Greetings from the other side of the world.
It has been a while since my last entry, but the process of becoming familiar with this place has sped up the passing of my days. Yesterday, I had to renew my Visa for the first time, which marks the completion of one whole month in Saudi Arabia, and means that I have two more months left.
But I'm not writing this to get sentimental...
Being a white, single, christian male with a government visa (as opposed to having a residency card) has afforded me with the highest degrees of freedom a person can have in the greatest of kingdoms. I am allowed to leave campus alone, I do not have to wear traditional clothing, I do not have to pray 5 times a day in the direction of Mekkah, I have a certain cultural error leniency, I can make decisions, and I can drive a car.
What I am trying to say, is that I work during the week (which means Saturday through Wednesday), and when weekend comes (Thursday and Friday) I leave Campus to discover Saudia Arabia.
Hold on tight as I share a rather unusual adventure:
2 Weekends ago, we organized a Trip to a town called Ta'if, situated at 1800 meters on the slopes of the Sarawat Mountains, the largest mountain range in the Arabian Peninsula. The area around Ta'if is a popular summer destination for Saudi's, as the temperature is very mild at 30 degrees and the air is completely dry.
The road up to Ta'if
An hour's drive north of Ta'if, we took the highway exit and find ourself driving on a rundown road running straight into the desert. At the end of this road there is a rickety iron gate, which stood open at the time of our arrival. When we got inside, we had finally reached our destination, and getting up at 5 in the morning had paid off!
Ladies and Gentlement, I present to you the fabled Camel Races of Saudia Arabia, the equivalent to Nascar driving in the USA!
As luck would have it, we had arrived on the day that the Saudia National Guard sponsored (conducted?) the races, and we had entered into their compound (through the rickety iron gate). The army general in charge (dressed in camouflage, which means in the color of sand) came up to us and bestowed us with the traditional As-Salamu Alaykum greetting, promptly followed by an offer of protection during the races. The whole rest of the day we were kept close to the military and shown around by them.
Dates and Tea in the Military compound (look in the back left corner of the picture, shhh)
And then the camel races began!
The Setup of a camel race: There is a 10 kilometer track that is about 30 meters wide, and runs straight through the desert. The idea is that you follow the race by driving next to the camels as they run down the track (at 30 to 50 km/h). The right side of the track was open to the general public, and hundreds of cars were throwing up dust on that side. The left was the side reserved for the military, and the one that we were one. A race lasts around 20 minutes.
We were actually offered a ride for the race, and one of the military guys drove up in a camouflage bus (I believe it is a renovated US school bus) and motioned for us to get in. In this fashion, we were able to watch the camels race not even 5 meters away from us.
As a small side note, Saudi National Television was there (the equivalent of ESPN in the USA) to film this event live. After the first race, a guy dressed in a white robe asked us to come with him, handed us a microphone, pointed one of those big cameras at us, gave us a count down, and told us to talk. We were being filmed live on Saudi TV, the only white people in a 50 kilometer radius. I must admit, it was somewhat awkward to stand in front of a live TV show, just talking about random camel race things, since there was no one there who spoke English and could have asked us interview questions.
We returned to campus around 1 in the morning, exhausted as usual.
wow - what a luck, that you just arrived there, when there was this race...
ReplyDeleteI'm very proud of you that you are as independent :)