Walkabout: 2010-03-14

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Today is March 19, which means I've been seeing Sedef now for 6 months! 6 months! Not sure how times goes so fast. And it was 3 months before that when I left Canada... So yeah, within the next week I will have been gone 9 months. It's a long time and I know I haven't been the greatest at keeping in touch with everyone, but rest assured I'm having a great time, even though, right now as I write this a dust storm rages outside and the smell of dusty smoke is penetrating my room, even through tightly shut windows. Anyway, I digress:

Yesterday I had a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I want to share it with you as I know many of you will never make it to Saudi Arabia. It started last week, when some students offered to take us out to the annual Janadriah festival just outside Riyadh. It's the biggest cultural festival in the Kingdom and a must see if you're in the area at the right time. They then offered to take us out to the desert to one of their uncle's farms. Needless to say three other teachers and me, hastily agreed.

Two days ago, wanting to look the part, us four teachers went out and bought some throbes. You know, those really long pure white linen type things that everyone wears over here? They put us out 70 riyals or about 20 dollars. But they look smooooooooooooooth.

3 students on the left, 3 teachers (alex, me and Matt) and two more students on the right.

Yesterday was the first day the festival was open to the public. Unfortunately the camel races were only on the vip day on wednesday. However we did see plenty of crafts from different parts of the country, met lots of strangers, enjoyed a cup of arabic coffee and dates in a tent, wandered through a couple museums anda couple old buildings (well new buildings but manufactures in an older style), saw some cultural dances and some military gets flying in formation for us. Overall, it was a pretty cool experience. No, a very cool experience. Some photos follow:

A central eating courtyard

My new snake friend and I

Chillin in a United Arab Emirites style tent.

Jets over rooftops

Traditional Arabic dancers

Part of the dancing group. They raised swords up and down with the music.

I never even saw one of these in Canada!!!! But Saudi has them!

A traditional style room and vase

But all that was nothing. The real adventure started at sundown. 10 of us piled into two SUV's and we took off down the highway. About 10 minutes into the drive, we pulled over at what looked to me a fairly random point, and started off-roading. We travelled in the packed dust along the side of the highway for a few kilometers then turned away from it, and headed into the empty desert along roads that were nothing more than a few sets of tire tracks marked by old cement blocks every few hundred meters so you don't get lost. For the next 15 minutes we passed..... nothing. Other than a few shrubs or rocks, there was nothing. Eventually a few camps, lit with electric bulbs in tall treelike shapes came into a view. We passed a couple of them and continued on until we reached a large field of sand, lit by a circle of a dozen floodlights all powered by gas generator.

The SUV's turned in and we found ourselves parked inbetween a makeshift (sand) soccer pitch, a giant bedouin tent and a halfdozen shacks, haphazardly constructed with scraps of metal and wood. The farm's owner, was a very friendly middleaged guy named Aish. He invited us into the tent, a place where they often spend their weekends, he said, and we drank some more arabic coffee and ate some more dates, under the soft glow of electric bulbs and a television set. There was a fire pit in the middle of the tent and the smoke blew out the many opened flaps.

He introduced us to his dogs, his two arabian horses and his many camels, one of which he milked on the spot and gave us some to drink only seconds from being extracted. It tasted surprisingly good and not as warm as I would have expected. With a big grin, Aish joked it tasted like women's milk then looked around for confirmation... We returned with blank stares, completely unprepared for any kind of sexual comment from anyone in this incredibly sexually repressed culture.

We returned to the tent where he brought out his horses again and we were able to ride them. At first he had them bareback but upon seeing my apprehension went to fetch a saddle (although I have to admit I was kind of eager to ride an Arabian bareback. nonetheless I got on and after a few minutes the horse and I quickly bonded. His name was Mantar. We rode around the large soccer pitch and after a short jaunt returned to the tent. I went inside to relax with some tea while others took their turn. Prayertime came and Mantar was tied up. I went over to keep him company and later, throughout the night, whenever I was sitting in the tent, and made eye contact with him through the open flap he would whinny eagerly and I would go out to meet him. Later I rode around again, and we went for a much longer ride. He was great with me and after settling in for another few minutes we were galloping across desert full tilt. The other teachers now call me horsemaster Will.

Anyway, once again i returned to the tent. We ate a full sheep with rice that was prepared for everyone in the traditional manner. They don't use utensils here so we dug in with our hands, ripping off pieces of meat and shoveling rice into our mouths. It's even more challenging then you would think though because it's extremely rude to eat with our left hand. So everything is done entirely onehanded. Of course we washed it all down with a cold pepsi! Guess brandname marketing has even reached the middle of ass-nowhere. Afterwards, we kicked pack on the comfortable pillows and carpets in the tent, and after midnight, were driven back to the hotel. All in all, a perfect day.

If you don't travel...... You're missing out.