The Beach: A Week in Jeddah

October 7, 2014March 5, 2019 / Gallivantrix / 4 Comments

The beach I chose to go to in Jeddah is called La Plage. I ended up going twice, once on Monday, my first full day, and again on Saturday, my last full day. I’ve learned a few things in the art of vacationing, and two of them are – make sure the beginning and the end of the experience are awesome; and after about 7 days in the same place, you start loosing the vacation benefit and its time to move. So, the beach became my first and last experience, maximizing my vacation happiness.

The first try wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, there were a few hiccups. First there was the quest simply to find the right beach. I wanted someplace I could be in a swimsuit instead of an abaya, and I wanted a swimming beach, and to see the coral reefs. La Plage had all that, but I was told had some picky membership rules. Fortunately, the country director for our company lives here in Jeddah and had a spare ticket!

I got a taxi easily enough, but the driver didn’t really know where we were going. Google maps is a trans linguistic miracle and with some phone help from a friend of his with good English, we were on our way. Travelling in the modern age, yay!

Or not. Turns out there’s more than one place with the name La Plage, since that’s just the French word for beach. We ended up and the wrong one and had a little side adventure trying to find it, but I was able to call my co-employee who’d provided the ticket and get more specific info as he googled landmarks we passed and guided us to the right gate.

This entire stretch of road is just walls and gates. There are no names on the gates and no address numbers, so you have to know about it before you show up. Private beach indeed. The unassuming green gate emblazoned with the Saudi flag’s palm tree and crossed sabers hides thatched rooftops baredly peeking above the walls. The man at reception took my ticket and advised me to remove my abaya and keep it in my bag while I was inside. A real relief I can tell you, to be abaya free outdoors, feeling the sea breeze directly on my skin.

Additionally, the driver arranged to return for me at 7pm and we exchanged numbers in case I had a change of plans before then, so no worries on how to get home from this middle of nowhere stretch of road.

I arrived a little after 10, staked out a place on the beach, not that it was really necessary since even at 2pm on a Monday, there were still only a few of us out here. I wandered around the grounds to see what else was there. A nice pool, a lap pool, an area with couches where you can snack and smoke shisha, and a lovely restaurant where I sat down to a nice breakfast. (You can read more about it in The Restaurants post)

I admit, with the whole day before me, I lingered a long time over this meal, chatting to folks online and savoring the flavors and the view. After a final cup of coffee, I headed back to my place on the beach and decided to check out the diving area. After all, I had a bucket list item to attend to today, snorkeling in the red sea coral reefs.

You have to walk out a ways on a little path to get out past the cleared out swimming area and the shallows where there isn’t any coral yet. The gentlemen at the dive area asked me what kind of diving I wished to do. I don’t really know how to scuba, so I said so, and that I would like to snorkel if possible. They kitted me out with some boots to protect my feet, a mask, snorkel and fins. They made sure I felt confident in my swimming skills and showed me where to go.

Because boats come quite close to the reefs, they had a little area roped off to keep divers safe from the traffic. There were some steps leading down to the water, at the end of which I strapped on my fins and headed into the water.

It was like being inside a documentary. Despite the fact that I cleverly forgot my contact lenses back in Tabuk, I could still see fairly well under water. I had to de-fog the mask a couple times, but the corals and fish were quite close, and the water was so clear, I hardly noticed the lack of 20/20 vision.

The corals weren’t as bright themselves as in other places, though I did see many beautiful soft, well, coral pinks, and a few spots of greens, purples and brilliant blues. But the FISH! The colors and sizes of the fish, as soon as my mask hit the water I was confronted with a moving mosaic. Electric blue and yellow, flashing stripped silver, some fish had a whole rainbow down their flanks, iridescent and shifting as they moved.

I stayed at the surface because the coral was very shallow and I could breathe easily through the snorkel while admiring the view. I swam out to one corner of the cordoned off area and as I curved inward following the buoy line, the coral reef dropped off sharply into placid turquoise depths where I could see the outlines of much larger fish swimming in the depths.

Despite the fact that I was floating easily on the surface, the sharp drop off gave me an intense sense of vertigo, just as if I were standing on the edge of a sharp cliff, or perhaps more so as I had nothing to hold on to. However, I reassured myself that I could not fall, and that the force of the waves coming in toward shore would prevent me from drifting out accidentally.

There were yet more fish at this break, new shapes and colors that only hovered in the space between shallow and deep. They didn’t think anything of me at all, swimming within inches of my face and hands, calmly avoiding me, but not fleeing.

I just floated for a while, not swimming anywhere, only watching the scene below me. The waves started picking up and tossing me back toward the shallow end, even occasionally washing over my snorkel and bringing a mouthful of saltwater. I decided it was time to head in, as fighting the waves was becoming increasingly challenging, but I lost a flipper.

I turned around to find it, but in the process of retrieving it the other one cam off. I was only in a few feet of water at this point, and still had the boots on to protect my feet, but the ground was slippery and the waves were intense, so I was knocked down more than once, and pushed into some coral. Scraped by a coral reef may now be checked off my life to do list as well. It didn’t really hurt until I got out of the water, but I suspect that was adrenaline.

After a few very focused, heart pounding minutes, I made it back to the base of the stairs and up onto the diving area.I washed off the scrapes with soap and water then lay down on a bench to catch my breath. Found some iodine in the dive shop, too. I suspect it was the combo of salt water and sunscreen that made it sting like all get out, but I really can’t say I cared that much. The reef was amazing, I don’t know how it compares to anything else, because I was my first coral reef, but that alone makes it pretty special.

I headed back to my deck chair and lounged in the shade, enjoying the view and the breeze. Occasionally I’d wander out into the swimming area for a bit. The water was delightfully warm for about the top four feet, then suddenly turned cold. The sea is salty enough that floating is ridiculously easy. I hovered vertical in the water and only had to flip a hand or foot to adjust my orientation. Every time my feet dipped below the warmth line, it was like dipping my toes into a cold pool, even though I was entirely suspended in water.

Later on I went up to the pool but the water was actually too warm for me, and I came out again pretty quickly.

I spent the sunset floating in the sea chatting with a nice Palestinian lady who recommended some other places I might enjoy in Jeddah (she was right). The taxi drive back was its own ‘adventure’ you can read about in The Taxis.

By Saturday, I’d learned a lot about taxis and of course I knew where the beach was this time. The way in was different. This time, they checked my passport at the gate, but didn’t take my ticket. Instead, there was a check in counter that hadn’t been open on Monday where they had me fill in my name and nationality on the ticket and asked me if I had any food or water in my bag. I was told it wasn’t allowed to bring any in because of the restaurant on site. I told them I planned on eating at the restaurant, too and they let me in with my water, warning me not to bring so much next time. He also would not let me out of the reception area until I’d stowed my abaya in my bag.

I was also greeted by a pretty blue and gold macaw at the gate. These are big birds and there wasn’t a handler with him, so I was a little wary at first, but he clearly wanted attention, and kept holding his leg out to try to reach me. When I moved my arm over, he climbed right on. I gave him some neck scritches, cause parrots love those, before saying good bye and heading off toward the water.

I got there early again, but this time I headed straight to the dive shop because the waves were really low that morning, and I wanted to tackle the reef again so that being beaten up by strong waves and coral wasn’t my final memory.

It wasn’t quite as populated by fish as it had been on Monday. I don’t know if it was a time of day thing or a weather thing, but it was still nice, and it really helped me to get back in the water after the adrenaline inducing experience of Monday.

I discovered on my way back toward the beach that there’s supposed to be a fee to rent the snorkel equipment, oops. No one had asked for one on Monday, and they were kind enough to let it slide, cautioning me that I should make sure to expect to pay next time. I think if I lived there, I’d buy my own gear, but its not unreasonable to rent it if you’re just visiting. Plus, next time I’m sure to have my contact lenses and an underwater camera!

After the snorkeling, I headed in to get breakfast, much like last time. There were definitely more people at the resort than on Monday, but it never got to be what I’d call “crowded”. I guess having been to beaches in Florida, Southern California, and the Bahamas I have a different perspective on what a crowded beach looks like. Maybe it was because of the holiday, but I’d have thought if anything, that would mean more people would show up than usual.

I chatted with a young man trying to learn paddle boarding. He asked me how I was enjoying “Miami” referring to the beach. I said I liked it a great deal better than I had liked actual Miami, which he got a real kick out of.

