I thought, well… one to three Riyals increase DOES make sense, I mean… come on! We have never experienced this for over 20 years!!!
A few weeks ago, we witnessed a flour shortage in Jeddah. We didn’t realise it until one day my mom wanted to buy a bag of flour. We went to every supermarkets and small shops, but we couldn’t find it. And bakeries started to reduce the number of bread for one bag. They did not increase the price, but they reduce the quantity. Because of the flour shortage, the price of flour increased and people began to sell the flour in the black markets. Besides the flour crisis, there was a campaign about a month ago which lasted for 5 days to boycott all local dairy products in order to stop the price soaring of dairy products in the Kingdom. But I don’t think the campaign changed the price at all.
The rising price of goods has been triggered by a number of reasons, including a weakness of US Dollar. The Saudi Riyal has a fixed/pegged exchange rate to the US Dollar. Since 1986, the Saudi riyal has been effectively pegged at 3.75 Riyals to the US Dollar. Up until now, the value never changes, it stays at exactly 3.75 Riyals. As the Dollar value falls, so does the value of Riyal against other foreign currencies (esp. to Euro. 1 Euro = 5 Riyals). Inflation rose to a 16-year high of 6.5% in December — and this country enjoyed ZERO inflation for more than a decade. I’m not an economist, so I can’t say much about it. 
But I think, Saudi economy had been VERY stable. We never encountered such things as price increase. And although the price of food has risen, the price of fuel stays the same. The government has done everything they can to solve these problems. They have increased the salary of government employees, subsidised rice and milk, and they are currently in a debate of whether to revalue its currency.
Anyway, let’s move away from economic issues for now. A few days ago, I discovered an exciting news: Saudi Arabia to lift ban on women drivers. A government official revealed to The Daily Telegraph that a decree will be issued by the end of this year allowing women to get behind the wheel. We certainly don’t know whether it’s going to happen, but it sounds quite promising. I remember I read an article on Arab News about a well-known Islamic scholar saying that “women driving cars are a sinful thing”. What the hell?? First of all, who is the guilty party here?? We women are harassed, teased, and followed by men here! They stared at us like it’s the first time they are seeing a woman. They are checking out some random women on the streets and malls. But why are we the one who is ‘punished’ and blamed?? They are the one who is so much wilder than us, much like an animal who never go out of its stable. And now… he’s telling us that women driving cars are a sinful thing??? Gosh. Go to hell.
Why do I always complain about this issue in the first place? Besides of the lack of freedom, not everyone here can afford a driver. I am one of the people who is lucky enough to have a driver. My family decided to have one last year as my dad’s hectic work schedule unabled him to do what he always did: pick us up from or drop us off to certain places, particularly schools. When I was in elementary and junior high school, there were always times when my dad could not drop me off to school. Fortunately, my house was very closed to my classmate’s house, so I could always go with her to school. And if we don’t have a driver these days, I’m pretty sure I’m not able to go to work. My dad’s work schedule is unexpected; sometimes he has to work at 3 in the morning and sometimes he is away for 2 days. So until my brother reaches 15 (if he wants to drive without a driver license, like some teenagers do these days) or 18, someone else needs to do the driving job. And like I wrote in the previous posts, there are no adequate public transports available for women here. So hopefully the government will lift the rule pretty soon. King Abdullah, are you listening to me??!?!
This is what I can tell you about this country. Everything that seems simple and easy to do in other countries seem to be soooo complicated or almost impossible to do it here. For example, if I want to go to an Australian embassy in Riyadh, it’s not going to be as easy as going from Surabaya to Jakarta. There are no trains; driving by cars will take ages, and remember who’s going to voluntarily drive me all the way to Riyadh?!? So the only possible way is travelling by plane. And since I’m a woman, it’s just impossible to do it by myself. Another example is a mailbox. This country has been using the system of post office boxes when it comes to delivering mails. There are no such things as postman; not even a home address. I have never known the building number of my house, because mainly we never use it. But recently, the Saudi Post has JUST introduced a new service called Wassel, which enables your mails to be delivered right in the mailbox of your house. I thought this would be a great one. Certainly Saudi is way behind in comparison to other countries, but hey, it’s a good start! All this time we’ve been using my dad’s friend’s post office box. And recently they have introduced a new rule that forbids us to use other people’s post office boxes. If the name written on the envelope is not referred to the name of the post office box’s owner, then the mail will be returned to the sender’s address (how sucks it is!). So I told my dad to subscribe to the Wassel service. It turned out that we need to pay in order to use this service. And, not only that! They required us to deliver them a number of documents as a proof that we live in that house — and my dad told me it’s too complicated. These documents must be produced by the owner of the house, and you know how most Saudi people will tell you “Insya Allah” on every cases and it actually takes them AGES to do it???? They say “Insya Allah” in the worst case scenario… or even in the situation where they are not able to perform the work. So, don’t ever believe the word “Insya Allah” if you are in Saudi Arabia. Hehehe. So, anyway, in the end… we didn’t use the Wassel service…. hff.
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Waaaahhh, hebaaat, isinya bahasa inggris semua. pusing deh gw..hihi
Salam kenal ya mba
inget Abi saya yang selalu itung2an klo di Saudi,.. padahal lebih murah juga kan klo dibanding di Indo,.. hehe..
oia, jadi netep di Saudi yah setelah lulus? sepertinya benar akan menikah dengan pria arab
nice issue, mell. lama ga mainmain kesini, taunya kamu udah ga di osi yah..
good luck w/ ur new life! ^^
“Price increase? That’s ‘normal’
mel, kamu ngeluh2 harga barang karena udah kerja yah? jadi belanja kebutuhan sehari2 sendiri? hahaha..jangan2 sebenernya harga barang emang sering naik turun di saudi, cuma karena baru terima gaji aja deh kamu sensi ngeluarin duit..
