Trip to Jeddah

Hello all! Well it's been awhile since we posted last but we've stayed really busy. One of the things we got to do was spend a weekend in Jeddah! It was our first time traveling inside Saudi and hopefully it won't be our last. We loved it! Here are some of the highlights

 We flew on Saudi Arlines and it was great. One interesting thing is that happened was that they read a prayer over the intercom that was intended for travelers. Never seen that before on a plane! The food on the plane was definitely Saudi too with kabobs, falafel, and humus!

We are not sure how many stars our hotel was but we are guessing it was on the lower end of the scale. However, they did have a very unique fountain in the lobby.

Next we had an amazing beach day with friends! First time to the Red Sea for us!

It was so nice going to the beach and realizing the water was warm! You can see how there was a really long shallow area and then it drops off about 40 feet. Right at the drop off there was the most amazing reef and fish! There were fish everywhere!

Here are some of the fish we saw when we were snorkeling! It was unbeleiveable how colorful the fish were and there were hundreds of them!

After we finished hanging out at the beach (and getting really sunburnt) we drove around exploring Jeddah a little bit. One thing that really stood out and that was differnt from Riyadh was there was so much art around the city. It seemed like almost every roundabout had some new sculpture or statue. We really liked this gaint camel one.

This is King Fahd Fountian and is a cool attraction in Jeddah. We were pretty far away, which shows how tall it is. The fountian shoots up 1024 feet in the air!

This was definatly a big highlight for us. Name that restaurant...

It was so nice having good Mexican food again! We ate way too much and left moving much slower.

This was another restaurant that we sort of discovered because every taxi driver we talked to said that we had to eat here. I guess "Al Baik" is one of the most famous food places in Jeddah.

They are most famous for their chicken so we had to give it a try. We really liked it!

Next we got to explore the old city of Jeddah. This was one of the old city gates that originally was built by the Ottoman Empire.

 

These were some of our favorite buildings in the old city of Jeddah.

Many of the buildins date back to 1800s. It's amazing that people are still living in them today.

We also learned that the white stones you see are actually made of coral bricks! I guess that is what you make your houses out of if you live in a desert next to the sea.

We absolutely loved our trip and hope to return again soon! Love you all and see you soon! July 2nd!!

The Call

In Saudi Arabia, one of the most important parts of life is prayer. So in Saudi, one thing that is impossible to miss is the call to prayer. Muslims are called to pray five times a day. The call to prayer is heard at dawn (it changes throughout the year but now it plays at 3:58 AM), midday (11:51 AM), about the middle of the afternoon (3:19 PM), just after sunset (6:21 PM), and at night fall about two hours after sunset (7:51 PM). It is announced over loud speakers from each mosque and during that time all businesses close and life stops for half an hour. In Saudi, mosques are strategically placed throughout the city so that at all times every person will be close enough to get to one in time. As you can imagine, that is a lot of mosques and a lot of calls being called out at once. From our apartment we can hear at least 4 calls going off all at once.

The video below is what the call sounds like here and the words of it also should show up in the caption -

-- the reason we picked this video was because if you listen close you can hear the echo throughout the city, which is very similar to what it's like here. Imagine four of these going off at once with slightly different voices and a few second apart and that will give you a good taste of what it is like in a Muslim country at prayer time

The video above is the call to prayer recorded from Mecca. The video shows the Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam, and what all Muslims face during prayer no matter where they are. Also what can be seen in the video are thousands of Muslims walking around the Kaaba as apart of their pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca. They estimate that around 2-3 million people from around the world attend the Hajj each year.

As for us, we are very thankful for the call because we are always reminded when it is time to pray. Saudi has so many amazing and helpful things in its culture that continually remind us to pray. It's a fascinating culture and an experience we will never forget. We love you all and miss you more everyday. Keep in touch!

We're here!

We made it! Safe and sound and are busy learning about our new home. Man it is such a different place! Many times I just have to laugh because the culture is just so different then ours. So for today I’ll write a top ten random facts that we have picked up so far about the Kingdom:

10. Saudi is pronounced – S ou dee (ou as in ouch)

9. You have to plan your day around prayer times. Why? Every store in the city closes for half an hour during the call to prayer which is five times a day. So that means if you are hungry – all food is closed down. If your shopping – they will lock all the doors of the shop. And if you are in the line at the store – might as well have a seat cause it will be awhile.

8. No carpet in your apartment. Reason: the dust here is super fine and magically gets everywhere even if there is no doors or windows open. Also when inside you have to where sandals of slippers of some kind or else you feet will be super dirty/dusty in minutes.

7. So in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia they have some pretty strict rules and many of the rules are about dress and what is expectable. So for the people in the country is not much problem: just have them cover up. But what about pictures coming into the country where they are showing too much skin? Easy solution. Color woman’s clothes on with a sharpie. No joke. You see it all over. Everywhere from movie covers to packaging on products in the supermarket. I love this country!

6. Riyadh is crazy at nights! As soon as about 8 pm hits the city comes alive and there are people packed everywhere. Just as an example, the last two nights we were still driving around and on the freeways at around 2 in the morning. Hard to believe but at 2 the streets were crowded and there was tons of traffic! It’s not even the weekend for them! Most stores don’t even close till around 1am or 2 am.

5. So we ate at Pizza Hut last night (I know that is random enough) and it was a super nice sit down restaurant (also very random but not best part yet). For woman it can be a very awkward with the headscarf and veil and trying to eat a meal. So how do they work around it? They have either curtains or rolling dividers that they put around your booth so that woman can take off their head pieces. So crazy! And they have this everywhere from Burger King to fine dinning restaurants. Total privacy in the middle of a fast food place.

4. Saudi has some of the longest street names on earth. Just as an example one street name will take up two full lines on the freeway signs. They look something like this:

Prince Amer Bin Saubael Bin Abdia Fahan Rd. Imagine giving out your address to people if you lived on this street. The longest I have seen so far was 9 words long!

3. These next two was all from our trip to Ikea (Yes they do have an Ikea, and yes it is awesome). Random fact about Riyadh’s Ikea – it has a mosque built inside. Now you can shop, park your cart during the call of prayer, pray, then get back to shopping. So random yet very convenient.

2. Oh and this is just amazing, definitely a contender for first but just barely missed it. We saw a sign when walking out of Ikea that was advertising that they were hiring. The sign said this – “Are you tired of getting paid for doing nothing?” Imagine seeing that in America.

1. By far one the most awesome things I have seen in KSA so far was something we learned about gas. As you know the kingdom owns the gas of the world and can set the rules with it as they see fit. So get this: do you now how much gas here? 50 cents a gallon! Oh and they are full service gas stations so you don’t have to get out of the car. Oh and no tax either. We love KSA!