Ancient Architecture in Saudi

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

I finally went traveling again!

It was only for 3 days but it was so great to be on the road again. Random encounters with people, great historical sights, beautiful landscapes, and most of all freedom. Man I love to travel.

I just came back from Mada'in Saleh, which should probably be on a few lists of world wonders. But no one knows about it, cause it's in Saudi. Well, coming here I found out a bit and knew it would be a must see.

I flew to Medina, rented a car and drove North 400 km to find Al Ula, a nearby city. I spent the night there and the next day, started driving the 20 km or so to Mada'in Saleh. With poor signage, most of which in Arabic, I promptly got lost. Which was awesome. I drove around the desert for quite a while and when I finally started to get close was treated by this great, Star Warsish landscape. You know the pod races from episode 1? Just like that. Big towers of rock jutting up from flat plains. Camels wandered around the roads and there were even little sandstone and mudbrick villiages. It's probably the best desert landscape imaginable.


So after that, I finally found my destination and began to explore. A lot of Arabs believe Mada'in Saleh is cursed, and so they don't go there. The reason is that apparently a prophet visted the site many centuries ago. The people of Mada'in Saleh didn't believe he was truly a prophet though so they asked him for proof. For a miracle. So the prophet came back the next day and with him, brought the first camel. He said this animal can drink one day, and you can drink the next (of its milk). The people of Mada'in Saleh still didn't believe so they killed the animal. God got so angry that in return, he killed all the people of Mada'in Saleh and that's why the place has been abandoned for so long.


I heard this story from a local guy I met that morning, and although he didn't believe it was too dangerous to venture to, he did say that it's not safe to stay more than an hour or two. Anyway, it's a shame that a lot of Saudi's don't go here, because it really is a wonderful place. There are maybe fifty or so of these buildings dozens of rock outcroppings. Most of them are tombs but some appeared to me to be living areas and the like. One huge building with something like a trough running all along its perimeter might have been a stable.


Anyway, without further ado, here are the photos. Enjoy seeing a taste of this place that most will never even hear about.

One of the more dramatic entrances to the site.

One of the cliff walls

More of them. Erosion seems to have hit the bottom over the last 2000 years

Cool overhang

Looking inside one of them from the doorway. They are very roughly carved inside.

They started carving from the top down, as seen by this unfinished one. It would have been the largest I think.

The stables, or perhaps just a meeting place of some sort.

Me at what may be the "stables."

Lone building.

A shot from down low.


Camels crossing the road.

My First Travelversary

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

That's right, it's my first anniverary on the road. June 25, one year ago I left Calgary to start this thing and here I am, June 25th again.

It feels strange, my life is moving fast now. Nine more days in Saudi and then it's back to Turkey where I'll get married and make the next big change in my life. I'm looking forward to it.

I've always kind of felt like since I graduated high school in 2000 I've let my life kind of plateau without making any forward movement. Even though I got a university degree, went to SE Asia and fell in love for the first time, I always felt like I was standing still.

But as of a year ago, I'm moving forward again. I've traveled a lot, and in that travel I've managed to make a lot of (in my view) much needed changes in the way I think of myself and run my life. I feel more confident these days, and I've started trying to affect my future instead of just looking forward to it. I still struggle with some things, but the forward momentum is back and I feel good about that.

So what does the next year hold? Well obviously there's marriage. The plan is to work the next school year in Istanbul to save some money. Saudi has helped get all my accounts back into black, but I still don't have a whole lot of extra cash to work with. I think I found a well-paying job in Turkey so 10 months of that should put me in pretty good shape to travel a bit more with Sadife and then take the next step forward and move to Vancouver to finally start my career in film.

That's the plan as it stands right now anyway. My plans have been pretty fluid though since this trip started so I'm not really sure if they'll be the same one year (or one month) from now, but I feel pretty good about them. We'll see what happens.

As for the immediate plan, I am off to a place called Mada'in Saleh tomorrow. It's an ancient city carved into mountains much like Petra. In fact, it was made by the same civilization. It looks pretty spectacular and it's the one thing I'm excited to do before I leave Saudi. I will take lots of pictures!

So I think that's it for me today. I'm looking forward to seeing a few of you guys in Istanbul for my wedding and the rest of you I'll see in another year or so when I get back to Canada!

The Adventure Takes Another Step Forward

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

It's funny, when I set out on this trip nearly a year ago, there was a lot I didn't know. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know when I was coming back. I didn't know where I would find money when it started to run out (I still don't have most of these answers!). But as cliche as it sounds, I did know one thing. I knew that no matter what happened, it would be a life changing experience. But there was something else I didn't know. I didn't know just how life changing it would be.

As you all know I met a girl by the name of Sadife (Sedef) when traveling through Turkey. I met her in September and ended up staying in Turkey for more than five months. I was finally forced to leave because my bank account had hit zero about five months prior when I met her. I lived off of people's charity, staying at different houses around Izmir, first with Peri for two months, who I owe greatly for giving me the opportunity to stay and eventually fall in love. Later I stayed with Öznur for a month, then with Fatma for a week, Gül for more than a month, Gamze in Istanbul and finally Ümit. I never paid a dime for room and board and I owe all of these people greatly for their kindness. Most of them don't speak English and will never see my thanks in writing, but there it is. They changed me life. As did Sedef.

I went back to see her during my break in April and although I'm a little late delivering this news on my blog (I wanted to make sure all the family heard from me directly first), I will be getting married to her this August or September. It's a quick marriage 'cause we didn't want to make a huge deal out of it. Why wait a year when you already know the outcome? Instead we decided a small ceremony, a quick wedding and thus I begin my life anew, for the second time in less than a year.