LOL..
Kidding girl..
mana traktiran gaji pertama???
huehehehe
So, don’t ever believe the word “Insya Allah” if you are in Saudi Arabia. Hehehe. So, anyway, in the end… we didn’t use the Wassel service…. hff.
hah???gak tergantung orangnya yah?
kalo gue sama orang2 maroko..kok kalo insyaAllah kaya janji gitu yah..hm..
bima: thx dah mampir! salam kenal juga yaks..
alle: netep di saudi? bisa jadi iya, bisa jadi nggak
. we’ll see, my plans are always changing. klo soal nikah dgn pria arab,.. hahaha.. LOL. can’t imagine.
ulan: iya nih, dah 2 bulan di jeddah. thank you!
mulia: nggak kok hehe, ini justru saya taunya itu dari mama en org2 sekitar.. pada ngeluh semuanya. mungkin emang barang2 naik turun, tapi itu karena haji/ramadhan aja, tapi setelah itu langsung stabil lagi dan gak semua barang naik/turun harganya… hanya bbrp aja. kalo sekarang ini, emang bener2 naik… semua bahan pokok pada naik, jadinya other goods naik semuah!
hehe I’m talking about Saudi nih… aku gak tau di maroko gimana, mungkin emang Insya Allah disana artinya kaya janji gitu. Disini juga seperti janji, sebenarnya.. tapi karena selalu disalah gunakan… (dalam artian, janjinya besok, pas ditanya besoknya, diundur lagi.. ampe kita capek sendiri nagihnya), so we see this as “excuses”.
mel..
ternyata repot jg ya hidup sbg cewe di sana..tp kyknya aturan2 itu dibuat ya tuk preventif hal2 yg tdk diingin kan kaan???..
eniwei, klakuan para lelaki sana kyknya yg justru malah ngebuat figur Islam jelek di mata dunia..*sad*
eeeh..aku mau yg lbh enak dari KFC dooong..serius deh, aku suka bgt sama KFC..jd kl ada yg lbh enak dari KFC, mau nyoba jg doong..
eh, kocak jg ya ga tau nomer rumahnya sendiri..hehehe..kebayang deh kl ada yg nanya alamat, trus jawab”aku tinggal di jalan A, pokoknya yg rumahnya warna pink, jendelan ungu, ada pohonrambutannya..itulah rumahku..” huhehehe..
mana traktiran gaji pertama neng???
Well to be honest, mainstream media always say the dollar is weakening, but on the contrary, the inter-bank market actually see the dollar gaining strength against other major currency (or at least stabilization).
And the main reason for the price increase on food isn’t the weakness in dollar but because the commodity price for food (wheat, corn, etc) is also rising. Mostly because the stupid “green” movement encouraged by US government (and most of the developed country) to replace oil consumption with ethanol. Ethanol comes from food material!
So basically you also have to compete against your car for the same basic resources, which is kinda ironic actually.
Wait… baru baca komentarnya, gaji pertama? Wow kerja dimana toh sekarang (full time? Or part time helping your parents and other freelancing like in the past?)
@ OSCAR:
Mostly because the stupid “green” movement encouraged by US government (and most of the developed country) to replace oil consumption with ethanol. Ethanol comes from food material!
HAHAHA..
this is the first time i heard such comment. and actually, i’m not sure if it’s like this. at least in Jeddah?
and i believe many European consume greener than the american.
senaz: ya udah teh, kesini aja! Coba Al-Baik! enaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkk banget! serius! Aku pernah nemuin Al-Baik bersebelahan sama KFC di Jeddah; KFC sepi banget, Al-Baik rameeeee abis, ngantri banget. Wong tiap buka toko aja org2 udah pada ngantri di depan Al-Baik gitu loh. Enak banget deh pokoknya; murah dan banyaaak porsinya (biasanya untuk satu paket org indo bkl makan berdua; tapi untuk org arab, itu porsinya untuk satu org hehe)
Aku sampe skrg gak tau nama jalan/gang rumahku itu apa hahaha… paling taunya jalan2 yg besar2… jadinya kalo ngasih tau lokasi rumahku, harus ada patokan… e.g. setelah Masjid, belok kiri, mentok, belok kanan… rumah yang ketiga, dst… hehe
mulia: wah, blom gajian nih
kapan2 ya hehehehe *halah
Oskar: LOL. green movement. hmmm… I’d say Saudi Arabia is still blind about the “green” thing. At least for another 8-10 years. Barely anyone cares about protecting the earth. Replacing the oil with ethanol?? is it happening now?? oh well, I don’t think it greatly affects the economy since the majority of population is still relying on oil. Hmm I think it’s just that the world economy in general is quite bad right now.. hah, first of all, I know nothing about economy!
Oskar: skrg lagi kerja di event management company… i’ll talk about it later
after i raed again my third comment, i think i make my self sounds rude..gee..
sorry.
must be because of the caps lock.and me..ofcourse that was too lazy to re type after i mistakenly used caps lock
Mel,
Salam kenal ya..
Mbaca blog kamu bikin saya bisa berlama-lama (karena saya nggak lancar pakai bhs. inggris hehehe…)
“When I was in elementary and junior high school, there were always times when my dad could not drop me off to school. Fortunately, my house was very closed to my classmate’s house, so I could always go with her to school”
Your friend is so kind :PPP ya ?! hehehehehe gila ni tulisan dah lama baru gw baca
take care girl