I listened to some little girls singing “Eid Mubarak” (Happy Eid), clearly happy to be celebrating the holiday. A little girl, maybe two or three, showed me her seashell finds and asked how I got the scrapes on my leg, whereupon we discussed why it was important to stay in the safe part of the beach and not go out near the boats in the very solemn way that toddlers have before she ran off to find her dad.

I enjoyed the sea some more, floating in the deep of our little lagoon, and walking through the shallows looking for pretty sea shells and coral bits that had washed in from the reef. I read in the shade, snacked at the restaurant and generally had a really nice day.

Both nights right as the sun was setting I turned around just in time to see a tiny shoal of silver fish leap from the water in a little flashing arc of bodies reflecting the golden pink sun. Pretty darn magical.

While waiting for my Uber to arrive (I couldn’t deal with another taxi), the person who I think was the manager (very proprietary and obviously in charge) chatted with me about my visit. Apparently he’s Greek Orthodox and took the opportunity to tell me how great it is. For a country where people aren’t supposed to talk about religion, I sure get asked what I am a lot here.

A friendly Uber ride back to the hotel sealed in the goodness of the day.

Overall findings?
La Plage is a great beach. Beautiful, clean, it has swimming and diving which is rare in combo. Good restaurant, nice service. The weekdays are nearly empty, and the rules are clearly less adamantly enforced. However, the weekends are more lively and the restaurant seems to have a wider menu as well. They don’t allow Saudis, and other Middle Eastern nationals may have a few more hoops to jump through to get in. Like everywhere else in Saudi, the rules are not set in stone, and they seem more interested in pleasing their rich Western patrons than anything else, really. I’m pretty sure if I lived in Jeddah, I’d be out there as often as I could afford it, though, and I’d never save any money at all.

The Souqs: A Week in Jeddah

October 7, 2014March 5, 2019 / Gallivantrix / 1 Comment

I didn’t really want to go into many malls on my trip to Jeddah, but the souqs are the modern descendants of what once were the outdoor markets where farmers and traders would congregate to sell their wares. Its changed a lot since then, but I wanted to see it anyway. Al Balad has recently been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has perhaps the best representation of what the old souq would have looked like, and Al Shati is up in one of the ritzier neighborhoods and is a pretty good representation of the modern souq. Enjoy!

Al Shati

Sadly, I have no pictures at all of this souq. I didn’t arrive until well after sunset on a Friday night, so the place was pretty much packed, and I didn’t want to upset anyone taking pictures with so many people.

This souq is much more modern than Balad, but also smaller. There weren’t any multi story mall like buildings at all. On the outer fringes of the souq were some larger department stores. The souq itself was a sort of grid and multiple courtyard set up. See the satellite view on the map. There are two main courtyards that have a snack stand in the center, amusement rides for kids placed around the courtyard, and plastic bolted down chairs and tables in between.

It looks all nice and geometrical from the air, but on the ground its really disorienting, particularly since in addition to the air conditioned shops in the buildings, there are a myriad of tiny kiosks, carts and blanket top sellers in between them.

Not much ground to cover, but definitely plenty of shops. Every inch of building is a shop, plus all the ones in open space. I enjoyed going into the fancy abaya shops to see what the high class ladies of Jeddah were into. I have to admit, I’m a little jealous that we can’t wear more styles here in Tabuk, there were some really beautiful abayas there, and most of them weren’t too much more expensive than the ones I own.

I tried to find a new hijab that would be ok to wear in Tabuk but have a little bit of flair, but there just wasn’t anything like that. Everything was either very plain black or very very colorful.

There were also some nice jewelry places, selling gold and silver as well as other types. I’m not really that into jewelry, but I was looking for something nice to bring back to a friend in Tabuk. The silver is actually sold by weight, even when it is set with other stones, which I found interesting. Not a bad price, I guess. I found a delicate silver bracelet set with opals that would have been about 32$ US.

Remembering that Saudis tend to prefer gold, I found a little bracelet with heart charms on it, which she turned out to really like, so I feel like that was a mission accomplished.

I also found a really cheap clothing store where everything seemed to be 20 SAR (about 5$), so I got some clothes there. I got a pretty shimmery skirt, that fabric that can’t make up its mind what color it is depending on how you look at it, sort of dusty rose and golden bronze. Its a little long, but I can hem it, and it follows my rule of not paying more than 5$ for clothes that need alterations. I got a lightweight black long sleeved open fronted shirt thing, since need stuff to wear over the tank tops at work. However, it tore in the laundry, so that may have been a mistake.

Finally, I found what may be the coolest steam punk skirt I’ve seen outside a cos-play competition. Its not real leather, but that’s ok. It’s also a teeny bit too small, but also way too long, so I’m just going to pull out the zipper and lower the whole waistline. Since I won’t be able to wear it until the winter sets in, or possibly until I get back to America, there’s no rush.

All in all, Shati isn’t pretty or historically significant, but its a fun place to shop that has a lot more character and flavor than a shopping mall.

Al Balad

This was one of my big to-do items since I found out I was coming to Saudi because of the UNESCO thing, so I set aside basically a whole day to to it, even though the souq doesn’t really get going until after 4pm. I got dropped of on the very edge of the neighborhood by a very passive aggressive taxi driver, and followed the stream of people walking toward the tall buildings while trying to puzzle over my gps map as to which direction I needed to go in.

It was just after Asr so still reasonably light. The first things I came across were tall mall like structures, but a little more like the Silk Market in Beijing than the other malls I’d seen in Saudi. Tall buildings stuffed with little stands and shops selling clothes, electronics, jewelry, perfume and shoes. Sadly, unlike the Silk Market, no shops selling artwork.

I drifted around several such buildings until I heard the call to Maghrib and sat down next to a fountain to wait for all the shops to reopen.

Finally, after leaving yet another high rise souq, I spotted some signs that pointed to the historical district. As I left the high rises behind, the area became a little shabbier but with a lot more character. There were a few permanent shade structures build over the main paths and an endless number of side alleys cross connecting the twisting roads. There were permanent shops with air conditioning along the larger paths, and people set up with rolling carts or even just blankets full of goods anywhere they could find a space.

More than anywhere else I’d been, I could see the influence of the Silk Road on the two cultures. The whole area reminded me of nothing so much as the Muslim Quarter in Xi’an, the former western capital city of China. It really felt like there was a path connecting the two points nearly a whole continent apart.

Eventually, after walking in a few circles, I found the historical center. I didn’t take many pictures in the souq because there were so many people, and its really rude to take pictures of people here, but I managed to snap a few of the landmarks.

Continuing on, I found the food area where fresh produce and meat was on display in every window and cart. And eventually wandered in to what seemed to be a home goods area. I’d clearly left the fashion/jewelry/perfume area and found the place where the locals came to get what they needed.

I parked it on a concrete block to wait out the Isha’a prayer closings, then set about to get my own shopping done. I wanted something to make my hijab easier (pins, clips, a different style, whatever), and I wanted my own shisha pipe (hookah). I knew I should be able to find both in Balad.

The first part was pretty simple, since there were tons of little stands selling abaya and hijab stuff. I wasn’t sure what to ask for, though, so I had to go by looking at what was on display. Eventually I found these little head band/do rag like things that are designed to go under the hijab. They cover the upper forehead and keep the bangs from falling. Also, they create a better surface for the hijab itself to drape on than hair which is pretty slippery.

I got two for 5 SAR each and man does it make a huge difference. I don’t think I’ll use them just going to and from school because there’s no point, but when I’m going shopping, especially if I’m walking in lots of wind, its great to know I have an easy way to keep the darn thing from slipping out of place and won’t have to be fighting with it every 5 minutes to hide my hair again.

The shisha pipe was more challenging. I’d tried to find one in Tabuk to no avail, and I’d asked some folks online who lived in Jeddah where to go, but really didn’t get any solid answers (you know, like an actual store name and Saudi version of address) just vague areas of town, or even whole roads with no cross streets. Google was also no help, since as I observed previously, most businesses aren’t registered with them, so don’t show up in searches or on maps.

After almost 4 hours of wandering the Balad neighborhood and various souqs without spotting a single shisha, I finally decided to bite the bullet and ask for directions. Its not that I’m opposed to asking for directions. I love asking for directions, but cultural barriers such as language, gender and people trying to sell me stuff I don’t want made me hesitant to talk to anyone in the souq.

I picked out one of the home wares shopkeepers, figuring his livelihood relied less on tourists than on regulars, and tried my Arabic, amounting to the very complex sentence “where shisha?”. Hard to mess that one up. He seemed surprised (women don’t often smoke in public), and repeated shisha? miming the act of smoking the water pipe. Nam, yes. I replied. He did some pointing and gesturing while describing directions in Arabic I had no hope of understanding, but the gestures were clear, go back up this road and turn left. So I thanked him, figuring that if all else failed, I would ask directions again in a couple blocks.

