anthony bourdain’s no reservations - saudi arabia episode.
i’m listening to… “5446 that’s my number ball and chain” by sublime, “transtar [original mix]” by transa.
“i wish money weren’t no thang! i’d travel all day long. man yesterday i was watching anthony bourdain’s “no reservations” show and he went to saudi arabia with some lady (people sent in videos and he picked between her and three other people… the other people didn’t really even have a chance. they weren’t very interesting). well, shit. i never knew how little i knew about saudi arabia — or the middle east in general. it’s not exactly something i think about. but… i know nothing. i don’t know shit. it was very eye-opening. and they ate camel. that was pretty sick. but they showed how people there drive around on sand dunes to kill time because gas is so cheap and there’s nothing much to do… and the lady he went with was this very well-adjusted americanized saudi woman — the more contemporary type that wears the burka but is still independent and shows her face.
i’d love to talk to one of those women. they are obviously okay with it. she commented that she thought westernized cultures were probably fine the way they were but that even if middle easterners wanted to change, it was not something that could change overnight. if i could talk to one of those women i’d ask them if they or their friends ever have conflicts between religion and western culture. this particularly lady was very much into ‘americanized’ television and such… which obviously promotes scantily-clad women. there are also many fashion stores in saudi arabia and women go shopping *all the time* for clothes not too different for what one would find here… even though they don’t even wear those clothes out onto the street. apparently they wear those clothes beneath their burkas (shit, that must be HOT) and basically can only show it off in their homes or when they are hanging out with other women. very, very interesting. my parents lived there for a while. i wonder how that went. wonder if my mom wore a burka O__o