“I believe humans take righteous pride in all they’ve built. But there are towers and towns of coral beneath sunlit waters which humble them.” – Old Sean
Man in the Middle East
After about a month of living in Riyadh, my life has taken on a clunky rhythm. While affordable housing nearby my workplace has been virtually impossible to find, my actual job is easy enough. I wake up early, scrub down in my hotel room, pray to the gods of air conditioning, slap on sunscreen and walk to work.
This last step is surprisingly challenging. Riyadh is absolutely not a walking city and the public transportation is lacking. For all that, I manage my daily desert slog with a cup of iced coffee. Each day, caffeine riddled, I attack my workday.
Once done, I work for an extra three hours on personal projects before wandering off to explore the city, either with friends or through Ubers. Admittedly, the city limits of Riyadh don’t have a wide number of activities. Entertainment is almost exclusively in the form of novelty food, recently-allowed movie theaters and cafés. Despite this, there are few places worthy of a walkthrough.
Another Lap of Riyadh
For example, Murabba Historical Palace is an impressive building in a perfect 400 by 400 square meters. The building, constructed in the Traditional Arab Najdi urban architecture, was commissioned by King Abdulaziz in 1936. It’s a surprisingly stately construct, certainly fit for a king and worthy of a visit or walk by.
A bit further to the south is an older, more historical structure called Masmak Palace Museum. The building, found in the southern portion of Riyadh, is a national icon. The building is awash in dull clay and mud bricks in the al-Dirah Neighborhood, and serves as a symbol of Saudi Arabia unification.
Famously, it also was central as the victory site for the House of Saud when Emir Abdulaziz ibn Saud Al Saud rallied an army against the fortress, defeating the House of Rasheed in the Battle of Riyadh.
The scars of this long battle remain in pockets, even after restoration efforts. The spearhead from the missile thrown by Prince Fahad ibn Jalawi still remains clearly embedded in the door.
Other portions of the fortress include elaborately designed windows and doors, traditional military attire, ammunition dump recreations, swords, rifles and other relics dedicated to the region’s history.
Pocket Sights
After wandering the thick-walled fortress and briefly stopping at a nearby mosque, I joined my friend Ahmed at a strange place called the Kingdom Heritage. This is a gift shop of sorts and several can be found around Riyadh.
But while most Western gift shops sell miniature trinkets, this building had a ring of authenticity. There were restored rifles and swords on the wall, incense holders, hand-carved camels, Egyptian-blue (calcium copper silicate/cuprorivaite) bowls, hanging lanterns and traditional board games. While I enjoyed the fortress immensely, spending time as a wide-eyed tourist in a gift shop was nice too.
In other Riyadh events, I visited the splendid Hintia Café, where I was granted a flat white. The building is unremarkable from the front, but the interior is surprisingly beautiful with white walls, hanging patterned rugs and smooth, rounded seats.
However, the reason for this post isn’t to sing the praises found during brief jaunts through Riyadh. Instead, it’s to discuss my first actual vacation since arriving.
A Weekend in Jeddah
Long before I ever arrived in Saudi Arabia, I was told of Jeddah. The vast majority of my friends from the Middle East had lived there at one point or another, making it one of my most sought-after tourist destinations.
Within my first month of entering the country, my friend Ahmed granted me my opportunity. He helped me buy a ticket and offered me the chance to see his lovely hometown.
Three hours after my work shift ended, I caught a ride with a friend to the airport, where I breezed through security while wearing flip flops and a small duffle bag. A few hours later, I landed in Jeddah.
Another friend named Mohammed was waiting for me in Jeddah, offering me a ride out of the airport. We met next to the massive aquarium pillar in the center of the domestic arrival airport and clambered into his car.
The weather of Jeddah was profound and cloying. Everyone who comments on the region mentions the intense humidity of the area. But few people relay the actual, almost-physical presence. Breathing felt tough, like inhaling through a warm, wet cloth. With breaths feeling oddly shallow, I was elated every time we found air conditioning.