As it turns out, they were excellent directions. I took the first left and almost immediately ran into a small shisha shop. The men inside were very young, they looked like high schoolers, and I assumed their family must own the shop for them to be working in it. One of them spoke very good English and they were quite pleased to help me out.

The young man made sure that his compatriots didn’t short weigh the shisha tobacco I bought, made sure to take apart and reassemble the pipe so I could see how it worked, and threw in some foil. I don’t know if I should have haggled, or if I could have gotten a better price, but I got the pipe with a nice hard-sided/padded interior carrying case, a half kilo of shisha, a huge box of coconut husk coals, and a box of shisha foil for less than 30 USD, and they were nice, so I’m not going to complain.

My missions all accomplished, sight seeing and shopping, I legged it over to a larger road to catch a taxi back to the hotel. Definitely a place worth wandering around. Pretty sure you can buy anything that’s for sale in the Kingdom here, and its pretty. I didn’t get to see the Museum because it was closed by the time I found it, but it gives me something to look forward to on another trip.

The Taxis: A Week in Jeddah

October 7, 2014June 3, 2017 / Gallivantrix / 6 Comments

Taxis. Taxis are a government monitored car service that can get non driving folks from one place to another. They operate differently in every country, and most cities on earth. There’s a huge controversy in many countries as “private” services like Lyft and Uber edge in on the taxi market, and while the argument is supposed to be about how expensive it is to maintain ‘high’ standards of safety and insurance for the taxi companies, the fact is, I don’t know anyone who takes Uber because its cheaper. They prefer these private car services because they are faster, cleaner and more pleasant experiences. So if the taxis wanna get back in the market, they need to stop being dirty, late, scamming skeezers and start providing a service people want to pay for. OMG market competition.

So far in life, my favorite place to take a taxi is Beijing. This might be changing, because the last time I was there it was much harder to flag down a taxi without a phone app. But the reasons I liked them: the meter was very clearly visible and used for all short in city trips; it was common to sit in the front seat with the driver so you could see where you were going clearly; the drivers were consistently friendly, curious people who never made me feel uncomfortable or in danger; if you ever wanted to negotiate for a longer drip or a driver to wait for you, you could go off meter and negotiate.

I don’t like taxis in the US for the most part. Outside of New York and DC, you pretty much have to call one and wait around for it to show up, so I don’t use them much.

There are no taxis in Tabuk to speak of. I’m told there might be some at the airport, and the internet says there are taxi companies here, but I never see them on the road. If I want to go anywhere here, I rely on the school driver or I walk to the mall two blocks away.

I thought it would be refreshing to have access to taxi transportation in Jeddah, that it would make it easier for me to play tourist and see all the fun things. To that extent, I’m sure it is true. If I’d had to find a private driver for the week it would have complicated things. My schedule would have had to have been more rigid, and I might have ended up missing out on things or sitting around waiting a lot. So, in this respect, access to taxis in a country where I’m not allowed to drive because of my ovaries is pretty neat.

But holy howling monkies, Batman! They are complete jerks!

Understand that Saudis don’t drive their own taxis, so every one of these men is a foreigner who came to this country because he can make more money than at home. They don’t much like the Saudis and all of them are looking for a way up the next rung on the ladder. In addition, for reasons I’m still not clear on, the taxis in Jeddah have no meters. Supposedly, last fall there was supposed to be mandated meter legislation, but I guess it didn’t happen. This means that you have to negotiate a price for your trip with the driver.

On to the stories.

The Marriage Proposal

I got picked up from the airport by someone else from our company that I had met a couple weeks earlier, so my first taxi experience was actually on my second day in Jeddah when I wanted to go to the beach. Several issues here, not the least of which was that I didn’t really know where this beach resort was. I told the driver I wanted to go to La Plage, and he said ok, so I got in. He started driving and called a friend of his who spoke English, however, as it turns out, neither of them had heard of the place. So we went back to the hotel so I could try to find it online with the wifi.

I found a place called La Fontaine La Plage, and thought that was it, so we set out again. I thought the drive was going ok, but when we finally got there, it was the wrong place. I called my buddy who lived in Jeddah and had given me the tickets to the beach and we spent the next 15 minutes or so trying to track where I was by landmark to where we needed to be. The beach, being a private resort, had no name sign or address. I thought the driver was being very helpful and patient, driving up and down the road, stopping occasionally to ask other folks for directions.

We finally got there, and he asked what time he should come back to pick me up. So far, I’d been pleased with the ride. He seemed nice, was helpful in getting me to a hard to find place, and I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to get a driver to come all the way back out to the beach, so we agreed on 7pm (also known in Saudi time as ‘after Maghrib’) and exchanged numbers in case I needed to change plans.

He called me at about quarter to 7 to say he was there, and we headed back into town. On the trip back he was much chattier. Despite the fact that he did not speak much English. He started talking about America and how great it was and something about a visa. Then came the akward part.

This is like a 50 minute drive, by the way, so I’m stuck in the car with this guy. He says some combination of English and Arabic that I’m reasonably sure means he’s asking me to marry him, but I decide to not understand. The one and only time in my life I have ever been upset about the existence of Google happens here, because on its own, the conversation might have just stopped there. However, he whips out his smart phone and opens Google Translate to try again.

This time I cannot pretend not to understand, so I laugh because my only other option is to get angry miles from another taxi. I say no, and pull out my own Google Translate to make that clear. The next 20 minutes or so is a really good example of why Google Translate won’t replace human translators. First because a lot of people aren’t actually literate in Arabic even when they speak it with native proficiency so Google doesn’t recognize the words, and second because there are just too many nuances to adequately translate all but the simplest phrases from non-related language groups.

So he tries to hit on me some more, I don’t know how you change a girl’s mind about marriage in a taxi ride, but he tried. Most of the Google translate stuff game up as complete garbldy gook in Roman letters, not even English words, just a mess, so I was at least able to go back to not understanding. I’d stare at the phone and say, “no English”.

Finally we got back to my hotel, and he tried to vastly over-charge me for the ride. I thought it was pretty darn foolish of him, after all, he’d already done the driving and hadn’t gotten me to agree on a price. Moreover, he’d been very socially inappropriate which could have gotten him in big trouble if I’d reported him. Lucky for him, I guess, I wasn’t jaded enough to be so mean yet. So I paid him less than he wanted, but more than he deserved and got out.

The touchy-feeley guy

Another night, coming back to the hotel, I got an even more outrageously skeezy guy. I had at this point decided to make sure I got the fare agreed on in advance, but I’ve only been in Saudi a month, and I’m still not in the habbit of refusing handshakes. I’m working on it, but its a lifetime reflex that I have to overcome here. Plus, in Beijing, I really enjoyed chatting with the taxi drivers, so the social reprogramming needed to cope with Saudi taxis was simply not in place.

It was a very short trip and he tried to as for way too much money, we haggled for a bit then came to 13. I know Arabic speakers have trouble with 13 and 30 from teaching them, so I checked, I repeated it, 13 and said one-three. He said ok, I got in.

The guy went through a similar chat about America, are you married, you’re so pretty, etc. At some point he either realized he made a number mistake or just changed his mind and said the fare was 30, three-zero, to which I said no. No changing the fare once I’m in the cab.

Once we reached the hotel, I gave him 20 SAR, because I didn’t have change and didn’t feel like arguing. He took the opportunity of reaching back for the money to brush my leg, and I did get upset at that point, pushing his hand away and raising my voice. He tried to ask for more money again and I refused, holding out the 20 which was still more than the 13 we’d agreed on. Then he puckered up his lips and leaned more into the back seat, trying to get a kiss. Fortunately he didn’t do anything as stupid as try to touch me again, but it made me feel absolutely gross. I pushed the money at him and got out with what I am sure was the purest look of disgust I’ve ever had on my face, then went to my room and spent like an hour talking to friends in the US to calm down before walking out to diner.

The Lazy Liar

Much shorter story, but as I began learning more about negotiating fares and how to act (or not act) in a taxi, my behavior started to change accordingly. I wanted to go to Al Balad souq for the evening and talked a taxi into a 15 SAR fare. In the most passive aggressive way possible, he took me to the very edge of what could be considered Al Balad and claimed he couldn’t get in because the roads were blocked. While the road he stopped at was indeed blocked, there were plenty of cars driving in and out of Balad, so this was a clear lie and a way for him to get more fare for less driving. Not a happy camper, me.

