Friday, April 6th, 2007

This is one example of the modern art that is everywhere in Jeddah. There is great book called Jeddah City of Art, which I will purchase, that shows all of this incredibly creative and fun to look at sculpture throughout the city.

As salamu alaikum! You know when you are getting to the end of the trip because the time is really starting to fly by for me. We have just left Jeddah today and have flown into the capital city of Riyhad. We will be spending 2 1/2 days here before beginning our long journey back to the United States.

This is the view from my hotel room in Jeddah on the last night before we flew into Riyahd. Spectacular!

Today was a great day because it was a day of fun at the Fal Resort followed by packing and a 1 hour flight to Riyahd. We were picked up at 7am from our hotel and went back to the same resort we had the night time banquet and ceremonial dancing.

Traditional henna tatoos were part of our Thursday night entertainment at the traditional festival at the Fal Resort. I got one on my right arm and leg.

Today, we did not have any meetings or sites to tour scheduled. Instead, we were allowed to select from a variety of activities. I started out my day by walking around this walled beach community for about a half hour and it sure did feel great to get some exercise. Then a few of us took jet skis out on the Red Sea and that was a blast. We were able to follow the coast line in both directions and see the view of Saudi Arabia from the water. We stopped and swam in the water which was a beautiful aquamarine color, very salty and very warm.

After our jet ski ride, I swam in the pool and just talked with my new friends and before we knew it, eleven thirty had arrived and it was time to get ready for lunch and the ride back to our hotel to pack. Before I left, I did collect a vial of sand from the Red Sea to go along with the sand I collected while visiting the desert.



A fun way to spend the day after many days of traveling, touring and eating!


Our flight to Riyahd was much more calm this time, and only one of us had to switch seats. We were greeted at the airport, as we were in every airport with valets to take our luggage and a large bus to bring us to the next location. The hotel we are staying at is the Al Faisaliah Hotel and if you haven't seen the pictures of this spectacular hotel, you need to! I have the Hotel as one of the links to the right of this site. I cannot tell you how peculiar it is to have VIP service when you are not used to traveling this way. My butler, Louie, came to show me my room and showed me this great piece of equipment next to my bed which is like a mini computer pad. I can use it to raise and lower the heat, open and close the curtains and turn on and off lights all over the room. Pretty cool!

While I hope to tell many of you personally about this trip, I want to be sure to encourage everyone to take the time in your life to get out an experience other cultures in the world. There is truly nothing like it and I think it changes who you are and how you think. You begin to see and appreciate the similarities and differences of the cultures in our world.


Many of you had questions that I may not have answered to here is another Q & A session:

Have I seen a sandstorms?
We thought we were experiencing a mild one in Dhahran but as it cleared we came into an area of construction which had stirred up the dust in that region.


What happens if you don't wear the proper attire as a woman?
Well, that is something that our Saudi hosts do not want us to experience, so they tell us what we need to wear for each event or place we go to. Most times (except the beach resort), we have been asked to wear our abayas, but we did not have to wear our hajab head coverings on our head. You may have noticed in some of my pictures I have worn it like a scarf around my neck. In most instances that is fine, but in some parts of Riyahd, we are expected to have the scarf on. The consequence for not following their traditions is more in the form of harassment. The Mutawa (religious police) can come to you and request that you put on your veil, or individuals may take it upon themselves to tell you how to dress. We have had women in our group be asked where their chaperon is if they are just walking around the hotel by themselves.

This is a picture of two women sitting outside of a medical facility in Dharhan. This is the the hajab head covering with the additional veil which covers your face, except for your eyes. Some women even wear and even more covered version which has a sheer covering that even covers your eyes. We have not had to wear either of these types of head coverings.

Is veiling a choice? For Muslim women, the head covering is really a must right now, and some chose to wear the full face veil as well as the hajab head covering. I can tell you that wearing one is hot. Yesterday when we shopped in the suqs (markets) we were all wearing them, and by midday, I was VERY ready to get out of mine. We also wore them on the plane today and the plane was very stuffy and at one point I really wanted to just take mine off, but I did not.

I hope you enjoy looking at all the pictures I have posted today. There is so much to share about this adventure and I hope you continue to check in for my final 2 to 3 postings before I return. Tomorrow we visit a government school and tour the Diplomatic Quarter. Goodnight!