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Published: October 30th 2022
Diriyah
View of DiriyahNo, this blog won't be about a Korean boy-band called K.S.A. I don't in fact know, if there is a Korean boy-band named like that. It wouldn't surprise me. The K.S.A. I am referring to is the abbreviation for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A long time dream. One that seemed unattainable until three years ago, when suddenly this closed to tourist country went from unable to get a visa, to press a button on the internet and get an e-visa in ten seconds! Covid put a spanners in my plan to go there earlier, but here I am at last.
Along with me on the first part of my trip is my mum. I would have liked to have Jenni with me, but she couldn't come. Not that my mum is not good enough, we travel well together, and I am glad she is here with me.
My impression so far of the country is that it is greener than I expected. And I don't mean it is lush, but I guess I thought most of it would be sand dunes, except for the mountains in the west, which I knew would be green. In fact, a lot
of it looks a little like the outback in Australia, perhaps slightly dryer. There are sand dunes of course, however most of the time you see tufts of grass and a few trees and bushes. It's not that often that you don't see any green whatsoever. There are loads of interesting rock formations sculpted by the winds, and mountains in various hues of yellow, red, black and grey. Bare, perhaps, but striking nevertheless and beautiful in their own right. The scenery is never dull.
Another impression is that the cities and towns are spread out over a huge area. As a European from a small country I find it somewhat disconcerting. There often isn't much of an obvious centre. And getting from one place to another is hard, if not impossible, on foot. A 20 minute ride by taxi to get anywhere, is more the norm here. Which brings me to my third observation, travelling around this country is difficult without your own transport. Difficult, I say, but not impossible. There are intercity buses and with apps like Uber and the local version Careem, plus the ubiquitous taxi's, it is doable. Once you accept that walking is not an
Diriyah
So close, yet so far. It was locked for us. option, and you need to get a ride, just to go out for dinner, for example (if you don't want to eat in your hotel), it becomes more manageable. Not easy, not convenient, but possible.
We arrived in Riyadh on Thursday evening. My mistake was not to get a Saudi simcard at the airport as soon as I arrived. I say mistake, the problem was there wasn't a simcard provider on our terminal and I had arranged an airport taxi to pick us up. So I let it slide, thinking I would get one in town the next day. Not realising that on Friday shops are closed... And in Saudi Arabia you need a Saudi simcard to arrange anything. But with the help of the friendly receptionist at our hotel we managed to get around a little on Friday, even without a simcard. At four in the afternoon the shops opened and I got the magic card that opens doors in this country. I could buy our train ticket to Ha'il, our next destination, I could hail Uber and Careem rides, I could do so many things suddenly! Ah, the power of a simple little sim card.
Riyadh
Riyadh
Having a cappuccino near the Kingdom Tower is vast, sprawling, enormous, humongous. You get the picture: it is big! Our hotel was in the centre, but that means nothing, I am not even sure what the centre of Riyadh is. We were in one centre. There wasn't much around us though. We went to Diriyah, old Riyadh, that took 30 minutes by taxi, and when we came it was closed. You could get a ticket via an app, and only via an app. At that time I still didn't have the simcard. So we walked around a little outside and peeked in from a distance. Went to Masmak Fort, it was 20 minutes away. Kingdom Tower 20 minutes away. The train station, 40 minutes away. Most of Riyadh is low, brown and bare, and it would seem a 20 minute ride away.
The train to Ha'il was comfortable. I like train journeys, so when I could choose between a bus or a train, I obviously went for the train. Ha'il is much nicer than Riyadh, still sprawling, but it has what feels like some sort of centre, with 3 forts and some crumbling old buildings, plus a few markets. Our hotel was right outside the centre,
Riyadh
And the buildings light up a 15 minute ride away, which is very close for Saudi standards. Ha'il is surrounded by hills, and is known for it's dates. It also has a wonderful authentic restaurant, which was the highlight of our stay in Ha'il. The food was delicious, and cheap, and the place atmospheric. The most interesting thing to do in Ha'il, is actually to go into the hills and desert outside of town, but we didn't have time for that, and I wanted to save the money for other places. Because, as I said, without a car, you can't get anywhere in this country, certainly not to the places of interest, since most of them are in the desert and not in the cities serviced by the buses. To see anything of interest, I knew we would be reliant on renting a car with driver to take us around, a costly affair, so choices had to be made.