The Wandering Driver

So, at this point I’ve gotten to know the neighborhood and nearest landmarks to my hotel, so I can say them to the drivers. I also can pull up Google maps and show them where I want to go, because the map works pretty well even without any wifi, you just can’t get a route or directions, but you can still see the map. So I tell the driver, show the driver and negotiate a price, then get in the taxi.

After a while, I can see he’s going the wrong way, so I tell him so and show him again on the map. He starts arguing with me (I can’t understand most of the words, but the tone is pretty clear) along the lines of what the hell. I point again to the map, but I’m pretty angry by now and am only yelling in English like a dumb American that this is what I showed him before, and if he didn’t know where it was, why the hell did he tell me to get in the taxi?

When he looks more closely at the map, he then demands more money than we agreed on, which I also refuse, since I’d showed him the map before we agreed on a price and its not my fault if he didn’t understand it or try to ask any questions.

The yelling goes on for a while before he finally tells me in broken English to change taxis. Fine, I say, and open the door. He tried to get me to pay him for the ride so far, and you know, on my first day in Jeddah I might have given him something, believing it was an honest mistake or trying to be nice, but after several days of jerk drivers I’ve completely had it. On top of which, we aren’t even near any place where I’ll be able to catch another taxi at this point, so I refuse to give him any money, pointing at my map again, and get out.

I walked for several blocks of dark empty city before coming to a little strip mall area where I could catch another taxi back to my hotel. Not fun.

The Nice Guy

Lest you think every single taxi driver in Jeddah is a scamming, skeezy douchbag, there were a couple neutral rides and there was one nice guy.

I’d decided after the above experiences that I needed to wear my Hijab when taking a taxi to avoid the impression of being ‘loose’, and to lie about the fact that that I’m not married (which I hate and may talk more about another time). This did get me a couple of less unpleasant taxi rides which do not bear remarking on in any detail except that one of them commented on my hijab saying that too many American women showed their hair and he was pleased to see me covering.

I don’t know if the nice guy was responding to my behavior or if he was just nice, but it was a short ride, and I’d given in at 30 SAR even though I knew it was too much because I was tired and hot. He talked to me, but respectfully, and when we arrived at my hotel and I handed him the 30, he gave me 10 back, saying it was too much and wishing me a good evening with a pleasant smile which I was happy to return.

The Lost on a Straight Road Guy

Finally, on my last day in Jeddah, I wanted to go back to La Plage. Now I knew where it was, could point to it on a map and had a basic understanding of how much it should cost to get there. So armed, I donned my hijab, pulled up my map and flagged a taxi.

I showed him the map, pointing to an empty stretch of coastline where the private beach lay. He questioned me about its name, and I told him, knowing it would do no good, then pointed to the spot on the map again. He took some time to look at the map. Its a straight shot up a single road. The road changes names a few times, from Al Andalus to King Abdul Aziz to Prince Abdullah Al Fiasal, but its really one big highway that follows the coast around a little inlet and into Obhur. No weird turns, no complicated switchbacks. I think I could have followed it without GPS and I get lost in the city I’ve lived in 10 years.

We agree on 70 SAR which is kinda pricey, but not bad for white-person rates. He argues for higher saying that its over 40km, but we settle in the end. This is important later, that he knows its about 40 km away. Don’t forget.

He chats me up, I’m very distant without being directly rude. Talk about my “husband” repeatedly. He tells me he’s Egyptian, and women in his country don’t have to wear abaya and hijab. He asks if we can be friends, and by now I know that’s a bad sign so I politely say no, we cannot be friends because men and women in Saudi can’t be friends. He tells me its no problem because he is not Saudi he is Egyptian. I tell him no a few more times before the message really sticks. Remember this is a long drive.

Partway there, on the long stretch of highway where there are no turn offs at all, he pulls off on the side of the road, acting like he’s lost. I show him the map again, indicating the little blue dot that is us, and the stretch of beach I want to go to that is further on the road we are on. He continues to act confused. Which is the lamest act I’ve seen in a while. Eventually a cop pulls up beside us. So he explains that he’s got this American in the car who doesn’t speak Arabic and he’s trying to figure out where I want to go.

Seriously, are maps that hard to read? Is this some magical skill my father passed on to me on our family summer road trips? Its not even a paper map, there’s this blue dot that represents where we are! He takes my tablet over to the cop car to show him the map and they talk for a while but I can’t hear them.

Finally he comes back and heads out again. He indicates that I should tell him to stop when we get there, as though that were not my plan already.

When we finally arrive, he doesn’t even pull around to get me to the gate, and he tries to demand more money, acting like he had to drive so much farther than we’d originally agreed on. The fact that our little blue dot is exactly where I pointed to before I got in the taxi, and that his original argument for a higher fare included the distance he now tried to claim ignorance of made the attempt astonishingly pathetic.

There is of course no way I’m asking him to come back to pick me up in the evening. Which leads me to…

UBER

I don’t know what my resistance to using Uber was. I think they were along the lines of I don’t have a smart phone or bank account in Saudi yet. The lack of smart phone makes using the Uber app a little harder because I would be limited to being able to use it only where there was wi-fi which is unreliable in Saudi. The lack of a Saudi bank account means that I have to give Uber my US credit card, which I don’t like because its a pain to get my Saudi salary to my US bank account until I get the bank account here set up. Not impossible, just a pain. I really wanted to use my Saudi salary to take this vacation, and I think I got a little irrationally attached to the idea.

If it hadn’t been a mere three weeks since my arrival in Saudi, these obstacles would not have existed, and I might have been spared all these fantastic taxi experiences. As it was, I finally gave up on my last day and signed up for Uber from the restaurant at La Plage because I really couldn’t handle one more crappy taxi ride.

Once I was all done enjoying my day, I logged into the app and ordered my Uber car. I got a text immediately saying my driver had been dispatched and giving me an ETA. The app itself also showed me a picture of my driver, his name and they type of car he would be driving.

Only complaint was that the Uber estimation of the driver’s eta was off by quite a bit, it took almost 20 minutes longer than expected, but I was kind of way off the beaten track, so I was surprised at the original eta anyway, and I was in a resort while waiting, so not a hardship.

I got another text when the driver was a couple minutes away so I began to wrap up in my abaya and hijab and collect my things. The driver called and I told him to look for the green door and that I would be right out.

The gate guard also wouldn’t leave me until he saw that I had a car, which was nice since its a pretty empty stretch of road.

The car was cleaner and newer than the taxis. The driver had provided cold bottled water in the back seat for his passengers, and he didn’t try to talk to me at all. Its a little sad, because I like meeting people and exchanging ideas, but the reality is, this simply isn’t possible between men and women outside very structured work or school environments in Saudi. So in this case it was a relief to be able to relax on the drive and not have to worry about where the conversation was going or what consequences I would have to deal with for rebuffing advances.

He pulled right up to the door of my hotel, and we never once had to talk about price or exchange money since Uber simply calculates the rate based on GPS, charges my card and emails me a receipt. I actually tipped this driver because I was so relieved by the entire experience.

The Uber charge was 110 SAR. I’d paid 150 SAR for the same ride on my first day, and 70SAR for the ride to the beach that morning, so while its possible I could have saved a few dollars haggling with a taxi, I feel that the security and comfort of the ride, the courtesy of the driver and the simple fact that I didn’t have to argue or haggle or anything was definitely worth a little extra cash.

I took Uber to the airport the next morning as well, and had an equally pleasant ride, similarly paying only slightly more than most people said was normal for an airport taxi.

Live and learn.

What I Learned

Women travelling alone are more vulnerable in Saudi, even in places where its not completely abnormal. I found that when I was in public spaces like the Corniche or a restaurant that I could doff my hijab with no trouble and no change in the way people around me acted toward me. However, when I was in a taxi, wearing the hijab seemed to make a measurable difference in the amount of harassment I received, even if it did not eliminate it altogether.

If you must take a taxi, make sure they really know where they are going and agree on a price before you get in the car. The drivers would say ok and gesture me to get in even when they had no idea where we were going, and then start driving and try to change prices while we were on the road. Any wiggle room that they have to say they didn’t know what you meant will be exploited, so make sure that you’re as clear as possible before you get in.

If you have a smart phone/wi fi use Uber or another car service with set fares and more accountability. Since the drivers are assigned and recorded electronically, its much easier to lodge complaints if they are problematic, so they have more reason to offer good professional service. It might cost a little more, but its worth it, and you’ll never be ripped off, since again, the route is recorded and if they try to drive in circles to get you someplace, you can show the discrepancy in the route they took and the optimum route on the map.