Mohammed drove us through the night to his lovely home, where a guest bedroom was fully set up for me. To call it a simple guest bedroom undercuts the generosity I was being offered. The room was an entire de facto apartment, complete with a seating area, working kitchen, private bathroom, powerful AC, queen-sized bed, snacks, water and closet space. I was more comfortable in Mohammed’s hospitality than I was back in Riyadh.
Sailing on Fumes
That night, I squirreled away a few hours of sleep and caught an Uber the following morning to Jeddah’s Marina. There, I met Ahmed and the two of us lounged on a bobbing boat as the sun rose and sweat beaded down my back.
Ahmed had booked us a tour to go snorkeling on a coral-and-sandbar island deep in the Red Sea. The specific name of the submerged island was Bayadhah, but we didn’t get going for roughly an hour. Three of the guests who had booked the trip with us ran quite late, forcing us to lounge over humid saltwater. When three young men wearing breezy clothing finally did arrive, we set off.
We exited the Marina and followed the long bay leading into the distance. The sky was slightly hazy and touched with sunrise orange. Various resorts and private villas zoomed past. At one point, we stopped to flash our passports to exit the country and enter international waters.
Our group consisted of two tour guides, myself and Ahmed, a wholesome Egyptian family with two small children, and the three young men. The Egyptian family was granted access to the Bluetooth speakers and we listened to Egyptian pop as we skirted over the waves. I dozed fitfully, heat making me comfortably sleepy while the fresh wind cooled me.
As I semi-snoozed, my mind was fitful. Visiting the Red Sea felt strange. Born of a Christian family and brought up surrounded by stories of the Bible, the Red Sea is one of the first locations I’d ever heard of beyond my own local realm. Tales of Moses parting waters has a mythical note in my mind and it felt strange visiting something so parable-and-religion-oriented from my childhood.
The Red Sea Reefs
When we finally arrived at the reef, I was awestruck. The patch of enormously clairvoyant-blue water is home to sprawling reefs over low stones. All of it is directly nearby, fingers never more than a food away from colorful coral.
As with most reefs, it felt like an alien world. There were branching colors of purple and yellow, large rolls of rocky, dull-gray, huge rounded stones with brain-like green patterns, bright red flares, long patches of shell-crusted sand and sharp pockets of true-stone anchor. Most impressive of all were the vast array of fish.
Sand-colored creatures ducked into holes, bold-striped angelfish kissed close, peering at fingers in curiosity. There were box green fish which wiggled away lazily and massive schools of white fish which hovered over pale sand patches. Sea cucumbers flexed softly and ghost crabs scuttled. All told, Ahmed and I spent hours paddling into the distance, our goggle-protected eyes locked on the world below.
When our energy was finally spent, we returned to the boat. We were given large, hollowed melons filled with various dried fruits and other snacks.
The children of our tour rotated through the boat cheerfully, sharing their own snacks during the break. The young men played music, clapped, took endless videos and basically ensured a three-man party.
In the distance, international waters allowed people to loosen up considerably. Though many other boats were filled with women in hijabs and others laden with tanning men, there were foreigners in bikinis and long-haired men zooming around on personal waterboards. The sea was profoundly calm, water stilled by distant bracer reefs.
When it was finally time to go, we churned back slowly. The crew strung out an inner tube and everyone took turns skipping over the waves on the long journey back. We passed lighthouses, distant skyscrapers and other boaters until returning to the bay, slightly pinky for the adventure.
Sudden Snooze
Finally, my night of fitful sleep and physical acrobats wore me down. When I returned to Mohammed’s house, I showered and hand-washed my salted clothes, determined to fall asleep until dinner-time.
However, I miscalculated drastically. I forgot to open the drain at the bottom of the shower (it’s manually opened) and water had pooled in the bathroom and slithered out the door and into the bedroom. When I finally shut off the shower, liquid had escaped all the way into the bedroom.
