By Aroonim Bhuyan. Middle East, 05:33 PM IST

Till a couple of years ago, if you did not know Arabic you would be lost driving down the smooth, broad and orderly roads of Riyadh - a sign of Saudi Arabia's focus on infrastructure.

Direction signs on the main arterial roads were all in Arabic then. But these are slowly being replaced by new road signs giving directions in both Arabic and English.

So, nowadays you know that keeping to this lane will take you to Makkah and the other lane will lead you to Dammam and so on.

And so is the case with vehicle registration plates. Most cars carry Arabic number plates. But then again, you see an odd car here and there with number plates in both Arabic and English.

By Aroonim Bhuyan (Staff Writer, © IANS)