Never let adversity stop you from having an awesome adventure. Live life for the great stories you’ll tell later on. Don’t stay angry, but don’t let being kind make you a doormat. Be excellent to each other and party on. 🙂

The Attractions: A Week in Jeddah

October 7, 2014March 5, 2019 / Gallivantrix / 1 Comment

There are tons of attractions and activities in Jeddah. Here’s a brief review of the few I managed to get to. As always, if you want to see all the pics, check out the albums on my Facebook Page.

King Fahad Fountain

This is the tallest fountain of its kind in the world. It shoots a jet of sea water something like 1000 feet up into the air creating a stunning waterfall from heaven. It sits out in the sea and isn’t something you can walk up to. The Park Hyatt hotel has a stunning view of the fountain, and most of the Middle Corniche Park affords a changing view of the pillar of water.

It was beautiful to watch it change as the sun set and the flood lights at the base came on to illuminate it by night. Several times I just stopped everything else I was doing to watch the patterns of the water as it danced in the wind on its way back down to the sea.

Al Shallal Theme Park

This is one of many theme/amusement parks scattered throughout Jeddah. Actually, it seems like every shopping mall has some kind of mini-amusment park area even here in Tabuk, mostly geared at kids since malls are a big draw to mom’s with kids in tow.

The Corniche in Jeddah has several places that give top billing to the amusement side rather than the mall side, and Al-Shallal has the tallest double loop roller coaster on the Asian continent (according to Wikipedia). Also, acording to their website and to my site director, Tuesday nights are Ladies Night and so I thought I’d go check it out.

Now, I’ve been to both coasts of Disney, California Adventures, Epcot, Universal, Six Flags and Cedar Point, so I am not new to the theme park/roller coaster experience. I’m not claiming to be an expert, but I do have some basis for comparison.

First, whatever Ladies Night was meant to be, I think it failed. My SD said it was women only and abaya free, like the women’s side of the school, but there were plenty of men around and all the women were still dressed in abaya and hijab. This was a little frustrating, since a large chunk of why I decided to go was the pleasant idea of an outdoor park adventure with the same level of female freedom that we had inside the school grounds. Maybe they cancelled it, maybe it changed nights, its really hard to tell, but if you’re looking to have a Ladies Night outting, I’d find someone who speaks really good Arabic and call first.

Second, its about 1/3 mall. I know that all the other parks I mentioned are highly comercial and covered in little places trying to sell you stuff, but they aren’t actually malls, and they make an attempt to sell things that are in line with the theme of the… well, theme park, so you get Disney stuff at Disney parks and Warner Bros stuff at Six Flags, and often they have some stuff you can’t get anywhere besides the theme park, and some quite beautiful high quality products among the cheap souvenirs.

This is an actual two story mall. The shops include clothing, perfume, jewelry and toys, none of which are what we think of as theme specific, and the only souvenir items were the custom printed t-shirt kiosks and the lady walking around charging to take pics with the copy written theme park characters of other parks. I could just imaging there’s a team of Disney lawyers who feel a strange itch they can’t identify every time fake Mickey and Minnie pose with a small Saudi child here. The rest of it is just shops and food court places with a huge ice skating rink in the middle.

There is one ride that is inside the mall area called the Amazon which is a water type ride, but only has one short fall. The attendant advised me to sit in the back so my abaya wouldn’t get soaked.

Outside, there are more restaurants and food kiosks in between the rides. The roller coaster and most of the nice restaurants surround a little lake where people can take boats out. Wikipedia says its divided into geographical themes, like the Amazon and China and Europe, but I didn’t really notice that. There were definitely some Chinese themed rides, the tea cups and a Chinese dragon circular ride, and there was the Amazon, but if there were meant to be themes or distinct areas, they weren’t obvious.

However, this doesn’t mean that Al-Shallal isn’t fun. Its a cute little park with a pretty decent roller coaster. The mall is a great place to cool off between rides, since the high walls keep the sea breeze out. The unlimited rides wristband is 55 SAR, and each ride is about 15 SAR without it, so if you intend to ride a 4th anything, the wristband is worth it.

As it turns out, heat, humidity and abayas when combined with spinny rides is a recipe for an upset tummy. As a consequence, I spent about 30 minutes sitting in the AC mall section between each ride, which allowed me to cool off and forestall any severe nausea. Fortunately, they’re open till like 130 am.

I rode an octopus ride, the giant swing, the Amazon water ride, the pirate ship, and the roller coaster twice, once from the very front and once from the very back. I avoided the bumper cars and assorted children’s rides, as well as anything supper spinny, also the deadfall and bungee rides.

The rides were mostly ok. Better than a fair, but definitely a sort of low end generic amusement ride. The Amazon water ride was better than average, although the stories online about life sized animals was total bunk. The plastic jungle critters were about a foot high, but the lighting was low. There was only one drop, so it was less flume ride and more boat ride, but nice.

The roller coaster was a blast. The cars are pulled up backwards to the very top then dropped back down the incline into the double loop and twist before heading back up the paired incline, dragged all the way up then rushed through the whole thing backwards. Going in the front seat afforded a better feeling ride, but the end seat gave a really awesome view not only of the whole park and the sea just beyond the wall, but of everyone else enjoying the ride.

There was an unusual amount of happy screaming on all the rides there. I noticed that people often started screaming in the roller coaster just as it was being pulled up before the real action even started. After a while it occurred to me that this might be one of the few places where its ok for many of these people to express joy and excitement so loudly and ebulliently.

Even on the Corniche where people were clearly enjoying themselves, they were much more subdued. With no bars, few night clubs, and limited public sporting events, all of the ways that I’m used to getting loud and silly at home just don’t exist as an option here. So, that was kind of neat.

Also, I must not neglect to mention the gelato shop. I’d seen some pictures of it online while researching the park, and that was a pretty neat treat stand, different from the regular fries and pizzas. Fresh fruit gelatos, chocolate and nutella gelatos, and optional chocolate coatings. I guess I could have eaten it in the air conditioning, but walking around with a delicious icy treat on a stick trying to eat it before the heat melts it is a rather quintessential part of the amusement park experience, right?

Al Rahma Floating Mosque

This is called the Floating Mosque or Mosque on the Sea because it is built up on pillars so that only one edge of the building is on the shore, and the rest of it is over the water. I understand at high tide the mosque actually looks like its floating in the water. Unfortunately, high tide that day was at 1:30 in the afternoon, which is possibly the most miserable time to be outside in Jeddah, so would have been stopping by long enough to snap some photos and hop back in a cab. I decided instead to go for sunset and Maghrib prayer, even though it was nearly low tide by then.

I do not regret my decision. First, as I may have mentioned before, watching the sunset on the Red Sea just simply does not get old. Secondly, watching the sea and sunset colors reflected in the white mosque was really beautiful. And thirdly, even though I am not Muslim myself, I really enjoy being near sacred rituals of any sort, and being at the Mosque for sunset prayer was itself a unique experience.

On my second circuit, I noticed a sign that reminded everyone that this mosque was no more special than any other mosque and to please let others know all mosques are equal. At first I thought that was kind of cool, since every church and temple tourist attraction I’ve seen goes to great lengths to point out why its special and worth visiting (read giving money to). This doesn’t make them bad, they need money to operate, and often are preserving history and culture that would be lost without tourism. However, for a tiny moment, the thought of humility pleased me, until I realized that it was a really underhanded way to say “our holy place is special” at the same time as saying “see how humble we are about it”. Oh well. Still a cool place.

There were of course separate entrances for men and women, but the outside walkways seemed open to all. There were beautiful archways and a single tall tower beside the main dome. As everyone gathered to the call, I found a quiet spot overlooking the sea and listened to the sermon being broadcast from inside the central prayer area. It was very peaceful.

Fakieh Aquarium

Mostly because it was this or a shopping mall. I don’t mind malls, but we have them in Tabuk, and I’m not extra impressed by larger malls with bigger shops (Mall of America doesn’t do it for me), so I didn’t put malls high on my to do list in Jeddah. However, the daytime is hot and boring. Its too hot to do any outdoor activity until nearly sunset, and most things are closed until after Asr. The malls open around 10-11 am, and the Aquarium opened around the same time (except Friday, when it opened a little later).

So I went to the Aquarium, hoping perhaps to see some of the fish and corals that I swam among out at La Plage. Not really. The displays are very pretty, though. It was a little difficult without a smart phone, since the descriptions for each display were actually just QR codes. A neat idea, and yet one more reason not to go to Jeddah without a smartphone.