It's funny, you really never know how things will pan out when you just let life happen. But so far everything has been so much more than I ever imagined it could be.

Anyway, I'll stop my ramble here. I took some pics of the area here lately and I will post some on the blog soon. In the mean time, here's a couple pics of my new fiance and I. I'm sure you'll all meet her eventually!

Sedef in April in Akyaka

Sedef and I at Christmas

Dr. Will and Students on Strike

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Well, as all you hospital peeps still reading this blog will appreciate, I am once again known as "Doctor Will." That's right, for my second consecutive job, my name is Dr. Will. I'm thinking of asking U of C for an honorary doctorate!

For those that don't know, the Dr. Will trend started when I was at Foothills talking to patients. I guess I come across so authoritatively on the phone that people just assumed I was a doctor and often called me as much. But since I never used my last name, I became Dr. Phil's slightly more handsome counterpart (although I possibly have better credentials than THAT hack....) Anyway, apparently the name has stuck. The students over here call all the teachers Doctors, so after a brief hiatus while travelling, I'm back to my under-qualified, over-inflated roots!


In other comic news, the students (who as you may recall get paid 1000 riyals a month for attending university) are expecting a late paycheck this month. As such, there is much talk at the school of a student strike starting tomorrow. How 'bout that! The students are sad they're not getting paid for school so they've decided to make their tragic cause known! I know they can count on all of your support! There's also a rumor on the grapevine that they're having some unexpected problems getting solidarity. Seems the slackers are much more keen to strike than the really good students. Go figure.

I will let you all know how it goes down.

Out in the desert

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.

The camels


Matt, Aish and I with a new camel friend


Getting some camel love


A blurry Mantar and I

The bedouin tent

TV? Why not, it's the 21st cenury

from left to right: ??, Michael, Alex, Aish, Me, Matt - the four teachers that went

Dinner!!!!

My New Home for a While

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

I've been meaning to write this message for a while now, and I've been putting it off because until recently I'd been pretty upset about it and it was something I didn't want to write about when I was angry.

Before coming to Saudi Arabia and when I first arrived, a lot of my friends facebooked me and said to me "be safe," or "be careful over there," or something to that effect.

This upset me for two reasons. The first is perhaps somewhat selfish and not as serious. Surely in all the years people out there have known me, you have realized that I have no history whatsoever of taking foolish risks or not paying attention in questionable or dangerous situations. I realize some of you maybe only said it to let me know that you are thinking about me, but nonetheless I found it a little frustrating.

The second and much more serious reason this "be safe" thing upset me is because Saudi Arabia is the 15th country I have been to on this trip, and no one said anything for any of the others, which says to me people are concerned simply because it is Saudia Arabia, a country in the "dreaded" middle east.

In the last five years there have been no terrorist attacks on foreigners in the country, with the exception of four french nationals in 2007. Many euopean countries can not boast the same. For example I doubt America can boast less than 4 foreign traveler murders in the last five years. I wonder if even Canada can. The government here is extremly pro-active in keeping this country safe from those types of attacks and have been quite successful. In addition there is currently no travel warning by the Canadian government for coming here.

So why then is eveyone so concerened? This type of unjustified fear of anything middle-east is extremely damaging to not just people from this region, but also unwarrented fears of Islam, foreign governments and most importantly it is counteractive to the idea (and dare I say fact) that a third world country can change, grow, and evolve into something better. And most impressively, Saudi Arabia is doing it without westernizing or sacrificing its culture.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I am soapboxing here, or picking on anyone's general well-wishing, and there are certainly many serious problems that Saudi Arabia faces in its future which I will discuss in detail another time on this blog, but I think this is an important thing to think about, and if we truely want to come together as one people in this world, these sorts of negative preconceptions have to be left behind sooner rather than later.

I'll write again soon and update with some pics of the first couple weeks of my stay here.

The next step.

Izmir, Turkey



Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all having a great holiday season! Thank you all for all the donations to my travelling cause. They really came as a surprise! They have alleviated things quite a bit here and my stress levels have dropped back down!

Also with Christmas comes my 6 month travelling anniversery. I've been gone half a year now. With this day comes two firsts: It's my first Christmas spent away from family, and it's the longest I've ever been outside of Calgary (Well, since I was 3 years old anyway). I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't sure if I'd be sad, crushed or quite content. As it turns out, I'm somewhere inbetween. I miss all of you people back home, especially over the last few days. But I have some great friends here that have made things much easier. I guess it just goes to show, no matter where you go, you'll always have friends and family, even if not connected by blood.



Anyway, I realize I haven't been writing on here regularly but as I'm sure you have figured, things have more or less been in a holding pattern the last few months. Now things are starting to get moving again.

Since my money has been running so low lately I have finally accepted a teaching position, although not in China as I first expected. No, I will be teaching in Saudia Arabia. I'm not sure which city yet, as I understand it, it will be one of four. Should be a pretty amazing experience! The pay is good (about 3000 USD/month) and everything but food is paid for. Free accomodations, insurance, travel stipend, etc etc. It means I should be able to bank all of it and have enough money for the rest of this trip!

On a writing front things are going well there too. I have a few more papers interested in looking at my work and they are going over it now. I hope to have another publication or two to announce after the holidays. I will keep you all posted!

I will be spending New Years in Istanbul with Sadife. After that I'm coming back to Izmir for a week or so and then off to Saudi. I plan to post from Istanbul. I'll let you know what New Years is like in Turkey!

Later, all!