One of those choices was Al Ula, our next destination. We got a bus there from Ha'il. I don't think many tourists travel around the country by bus, most rent a car and go on their own. I don't think many Saudi's travel around by
Riyadh
Masmak fort bus either. It's people like us, and Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and the other nationalities from the global south, that take the buses. In Al Ula, the apartment I had found on a booking site, turned out to be far out of town, in the suburbs of the suburbs of Al Ula. I think we were at the outer edge of Al Ula, the houses around us were still being built. And the normal ride hailing apps didn't work, but where there is a will, there is a way, and I found a local ride hailing app. Still it was not the greatest location. However we managed.
First we booked a car and driver for the day, who took us around all the natural sights. I had looked up a few, and he knew a few. It was wonderful. We had them all to ourselves. The tourist season has barely started, and of course, Saudi itself is not yet on the tourist radar. That combined meant there were not many people around. For some reason they have opening times for some of the sights. I didn't quite understand why a viewpoint only opens up at 3 pm, or a certain rock
Riyadh
Courtyard in the fort formation at 4 pm. I did see that what they are aiming for is high end luxury experiences. The old town is being renovated, and it will include the best French restaurants. At the viewpoint there is a cafe and restaurant that is suave and not cheap, at Elephant Rock, they are developing the same thing. Everywhere you look, they are busy turning the place into something for the rich, with extravagant shows planned, and private camel tours, no doubt with Russian caviar and lobsters. Perhaps in a few more years, it won't be possible to do it like we did. And this sight will be closed for those who don't have money, and don't want to book some sort of experience.
The second day we booked a tour to the main sight of Al Ula, Mada'in Saleh, also known as Hegra. It is the place that is shown on tourist brochures. The Petra of Saudi Arabia, built by the Nabateans, the same folk that created Petra. You can't go there independently. A tour is compulsory. Either a private one, or, as we did, on a big bus. There were only 6 of us on the big bus. Once
Riyadh
Pretty window frame again it struck me that they were busy turning this into a luxury experience. Everywhere they were setting up stages around the tombs, and tents and lights, and cafe's to cater to those that will book those shows. We were taken to 7 different tombs. It was impressive. However, I didn't feel completely at ease. I would have liked to wander around, taking my time, instead we were shuttled around with limited time at each location. On a positive note, once again, we were mostly alone. At Petra you might be able to wander around at will, but you will be doing it with thousands of others. Here you can't, but you have the ruins to yourself.
And now we are in Jeddah, after getting a bus to Madinah, and from there a high-speed train to Jeddah. I didn't know they had high-speed trains in this country. But they do. Between Mecca and Madinah, via Jeddah. I would have loved to explore Madinah, but most of it is off-limits to non-muslims. Jeddah, is huge, like Riyadh, but the big difference is that it has a historic centre, and it is lively and cosmopolitan, and it is on the Red
Riyadh
And pretty door Sea. You can feel the vibe here, so to speak. The old town is called Al Balad, and in a few years I think it will be sanitised. It looks like that anyway. They are restoring it, and moving out the people who live in it, taking away the soul of the place. It will look nice, but it will be dead. For now, parts of it are still bustling, mostly around the edges. There are souks selling spices, gold, carpets, clothes, dates and everything in between, hole in the wall eateries open up, people sit around talking about the days events, the mosques call the faithful to prayer, closing the shops for fifteen minutes as everyone shuffles in, or simply set up their prayer mat outside their shop and pray there. And then they all come out again, and continue with what they were doing, above them an orange sickle moon rises. An Islamic moon, shining over a vestige of old Arabia.
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Matthew Gray
non-member comment
family...
Having lost my mum recently Dudeness, This warms my wanderlust soul. I hope you make some recordings of her voice and especially of you two laughing togther. I have 43 seconds of my mom's voice. That's all I got. Travel Well, Fox (Matthew)-