The Sunday Times has an intersting piece on how the late King Fahd is being mourned in Marbella. The reason for this of course being his ridiculous spending:
This is a country in mourning for a beloved ruler, a great man who gave so much to them — yes, Spain is feeling real heartache at the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd.
There is a palpable sense of loss in his old playground, Marbella, and in the neighbouring marina, the chichi Puerto Banus. Gloom has descended upon the merchants of the Costa del Sol: Saudi’s big spender has ascended into heaven and taken his chequebook with him.
Last week the mayoress of Marbella, Marisol Yague, declared three days of official mourning and the town hall was rushing through a decree to declare the late king an adopted son of the municipality. In Puerto Banus, where the monarch’s 70-metre yacht, Al Diriyah, used to be moored, a minute’s silence was observed for the man whose flunkeys would utter the most beautiful words in the Spanish dictionary: “El rey pagara” (the king will pay).
His visits with his retinue of 3,000 had earned the local tradesmen riches indeed. It is estimated that an extra €30,000 (£21,000) a day was spent just in Puerto Banus. As heir apparent, Fahd first visited Marbella in 1974 and stayed at the Incosol hotel and spa. He booked 100 rooms but some of the princesses didn’t like the decor so he ordered the dark carpets to be changed to white. As a reward, Fahd left the hotel a tip of $300,000 — enough for the entire staff to receive, in effect, an extra year’s salary.
He told one Spanish journalist that he liked Marbella because “it was a land blessed by Allah”, referring to the Arab occupation of most of Spain from the 8th to the 13th century. In the early 1980s he started the construction of his Mar Mar Palace, a replica of the White House. Because of increasing ill health (he suffered a stroke 10 years ago), he last visited in August 2002, just after a £134m refurbishment of the palace.
Those crazy princes…… Although it’s well known this just shows how ridiculous these guys are with (the peoples) money.
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