There were pretty fish, a really cool tunnel through a giant tank (I really love those things). A sea turtle there took a liking to me and followed me around while I enjoyed the tunnel. He even posed for some pictures. There was a cool seahorse display. Those are some seriously curious critters. They came up to me right away and followed me around the tank as I moved, coming right up to the glass to get a good look.

There was a nifty shark tank. I recognized most of them, but there was one that basically looked like Pyramid Head Shark, and I have no idea what that was, but the internet says it might have been a guitarfish. I like Pyramid Head Shark better.

A nice aquarium, to be sure, although I was a little disappointed that the local coral reefs weren’t better represented, I got to see some pretty cool fishes. There was a dolphin and seal show, but between the timing and the controversy over their animals, I didn’t go.

There’s a crazy fancy expensive restaurant in the same compound as the aquarium. You can do one without the other, but lunch was buffet only so I passed. Just up the Corniche is a little area with a Starbucks and a fro-yo place, a short walk to a nice place to get a snack and kill time until the sun goes away.

The Restaurants: A Week in Jeddah

October 6, 2014March 5, 2019 / Gallivantrix / 2 Comments

Staying in a hotel means not cooking for yourself for a while, so naturally, I tried a lot of restaurants. The heat and quantity of food did mean that I usually only went into 2 a day, but since I hate fast food, I did get a pretty good culinary cross section. One piece of advice, bring your own water. In Saudi, water isn’t free. In fact, even the cheap water costs more than the gasoline, and restaurants will charge 10-30 SAR for something you can get for 1-2 SAR in the convenience store or from your hotel concierge. I didn’t go walking without a bottle because of the heat, so I often still had some by the time I got into a restaurant and not one of them complained. Plus, then I could use the money I saved to get one of the delicious juice, tea or coffee drinks 🙂

Indian

My first night in Jeddah, I had a long walk along the Corniche just outside my hotel. I didn’t really want to stay out any longer because I was pretty tired and wanted to get up early the next day, so I popped into an Indian restaurant on the way back. I don’t know the name and can’t find it on a map, but its pretty hard to miss if you’re walking between the Hyatt and the Corniche park area.

I got myself a veggie korma and some naan and headed back to the hotel. Important side note, the restaurants here don’t give you plastic eating utensils. They sort of assume that folks are just taking the food home to eat, I guess. So I had to improvise a spoon out of the foil, yay girl scout training! Also, good food.

BBQ

img_20141001_232826 On my way back I’d spotted a BBQ restaurant and figured I’d try it another night. I think BBQ might be international code for “meat cooked over fire”. We have an assumption about BBQ in America that involves a sweet yet tart sauce, but this place seemed like it was trying to represent the BBQ of every nation on earth focusing on America, Brazil and the Mediterranean.

I got the lamb chops with mint BBQ sauce and a side of grilled veggies. It was quite excellent. No room for desert, but I finished off the night with a turkish coffee, lightly spiced with cardamom.

Cafe Aroma

This might be my favorite restaurant in Jeddah (close to a tie with the Marina). The restaurant itself is built to mimic an outdoor garden cafe. Its divided by little stone walls, fountains and trellises, and the ceiling is inset and painted to look like a beautiful blue sky. It gives the illusion of sitting in a cool oasis while allowing one to escape the heat and humidity.

The menu is varied, mostly Western style food with a few traditional dishes. There are breakfasts, salads, pizzas, pastas and entrees of meat and fish. I had the Shakshouka on my first visit. Its a poached egg dish with tomatoes and onions. As my culinarily inclined US roomie pointed out, it might be impossible to find an egg and tomato dish that I don’t like. Another meal I had a sort of chicken stir fry and a green mint tea.

I also had some coffee and tiramisu for dessert. The tiramisu was actually served in a portion size that was slightly smaller than my coffee cup, which was refreshing because I’m so tired of American oversized but underflavored desserts. This one was a taste explosion in every bite, although I’m sure they had to use a non-alcoholic beverage to soak the ladyfingers.

The staff are attentive and polite without being obsequious. The food is really good, plentiful and reasonably priced. Its possible to eat healthy there, which is not always easy here in the land of meat and starch. The atmosphere is soothing and you can spend a few hours lingering over a meal either while waiting for the sun to drop low enough to walk the Corniche, or unwinding and cooling down after a night exploring the town.

The Marina

This one is the close runner for favorite. Just a teeny walk south of the Park Hyatt (like half a block) there is a building set back a bit from the road. Apparently they use this for art exhibits and business expos, but if you walk through it, you reach the Marina and Yacht Club. There’s a lovely restaurant there where you can eat indoors or stay on the balcony overlooking the water and the people walking below.

I had two separate people recommend this place to me when they heard my hotel was near the Hyatt, one among the group of South Africans I’d met on my first night on the Corniche, and the other a Palestinian lady I met at the beach. So I decided I should definitely check it out.

img_20140929_211600 In addition to the stunning view, there is a fabulous (if expensive) menu and a great shisha menu too. I got myself a veggie pizza and a lemon mint shisha. The food was good, but this wasn’t a surprise. The shisha is really what I want to talk about.

In the US, any time I’ve had a hooka, its been with these pre-packaged, kind of dried out cubes of tobacco. Here the shisha is a goopy sticky mess of molasses, flavor and tobacco– fresh. The shisha was brought out in a large hooka pipe, and the waiter placed a new plastic disposable mouthpiece at the end of the hose and pipe handle. This was pretty cool because it allowed them to use these high quality hookas without having to worry about cross contamination.

The shisha was delicious, and there were a fleet of coal bearing shisha attendants who circled around making sure we all had fresh coals, and blowing the ash out of the dishes to keep the shisha as fresh as possible. After a while I got myself an iced mocha. Most places seem to equate ‘iced’ with ‘blended’ and this was no different, but the quality of the chocolate and the coffee was much higher.

They were having a promo on the shisha to buy one get one free, so I ended up staying until almost 2am watching the people walking on the waterfront below, reading my book, sipping my coffee and smoking shisha. Cost me around 55$ US for the diner, the coffee and the shisha and probably about 4 hours of relaxing evening.

Additionally, I’m told they have a great brunch deal at 11am that includes a full breakfast and a shisha for something like 180 SAR, which is a pretty good deal.

Park Hyatt

Right next to the Marina, and probably much more famous is the Park Hyatt. It seemed like a must do for the trip, so on my last night in Jeddah, I headed over to the Hyatt for diner and shisha. I compare this to the Marina because they are similarly located and offer similar services.

The food at the Hyatt is downright gourmet awesome. I splurged on the salmon. Now, I’m a good cook, not a chef or anything, but I like my food to taste good, so I learned how. Most of the time a restaurant is just a place that makes food I could make, but don’t want to be bothered to. Every so often, however, there is a meal that makes you remember why it is culinary art. The last one of these for me was that little diner off the Oregon coast on my Thor’s Well camping trip. The Park Hyatt was another.

Starting from the bread. Fresh and made on site if I’m any judge. It wasn’t right out of the oven, but was likely less than an hour old. There was a light dusting of flour from the baking process and a light taste of sourdough that made me believe the dough had been well rested and even slightly fermented before baking. It was hard to resist filling up on the bread alone while waiting for my meal.

I’m picky about salmon. The Red Sea is famous for its seafood, so I decided the chefs here should have a clue. They managed to serve me a slice of salmon filet that was still moist even on the thin edges. The fish was so lightly breaded it was just a thin crust of crumbs and herbs that gave a light contrast to the texture and flavor of the fish without overwhelming it. The potatoes were tiny fingerlings sliced in half and pan fried with rosemary and sundried tomatoes. Accents included a small scoop of caviar and a kind of white cream sauce. I alternated combinations to see how the flavors blended. Not a meal you want to talk or read through, because it might distract some of your attention away from your taste buds.

img_20141004_224831 I did not have room for desert, but I stepped out onto the terrace for coffee and shisha. The Park Hyatt has the best view of the King Fahad fountain around. The outdoor seating area is right on the water and includes a small decorative pool, a couch lounging area, and a dining table area. There are outdoor air conditioners to keep the dining area cooler and drier than the surrounding areas. In this respect, it outdoes the Marina with an even more stunning view and a cooler environment that is not dependent on the sea breeze.

