Out to Arabia

by Saket Agarwal (India)

I didn't expect to find Saudi Arabia

My first trip to Saudi Arabia country. I arrived at Riyadh, capital city late at night from my home city Kolkata via Dubai. It was a good experience with Emirates and Riyadh Airport was clean with friendly officials. As I am Indian and then vegetarian, had problem with food as most of the places were serving non vegetarian foods including Beef. Amusing to remember I had such a phobia of Beef, even in shower I assumed it was Beef, French fries tasted like Beef, etc. I was in the city for 4 days and met locals, understand the beliefs and rituals of locals which was very conservative yet ritualistic as locals followed their religion strongly. My next stop was Jeddah, more commercial. The immigration was really very slow and lethargic yet funny. At Jeddah, my father joined me, we were waiting at immigration for about 4 hours then our turn came. My father got their first and then the official nodding his head left and right, called me and mentioned me and my father, your face resembles to which we replied we are Baba and Walid. Then most funny part was when officer mentioned our finger print to be same but then, one cannot argue with officials and we accepted and moved ahead. Jeddah city is more commercial less conservative as compared to Riyadh and females have more places to visit, foreigners working in Jeddah especially from countries like Vietnam, Philippines, Pakistan, African countries, India, etc. I enjoyed local tea called Kawah with dates which was literally offered at every stop, visit to people, places. By this time, I got accustomed to the climate which was Hot very Hot, the environment which was different to India but I was enjoying. Language was a problem but I managed well I feel. For the first time I tasted Shawarma, Hummus which are very famous and daily food for locals and it was really good. The trip was about 10 days but full of new experiences, rituals, food, people, etc. Got to understand one thing very nice that if you want to learn how to live life King size you have to learn with the Sheikhs of Saudi Arabia. I end my trip story