Al Khobar Getaway

After five weeks in Riyadh we finally were able to get away due to the Hajj. We were worried we would be stuck in the city for the entire 17 day break because we still don't have our Iqama's, or residency, and the government has our passports at the moment. They conveniently are not working during the Hajj. Luckily, we have a letter from our sponsor, and a copy of our passport and that worked well enough for us to buy a train ticket to Dammam shown on the map below.
The man at the metal detector was extremely pleased to see us. He looked at the copies of our passports and says "America?", we nod yes, and he, very excitedly says "Welcome!" So that was a relief because again, I thought we would be road blocked the whole way. My students assured me that because we are Western we shouldn't have trouble getting around. Below is me in front of the train. It was actually very nice and well air conditioned. The ride was four hours and the train stopped at a few cities along the way, such as Hofuf, which we visited later on. Ever since I got here I've been waiting to get out into the desert and this ride was my first semi-experience passing through. We passed many sandy dunes, and I managed to get a picture through a dirty window of camels wandering through the desert.

When we arrived in Damman we caught a taxi and headed to the city of Al Khobar, about twenty minutes away. We chose this location because we heard it was the second most beautiful city in the Middle East. I don't know if that is true, but we enjoyed it very much and I definitely thought it was beautiful.

The moment we got out of the taxi we noticed an immediate difference between Al Khobar and Riyadh. First, the air was so fresh because the city was right along the Persian Gulf. I had no idea how dirty the air was in Riyadh until we left. Riyadh is the most conservative city in Saudi Arabia and you could just feel that Al Khobar was a bit more liberal. We dropped our stuff off at the Al Nimran hotel and went off into the city - specifically the Corniche, or boardwalk, right along the Persian Gulf.

The Corniche was completely filled with families. There is not a lot of entertainment in Saudi Arabia. There are no movie theaters (except for one in Jeddah) and so a popular thing to do is for families to come to the Corniche, have picnics, and play games. There were also a lot of joggers which surprised me because I thought that was more of an American thing. We also saw a lot of men wearing shorts which I've only seen a few times in Riyadh. Below is a picture of the park along the Corniche with some families, but its from a distance because I didn't want anyone to freak out I was taking pictures. There were many more people than this though. One night there were a lot of kite flyers and a lot of the boys were playing football.

I love these two pictures. A father and his sons, and below a very cool walk.

The next day we got up early and caught a taxi to Half Moon Bay which is 20 minutes away from Al Khobar. Half Moon Bay is also along the Persian Gulf and we chose this location because it was popular and it was one of the only places we could swim. As we drove we passed some women in abayas (the black robes) fishing and even wading into the water. Even swimming the women wear their abayas. We arrived at the Holiday Inn at Half Moon and paid to swim there. It was one of my favorite things we did on our trip. It was nice to get out and swim. It was the first time I had been in the water since I was guiding on the Colorado River a few months ago. Chris pointed out that this was the furthest away we had ever been from home.

Here I am before we go swimming in the Persian Gulf!!! Below are Chris and Jared.

Easily the greatest thing I saw on our whole four day trip was here at Half Moon. They were renting jet skis out for anyone who wanted a ride. In Saudi Arabia it is against the law for women to drive cars, but we did see women covered from head to toe in black abayas (robes) riding jet skis and shouting and yelling with extreme happiness the whole time. I wish everyone could have been there to see it.

Very relaxing.

We only spent this small afternoon at Half Moon but it was well worth it. We went back to Al Khobar, spent more time at the Corniche, and we also went to what we were told is the largest mall in Saudi Arabia, the Al Rashid mall. I have already written about how visiting malls is one of the only forms of entertainment here. The mall was very large and nice. The two pictures below are of the mall. Its too bad I hate shopping or else this would have been a lot cooler for me. I've seriously been to 5 or 6 malls in this country.

One of the last things we did in Al khobar is go to one of the most popular restaurants in the country (that is what the guide books say). The Al Sanbok restaurant was definitely worth it and I think the guide books may have been right. The Al Sanbok is right along the Persian Gulf and we ate right out next to the sea. It was a beautiful setting, the restaurant looked nice, the waiters were very attentive. The only funny thing about it was that they were playing 80's music on the inside which wouldn't be considered classy in America. However, the cool thing about it was that you would never never hear this in Riyadh. Playing music in public is considered bad in Riyadh I guess but I don't know their reasoning for that. The people in Al Khobar played music in many places.

I ordered the lamb and it was amazing.

This was our view from the restaurant.

This is another view from the restaurant. It is kind of hard to see. The line there is actually a bridge going to the country of Bahrain. It is the place that many Saudi's go to get away and party...perhaps do things they wouldn't do here in this country. The country of Bahrain is extremely small. We hope to go someday soon just to see what it is like (and see a movie in a movie theater!)

There was a lot more to this trip (which went from Saturday to Tuesday) but I will write the rest of it later. I'm just glad the Hajj came when it did. It has been a nice break so far and I hope the rest continues to go well.