However, I think I’d still go back to the Marina if shisha and coffee was my goal. The coffee at the Hyatt was quite nice, but not quite as good, and I think they may be the only place other than Starbucks that actually served coffee over ice instead of blended. However, the shisha menu was much more limited in flavors, only about 1/4 the options as the Marina. Also, when the hooka was brought out they used a disposable hose, rather than just a mouthpiece, which meant that the hose and handle were all plastic. Maybe that’s more hygenic? I’m not entirely sure, but I can say that the feel of the full weight hose and handle are much more appealing than the plastic.

All told, the Hyatt is a great place for a delicious meal with a great view, a decadent indulgence.

Sushi Yoshi

I passed a little sushi place on my way back from the Corniche on my first night and decided I really needed to have Sushi in Jeddah. So, Tuesday afternoon [redacted] and [redacted] came to take me to dinner and we went to Sushi Yoshi. Turns out this is a small chain, so we didn’t go to the one by my hotel, but rather one up on the north end of the Corniche that overlooked the sea. The family section was on the second floor, so we actually had a really great view.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from a chain sushi joint in Saudi, even in a coastal city, but it turned out to be quite delicious. I’d say mid-range price, reasonable for the quality and quantity of food. I’m a little spoiled by our conveyor belt sushi in Seattle, but really, 30-35$ per person for a large sushi dinner is pretty good.

Also, I don’t think I could ever get tired of eating dinner on the ocean front. Ever.

La Plage

I’ll talk more about the beach itself in another post, but La Plage beach had a restaurant as well. The prices are about what you’d expect from a nice restaurant, possibly a little on the low side for a private resort, on par with Aroma and less expensive than Hyatt.

I chose the Oriental (by which they meant Middle Eastern) breakfast and logged into the wifi. A delicious meal of sliced tomatoes, some kind of pickled vegetable, fresh cheese, labneh – this creamy yogurt stuff that’s like a halfway point between cream cheese and sour cream, some beans in a tart sauce, mint leaves, olives and pita. Everything came in separate little dishes so I could mix and match. Who knew mint and tomato were such a great combo? I made a little wrap with the cheese, tomatoes and mint and it was so yum! The rich cream was a nice compliment to the tart beans, and the olives and pickled veggies were little refreshing bites in between. I admit, with the whole day before me, I lingered a long time over this meal, chatting to folks online and savoring the flavors and the view.

Later in the day I came in for some snacks and an iced (blended) coffee. I’m pretty sure they put frozen whipped cream on my coffee. Ridiculously good.

On the weekend, apparently they also have a sushi menu, but it was really expensive, and I’d already had my sushi fix for the week, so I stuck to the regular menu.

I think if I lived in Jeddah I’d have to find a way to learn to sleep after work so I could go out late at night to enjoy the Marina, and I’d never save any money from going to La Plage every weekend. I might also gain 30 lbs even if I did go for a walk on the Corniche every night. *Sigh, but it was nice while it lasted.

The Corniche: A Week in Jeddah

October 6, 2014March 5, 2019 / Gallivantrix / 2 Comments

The Corniche is described as a 30km long costal resort area. I had this sort of image in my head of a really long non-vice ridden version of Burbon street or the Las Vegas strip covered in lights, hotels, restaurants and sea side attractions. The reality is not quite the same.

There are stretches of the Corniche which are quite lovely. They have long walkways dotted with refreshment stands which are more like Saudi fair food than anything else. There are some nice attractions too. It is totally worth dedicating a night to walking the waterfront, but it is really important to know where you’re going because the 30 km is not consistently covered with sidewalks, greenery and refreshment stands.

I ended up on the Corniche three times during my stay, in three different places:

The Middle Corniche

My hotel was right across from the Park Hyatt, which has the best view of the King Fahad fountain anywhere on the Corniche. On my first day in Jeddah, after settling into the hotel, I headed out just before sunset to be greeted with this fantastic view. I walked a couple blocks north to the Middle Corniche Park, which is a lovely greenbelt right on the sea.

Families came and set out picnic carpets (they didn’t use blankets, but rather area rugs), some people even brought mini barbecues to cook food. There were children playing in the surf and folks fishing off the shore. Bicycles, scooters, rollerbladers, kite flyers, and every other waterfront activity was out in full force. As I walked northward along the path, I enjoyed the changing view of the fountain and the city scape. The breeze off the ocean kept the heat and humidity from being too oppressive, nonetheless, I walked a really long way (about 4km each way) and was grateful for the Ish’a prayer break to just lay in the grass and rest.

There is a sculpture garden in this section of the Corniche which was very interesting. The Islamic religion prohibits the representation of humans and often of anything created by God, which is why so much Islamic art is geometric in nature. So the sculpture garden contains some very interesting (and apparently very expensive) works of impressionist and post-modern art. I must admit, I’m not a super fan of this style, but I found it really interesting how they decided to get around the prohibition of images while still creating a beautiful outdoor art display.

There is also a little mosque along the way called the Hassan Enany Mosque. It seems like the end of the path along the sea, but if you walk around the front of the mosque, there is still more sea front and grassy bits along the other side. Finally, the walk ends abruptly at a roundabout.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped for another rest and met a group of teachers from South Africa and we sat down in the grass and chatted for a while, sharing our experiences living and teaching in Saudi. A really great section of Corniche. In addition to the snack shacks along the walk, there are also lots of shopping and restaurants on the opposite side of the road, and of course the Park Hyatt and the Marina at the south end.

The North Corniche

I went out one day to see the Floating Mosque (more on this in the Attractions section), after which I figured I could have another lovely stroll along the Corniche, similar to the nice evening I had on my first day in town. It started out pretty good. The Corniche around the Mosque was occupied by picnicking families and I passed a little snack shack (that turned out to be the only one).

There wasn’t any grass and very few trees, but the sea was very impressive here. Waves that rolled in and hit the wall beside the walkway pushed back into new oncoming waves to make huge leaping crashes of spray. The water in the shallows was so clear that even by the light of the street lanterns alone I could see the bottom.

A very nice section of Corniche, and definietly different enough from the Middle area to be worth a separate visit, but this is where I learned to be more cautious about planning. See, I thought since the Corniche was this big famous thing, I could just wander along it until I got tired, then hail a taxi. This would probably have worked in the section near my hotel, but as I walked further and further south from the Mosque, I realized that there weren’t really any taxis around.

I pulled out the tablet to check on GPS what was around, but really, most of the businesses in Saudi aren’t registered properly on Google, so its hard to tell. I headed over toward the Belagio, thinking that it should be upscale enough to draw taxis, but alas, no.

I kept walking forward, basically thinking that I was more likely to find something in an unexplored direction than going back to the emptiness behind me. I passed another amusement park and a little fast food strip mall where I got a lemon mint gelato to help restore my energy and cool me off. But still no taxis.

I finally arrived at a little mini mall where I had gone to dinner with [redacted] and his wife a few days before. I knew that there was a bathroom and several coffee shops inside, and 5km in 98 degree high humidity weather is enough to make anyone tired, so I had a little rinse off in the bathroom and settled down with a nice ice blended coffee drink and my ebook until I felt cool and rested.

Not the only time I found myself wandering around trying to catch a taxi (more on this in the Taxis section), definitely a cautionary tale to the carless traveller in Jeddah. Don’t let the lack of transporation options deter you from seeing the cool stuff, but plan better than I did.

More North Corniche

Finally, after viewing the Aquarium (see Attractions section) I had another encounter with the Corniche. This was definitely the shortest walk I had, and probably the best planned (I can learn from my mistakes occasionally). There is a little Starbucks right on the water not far from the Aquarium, so after a brief lunch, I walked down to the waterfront. I’m not a huge Starbucks fan, being from Seattle I actually prefer local cafes, but I find that there’s a certain appeal to consistency when travelling, especially when the local kiosks all sell Nescafe instead of coffee from beans. I had to wait a little for the shops to open, so I walked the single km stretch, which included a swimming beach. Once the Starbucks opened, I took shelter from the heat of the sun with an iced americano.

About 30-45 minutes before the sun sets, it gets low enough in the sky that it isn’t glaring directly down on us all, and although the air is still warm, the lack of glaring sunlight and the sea breeze make the outdoors pleasant. This is the time of day families start arriving and setting up for a night of picnic dinners and sea side fun. I headed out into the soft outdoor couches of the cafe to watch the sunset over the sea, a sight I can’t believe will ever get old.

While the Middle Cornice has a peninsula across from it that makes the sea seem more like a bay or a sound, limited and bound by the lights on the far shore, the North Corniche is totally on wide open seafront, and the sunsets are especially stunning, although very difficult to capture on film.

