“It’s a common sight on weekends to see OFWs go to Batha for various reasons,” Cenon C. Sagadal Jr., a bank marketing representative, told Arab News.
The reasons include spending time outside to forget homesickness, and window-shopping for things they could send either through “balikbayan box” or bring home when taking their vacation in the Philippines.
What do OFWs and other expatriates say about Batha? A Canadian housewife writes in her blog, “I have just come from Batha, a sprawling neighborhood with a large number of shops and markets. The first thing you’ll notice about the demographics here is a lot of Filipinos. As a result, you’ll find a ton of Filipino grocery shops and bakeries and delicious bread.”
According to an official of the Philippine Embassy, out of the estimated 1.2 million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia, around 400,000 live in Riyadh.
Sagadal added that early in the morning, you could see them on the road waiting for a bus or limousine. If going in a group, they take a taxi and share the cost, which ranges from SR15 to SR20.
He added that most of these OFWs are the so-called blue-collar workers who miss their families in the Philippines.
“The difficulties they encounter at work and the meager salary they receive at the end of the month are the main reasons for their sadness, which makes them inevitably remember their families back home,” he added.
According to Sagadal, most of these Filipinos go to Batha at the end of the month to remit money to their families in the Philippines.
“For this reason, there’s a bumper-to-bumper traffic along King Abdulaziz Road, which is the main access to Batha. Most of the banks serving the remittance needs of OFWs are there,” explained Sagadal, who comes from Calbayog City in the western Samar province.
Chris V. Lavina, a reporter for The Filipino Channel (TFC), added that another reason OFWs go to Batha is to eat in Philippine restaurants that serve their favorite food. “Like any other country, the Philippines boasts of various food items that have attracted even foreigners who visit the country. These include bulalo and pinakbit,” said Lavina, who was born in Dumaguete City.
Bulalo is a delicious beef stew, while pinakbit is a mixture of sautéed vegetables or of vegetables boiled in little water with tomatoes and anchovy, depending on the region the cook comes from.
OFWs also go to Batha to meet friends or acquaintances they know from the Philippines before coming to Saudi Arabia.
“Batha is famous and easy to locate. Just tell any limousine driver you want to go to Batha and he will take you there,” said Mike M. Pacheco, design engineer at a systems integration company in Riyadh.
He added, “While waiting for someone at a designated place in Batha, you can go around and visit the shops that sell various items, from television sets and home theater systems to laptops and cell phones.
“There are many things to see in Batha,” he continued. “You will hardly get bored. Looking at fellow OFWs milling around different shops makes you forget that you are waiting for someone. You can also take a snack at a nearby coffee shop.”
He added that OFWs are all over the place in Batha. At noontime, when the weather is hot, they are near or inside the supermarkets that sell Filipino foodstuff or dining in their favorite Filipino restaurants. They could also be seen sitting on benches in front of the shops.
“They stay in Batha until late at night, say 10 or 11 p.m. They also have dinner there so as not to be bothered with cooking at home,” he continued. “When they leave, they are already looking forward to the next weekend, when they will go back to Batha.”
Raul San Agustin Cabuso, a 52-year-old Filipino working for Al-Qinnat Fannar, usually goes to Batha for shopping: “I go to Batha on weekends to look for anything I could send to my family or bring home when I take my vacation to the Philippines.”
He said that his wife, who is living with their two kids in Atimonan in Quezon province, had been asking him to buy the latest television set.
“As I have worked in Saudi Arabia for the last 32 years, my wife got used to the latest models of TV sets and stereo components, which I have been sending through ‘balikbayan boxes,’” he said, adding that his wife sold old TV sets for a little profit and asked him to buy new ones.
Resty S. Sibug, area manager of Saudi TKT, related that his family goes to Batha on weekends because his three kids love to eat at a popular Philippine fast-food chain outlet in Riyadh.
“They love going there, just as they love visiting the chain’s various branches whenever we are in the Philippines,” said Sibug, who hails from Candaba, Pampanga province.
He added, however, that there is another reason the family visits Batha despite the heavy traffic on weekends is to buy gold. “Although it is very expensive, my wife loves gold,” Sibug said.
Soldelicia Valera-Sagadal, a nurse at Riyadh Military Hospital, said that when she and her husband go to Batha on weekends, they always pass by the gold shops. “Gold is something to keep. Its value has continued to increase over the years,” she said.
However, the impression that Batha is a mere collection of shops and markets is misleading. Aside from five tall buildings along King Abdulaziz Road, Batha boasts of modern buildings such as Electron, where one can find numerous OFWs, milling around shops dealing in cell phones, computers and laptops, TV and stereo sets.
Another relatively new building is the sprawling Pinoy Supermarket, which houses a restaurant, supermarket and bakery. OFWs go to Batha to buy their everyday needs from the supermarket.
However, Batha is not the district it used to be. Old-timers in Riyadh say that about 40 years ago, there used to be a deep canal in front of the five tall buildings, where you could find on the different floors shops, offices, a hotel, restaurant and housing accommodations.
Shaukat Naim Ghummam, an international purchasing manager for a Riyadh-based company, said that he used to be connected with a company that had an office in Batha.
“At that time, Batha was just a small district. The concrete road with overpass along King Abdulaziz Road used to be a deep canal with dirty water. Other portions of what is now Batha’s main thoroughfare were dirt road,” he told Arab News.