Sighing, and not wanting to appear as a poor guest, I grabbed a squeegee and physically pushed the water back into the bathroom, where it slowly drained. It took me a good hour, but all the floors were well-sealed tile, so no damage was done.
Pink, damp and sleepy, I flopped into bed and knew no more.
The Jet-Powered Fountain
I awoke a few hours later to a phone ringing. All my Saudi friends had recovered from their eventful days and nights and wanted to take me on a tour of the city. We specifically went to Al-Hamra Corniche to watch a glorious orange-and-red sunset over the King Fahad Fountain.
The King Fahad Fountain was a startling creation. Made from the same technology as a jet engine, this is the highest fountain in the world. The marvel is all the more impressive since it uses salt-water for its stream, a famously difficult liquid to handle without corrosion. 1023 feet of water are launched with three industrial-powered jets at a speed of 233 miles per hour.
Chatting about small things, my small group sipped Adani Tea, a Yemeni beverage from the nearby Caffe Aroma Tea Shop. We watched the sun sink lower and breathe more colors into the sky as the distant fountain misted thousands of gallons of water through the air. On nearby rocks, cats basked in the last rays of the day and Mohammed carted over a Turkish pizza snack for us to share.
We spent a little more time in the area, passing art structures, viewpoints and the famously elegant Hassan Enany Mosque, but by the time true-dark had fallen, we were all exceptionally hungry. Ahmed was eager to introduce me to his favorite seafood place to the north, so we piled into a car and set off.
Seeing Seafood
After driving through the night, Ahmed introduced us to a fancy restaurant called Sultanah Seafood Restaurant which included a private room with a long sofa and a vast table.
We wandered to the selection area, where fish were swimming in deep layers of ice. Ahmed pried up the various fish, pulling up the gills to look for a bright red color, an indication of freshness. When he finally selected a fish we were happy with, we returned to the room. A half hour later, a veritable feast was laid true.
Grilled fish sat sightless and crunchy on platters, perfectly seasoned. A large plate of two-colored rice took up a significant portion of the table. Calamari and shrimp dominated a corner of the eating space and lemons and greens drizzled with light sauce abounded. Sodas were ushered into the room in glass bottles and I shamelessly gorged myself over the next hour, the mound of food never seeming to diminish during our onslaught.
Finally, we washed our collective hands, lugged ourselves out to the car, and drove to our next destination, a hookah lounge called Break Time near the center of the city. After an endless, meandering but enjoyable conversation, we breathed out plumes of vaporous smoke and headed home,
Following a theme of perpetual sleepiness staved off by interesting activities, Mohammed had a quick errand to run at the airport with his wife before we finally returned home, said hello to their three cats, and fell asleep.
Jeddah Roundabout
The following morning, my group was supposed to wake up at 6 AM for a hefty breakfast. But also true to form, all of us were entirely passed-out and unable to rise until 7 AM.
However, rise we did, at which point, we collected Ahmed and made our way to a breakfast nook called San’ani, a specialty Yemeni Restaurant. There, we devoured bowls of meat and dips with large disks of buttered flatbread. The meals were all new names to me, with words like Fool Beans, Masoub (sweet, heavy food), shakshoka and kibda (lamb liver) all being added to my favorite foods.
When we finally left, I was sleepy once again from overeating. However, instead of returning home, we braved the heat of the day to check out Al-Balad Old Town, the traditional architecture district of Jeddah.
Nearly Reclaimed
We first parked near Lake Al-Arbaeen Park before wandering into the historic district. This portion of Jeddah was arrestingly beautiful.
Streets twisted and turned at seemingly random intervals, widening and narrowing in a natural cadance. However, this was largely intentional. The ancient architects of Jeddah designed the streets in such a manner to allow water to naturally flow away (as Jeddah’s soil has a problem with porous-ground and sinkholes). The streets also lend themselves to better shade and breeze, both welcome additions for a coastal desert port nation.