Overall, the Corniche is pretty cool, but not at all like what my previous research on the internet made it seem to be. Make sure you bring water and a snack, and try to have Uber or a driver you can call instead of relying on passing taxis.

The Accommodation: A Week In Jeddah

October 6, 2014June 3, 2017 / Gallivantrix / 3 Comments

Several people recommended the Park Hyatt to me, but since I’m not really up for paying hundreds of dollars a night for a hotel yet, I checked out the area to find a better price in the same location. I found the Pearl Corniche Jeddah Hotel, which seemed like a great option, being only about a block away from the Park Hyatt and about a quarter the price.

This is kind of a personal decision, so you may want the super lux hotels, but I had not planned to be in the hotel except to sleep and bathe, and you can always wander over to the luxury hotels for a meal or even just to sit in the lounge with a cup of coffee. The advantage of being white is the assumption that you are valid customer in any luxury establishment here. And the advantage of the abaya is that you never have to worry about the fancy dress code requirements.

The Pearl was a little shabby, but the room was clean and there was wi-fi. For some reason, I don’t know if it was the quality of the AC there or the incredible humidity, even when the room was cool bordering on cold, it was still damp. Nothing dried out, which was kind of annoying since I would come back soaked in sweat or beach every night.

Additionally, there isn’t much to do in Jeddah (or anywhere in Saudi) until after Asr (the late afternoon prayer) so I found myself spending a bit more daytime in the hotel than I really wanted until I figured out what was in walking distance and indoors that would kill the hours (since I didn’t want to take taxis more than I had to, see the section on taxis).

I think that the hotel had services available for ordering food and arranging taxis, but the front desk people didn’t always speak much English, so I didn’t actually try to use the hotel services while I was there. Once they charged me for water, another time they said it was complimentary. I had trouble getting towels. There was soap and shampoo but no conditioner. Additionally, their credit card machine was broken on the way out, which turned out just to be the phone line unplugged, and made me late on the way to the airport.

I walked into the Intercontinental one night because I couldn’t seem to communicate directions with a taxi driver and he knew the name of that hotel which was next to mine, so I gave up trying. The thing is, he dropped me at the front door and I decided it was best to just go on in. I was looking for dinner anyway and thought it wouldn’t hurt to check out the restaurant.

Oh my goodness. The lobby seemed larger than my whole hotel, all glittering marble and chandeliers. I walked on through to the restaurant area, but it was very large and very empty, so I began to feel a bit uncomfortable surrounded by so much over the top glamour, I decided to hike it away to a slightly less palatial dining place.

Another evening I walked into the Hyatt on purpose to go to their restaurant. Beautiful place, excellent restaurant (although I didn’t get to try them all), and apparently a spa too. If you have the money, its probably a great place.

All in all, I think its a good decision to opt for a cheap hotel in a good neighborhood, and save the money to spend on food and attractions, but make sure that you know where you can go to kill time while you’re waiting for the nightlife to get going.

Overview: A Week in Jeddah

October 6, 2014March 5, 2019 / Gallivantrix / 1 Comment

Even though I’d only been in Saudi a mere three weeks, the Eid holiday was upon us, and I found myself with two weeks of vacation, and no Iqama (which meant no way to leave Saudi). All of my co-workers had travel plans of their own, and so I was on my own. I decided to go spend a week in Jeddah, the coastal city known for its liberal views and great beaches.

I thought about how best to present my experiences and have decided to break it down by category rather than do a day by day walk through. To keep you from being confronted with a giant wall of text that is a whole week’s adventure, this post is a general overview and basic impressions, and subsequent posts will have more detailed accounts of the week’s events. If you want to see all the pictures, check out my facebook page.

Overview

Flying into Jeddah, I got my first glimpse of the Red Sea from the air. Its a pretty drastic change from the desert that makes up most of Saudi Arabia. Jeddah, despite being the gateway to Mecca and where every Hajji starts their journey, has a pretty lame airport. There are no skyways, so the planes land out on the tarmac and everyone takes a bus back to the terminal. I actually saw a couple of guys dressed up in the Hajj toga, too.

The company I work for has programs all over the country. I’d met the director who lives in Jeddah a couple of weeks before when they visited our branch in Tabuk, and he kindly offered to pick me up at the airport, sparing me the onus of taxis for a while.

Since there are no addresses in Saudi, we had a little adventure finding the hotel, but I got checked in, and we took a little drive around the area, where I got to see the new world’s tallest flagpole too.

The weather in Jeddah is astonishingly hot and humid. I know Tabuk is in the north, and a little cooler than say, Riyadh, but it was still in the mid-high 90s every day since I arrived. I thought I was prepared for Jeddah, but woah. The humidity was like a bad day in the swamps of Louisiana. I couldn’t step outside without my glasses, tablet and camera all fogging up, and my skin instantly developing a sheen of sweat/condensation. Its not hard to understand why everyone waits until sunset to do anything there.

The fashion is definitely interesting. In Tabuk, all the ladies wear basic black abaya, hijab and niqab. I’ve been encouraged to dress similarly to avoid drawing attention. In Jeddah, ladies wear abayas with many colors and patterns. Some aren’t even black. While many ladies were still sporting the hijab and niqab combo, several were wearing brightly colored, loosely tied hijab and no veil at all, and some women simply didn’t bother covering their hair. Young teenage girls often let their abaya fall open in the front, revealing the jeans and fashion tees beneath. Even slightly older young women would wear skin colored leggings beneath the abaya so that when the bottom buttons “came undone” or they lifted the hem to step over something, it could seem scandalous without actually being so.

Over the course of several days, I realized that while I was free to leave my hair uncovered (a relief in the heat and humidity) it was really best if I only did so in highly populated public or guarded private areas. Being alone walking between one place and another, or heaven forefend in a taxi, the hijab provided a level of protection from unwanted attention. Once I got to an attraction or restaurant, there was no problem removing it.

The other strange thing I noticed was the severe line between the haves and have-nots. While this still exists in Tabuk, its less obvious in my neighborhood and job. Any time I went to a ‘ritzy’ place the staff were in super abundance (none of them Saudi of course) and they were very polite, always calling me ‘madam’. I saw many other patrons bossing them around, but I guess having worked in service, I can’t really do that.

I’m fine with the idea that I’m paying someone to prepare and bring my food, its an exchange of money for goods/services. But I didn’t care too much for the feeling that those who are doing it are somehow less than me. I don’t go to super fancy places all that often, so maybe it happens everywhere but it shouldn’t. Treat your servers like humans, ok?

Back to good news: Music and relative freedom. I kind of forgot that background music was a thing. It doesn’t happen in Tabuk. We can’t use music in school, the restaurants, malls and other shops do not play music or even muzak. It took me a day or so to realize it, but music is everywhere in Jeddah. It was very refreshing, and a clear sign of the more liberal interpretations of Islam there.

I walk around my neighborhood in Tabuk alone, but I know its not normal, and I’m relying on my status as a Westerner to keep me safe. Also, since there aren’t any taxis here, there’s a limited number of places I can realistically get to by myself. In Jeddah, not just crazy Western women walk around outside. Women were often seen outside, eating, relaxing, walking around and even smoking shisha!

In Jeddah, there are means of transportation for women other than family or private drivers, so they can go further and do more. Plus they’re tolerated and even catered to in more places. While in Tabuk only the shopping malls really cater to women, most restaurants have no family section or a small and dingy family section. In Jeddah the family sections (where the women are allowed) were the large and beautiful areas often attached to the main entrance, and the singles (men only) sections were smaller and less decorated, located in the back or off to one side.

Although I explored only a small section of Jeddah, I was pretty impressed with the city. There is a lot to: restaurants, amusement parks, shopping malls and souqs, parks and beaches, and probably more. I thought before arriving in Saudi that Jeddah would be the only city I wanted to live in, but after experiencing it, maybe I’m ok with the fact that I don’t live there.

First, its super duper humid, and I gotta say, I felt like I was never completely dry the whole week I was there, I can only imagine a year of that would have made me feel like I was in danger of growing mildew. Second, there is so much stuff to do there, I’d never save any money! I don’t want to hide in my room and hoard my whole salary, but I do want to pay off some debt and save up to travel to more new places, so its probably just as well that I can’t actually go to the beach every weekend.

Not that I won’t go again. I imagine sometime this winter, when Tabuk is freezing (literally), I’ll take a weekend trip into Jeddah and spend one warm sunny day on the beach to stave off cabin fever and recharge my enthusiasm for Saudi Arabia.

Soon there will be some more posts on my Week in Jeddah! Look here or on the Facebook Page for links 🙂

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