The last nine months

Mud Brick Houses and the Attack of the Killer Horse

Charlie and I got to go out with some friends to a small town outside of Riyadh a few weekends back. We meet a Saudi man that was from this town and he wanted to show us around how Saudi living used to be. Hard to believe that as little as 50 years ago the even wealthy people lived in mud brick houses! The first part of the video was the tour of his house that he grew until he was about 10 years old.

The second part of the video shows the epic horse bite (go to about 10:00 min in). He took us out to a horse farm and as we found out, not all the horses were too friendly.

The last part is one of our favorite parts of being in Saudi - desert camping. We drove out to a quiet part of the desert, threw out the blankets and BBQ, and had some amazing kabobs, humus, fresh dates, Arabic coffee, and tea. It was a great night and is one more thing we have to to love about Saudi!

Also if you have not seen our other video with Saad, here is our dune bashing adventure

Dessert Camping

Two weekend ago we were able to do some more camping in the Saudi dessert. The weather is still nice so we wanted to get one more camping trip in before the weather becomes unbearable haha! Here are some pictures of our adventure!

So the first thing we saw was a herd of goats. We were excited to see some animals in the desert.

Next, we started setting up camp in a wadi which is a dry river bed. After setting up camp we decided to go for a hike up to these plateaus. The view was absolutely beautiful!

We had a good time climbing up to the top!

  

Soon after the guys returned we had some unexpected visitors to our campsite!

The camels were actually quite friendly and quite smelly haha!

The guys with there newest friends

The camels came through a couple different times with their herder who rode on a donkey.

Here is a video of one of times the camels came through 

Camels in our camp from Brendon Hunt on Vimeo.

After the camel invasion we sat down by the campfire and had some delicious Kabsa (chicken and rice). When we had finished the Kabsa we busted out the S’mores!!! 

After some amazing food and great conversations we headed for bed – our sleeping bag under the stars!!! Yep, no tents! I have to say, I did have one worry……. I kept thinking about the camels and I was hoping we weren’t going to get trampled haha! Luckily they waited until the morning to return and we were able to move our stuff out of the way for them. 

The camping trip was so much fun but it wouldn’t have been the same without the amazing people we spent it with! We love our new friends here and the old friends who have now joined us!

Heading Back

Well believe it or not but the Hunt's are going back! I know you all had your doubts but it's official! We got our tickets two days ago and are heading out today. We leave this afternoon and should be there by about 9 pm on the 11th. Seems like it should be a nice and easy trip but we are going during the Hajj, which means a few extra million people traveling to Saudi! Either way we are headed back and looking forward to starting up again. Love you all and would love to keep in touch!

Sa-udis in Au-dis

Ok so this is pretty cheesy but we thought is was really funny. My Saudi friend alerted us to the new internet phenomena in Saudi. Enjoy!

Father daughter bonding

Well I know that we have already done a "best things to do in Saudi" post but I just found one that trumps them all. Two words: lizard catching. May sound lame and something you did when you were kids but pretty sure the lizards back home looked a little different than this.

Now this is a real father daughter bonding moment. My favorite part is when he says "Hold his head down with all your strength. Don't let him turn around and bite you." And what, let the flesh eating dinosaur bite my hand off? Sure dad, I've got him. I'm pretty sure I would be running the opposite direction as soon as it started to do that hissing body shrinking thing.

Awww, isn't that adorable. Now she's holding the flesh eating lizard and named him Spike. I would have named him Terrifying. Have to say that's about the bravest little girl I've ever seen though.

Well another lesson of what to do if you ever find yourself in Saudi Arabia with nothing to do. My Saudi friend reasured me that lizard catching is a fun and exciting part of Saudi culture and one that he did all the time when he was a kid. It's a crazy place but I'm sure American culture seems crazy to everybody else too. Love you all and keep in touch!

Life in KSA