As we walked through the neighborhood, all was quiet. Very few people were out in the deep summer as noon drew near. But for all this, my tour guides (Ahmed and Mohammed) provided plenty of information.
They pointed out the green, brown and light-blue patterned doors which indicated where families and businesses hailed from. I was shown steepled rooms with communal centers where widows could live for free in the ancient society. Many of the upper apartments in the neighborhood had beautiful wooden exteriors with strange, patterned wooden shrouds, allowing dwellers to sit back and gaze out into the street below.
Many of the buildings were constructed with heaping blocks of stone, pulled locally from the seaside quarries. These stones, which were sculpted easily, were layered in rows of three before a compressed wooden beam was added, allowing the next layer to rise. The brilliant construction techniques created an entire, empty city which stayed standing for centuries. The quality of the ancient construction was apparent, as more recent repairs made of concrete often crumbled away, leaving only the original stone behind.
Despite its beauty, Al-Balad isn’t a dream walkthrough though. Much of it is under heavy restorative construction. The local government is working endlessly to restore the district to its full glory, so construction materials, scaffolding and industrious workers abound.
Stops Within the Old Town
While wandering through this area, we stopped several times. The first point of interest was a place called Medd Cafe with amazing drinks, cool AC and quaint decorations. The wall was covered in plaster and exposed bricks in soft lights. Nearby, bulletin boards hung with numerous sticky notes containing admiring messages from other visitors.
In another quiet square, an ancient tree grew where people once sat to enjoy shade. Lanterns, also known as traditional Jeddah Fawanees (plural) or a Jeddah Fanoos (singular) hung quietly with unique patterns tracing their exteriors. Nearby, there were modern sculptures depicting pieces of life in Jeddah.
During these wanderings, we also visited the expansive Allegiance Square and the Old Jeddah Gate. Jeddah once had a defensive wall built around it, constructed rapidly to stave off colonial Portuguese invading elements. Only pockets of the walls remain, though other hints of Jeddah’s history, such as the Cannon Obelisk and other traces of gates remain.
As the heat continued to build in the day and my energy slowly settled low, we visited the oldest mosque in the district, known as the Shafei Mosque.
We also stopped to visit the Nassif House Museum and spent some time in the potent Perfume Store, a traditional, tiny shop with the full name “موسسة بايونس للعود و البخ.”
Finally, we made it back to the car by renting scooters. Once firmly embedded in AC again, we started driving in loops to check out a few more local places.
One such stop included the Mother Hawwa Tomb, which was located in a quiet gravesite near Al-Balad. The graveyard is unremarkable, as Islamic burials don’t include elaborate headstones or decorations. For all that, the place had a quiet dignity. The site is also the alleged final resting place of the Biblical Eve, though such claims are largely unsubstantiated.
Wrap Up Flight
After this, our final day in Jeddah started to wind down to a soothing end. We passed Oasis Mall with its famously bright glass ceiling of multicolored hues. And we stopped for a final, fantastic cup of coffee at a place known as Cup and Couch.
With this, my vacation was done. Ahmed and I caught a ride back to the airport and wandered past blue-tinted ceilings and paper airplanes with Arabic script until we were on a flight back to Riyadh.
Overall, the trip was splendid, but I didn’t nearly finish my bucket list for Jeddah. I still wish to visit-or-try the Fakieh Aquarium, the City Walk Jeddah, Jeddah Promenade, the Red Sea Mall, Al Tayebat International City Museum of Jeddah, and a eatery called معصوب القادري for ma’asoob dessert,
Someday in the close-flung future, I’ll head back again for another round of Saudi Arabia’s most potent coastal city.
But until then,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written August 8th, 2023
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Ten years ago, I abandoned my military surplus store backpack for a Farpoint 40 Osprey Travel Pack. I’ve never replaced my bag since. Two years ago, I bought two more Osprey Backpacks for my younger siblings on their first tour outside the country. I have nothing but praise for Osprey Products.
