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