The alarm woke us at 6 as we had an early morning tour. We could not believe what we felt and saw as we peaked out our balcony door. It was already 80 degrees, you could not see beyond the port the air-pollution was so heavy and thick. Oh, will we survive this drastic change!!!! We did but we forwent going out the second day.
While Saudi Arabia certainly has a fascinating and tumultuous history, and a culture that requires and open mind, the city itself was not impressive. Was it the heat, the air pollution I am not sure. It was quite evident that Saudi Arabia is a very rich country, it’s the richest among the Arab nations and ranks 19th in the world. Its economy is oil and natural gas based. (80% of its GDP comes from oil and natural gas). It now has a very young Crown Prince, Muhammad bin Salman (colloquially know as MBS), (SA is a monarchy) with a vision for the future. He realizes that Oil and gas based economies will cease and is looking into alternate economic drivers such as tourism. He is heavily investing in the restoration of Old Town Jeddah, which we toured, and will undoubtably become a major attraction. We are only the 6 th cruise ships to visit Saudi Arabia, so clearly they are not geared in that direction.
A law that passed in May 2017 by King Salman gave women rights that now allow them to drive, marry whomever they wish, get an education and jobs, equal wages for equal jobs, get divorced and so on. All those things we as American and European women take for granted. However, they have a long way to go. For example, if they do divorce, most likely their family will shun them. They will have to leave their husband’s home with nothing. Though free government housing and support will be provided. The housing though is different from other housing, which clearly identifies them as divorcées. ( a marked women ). Also, if there were children, they automatically go with the mother until a certain age ( I think 12) and then the child gets to choose who they want to live with. Now just because there are laws to give women freedom of choice and certain opportunities it will be a while before the culture catches up.
The redeeming feature of our visit to Jeddah was our very friendly and informative female guide. Also the merchants were welcoming, of course they were interesting in selling their merchandise, but they were not pushy as they are in Egypt.
If you ever plan on a visit to SA, plan on a tedious: visa process; health certifications (due to Covid) process; immigration entry and exit process. I trust once they gear up for tourism that may become a smoother process. Who knows.
Our tour guide and the mosque in the background. She is wearing by choice an Abaya (robe) but she said she rarely wears the Hijab (vail).
The view from our balcony that welcomed us to Jeddah. The sky actually looks blue, but it really was a whitish color.
They love their round-a-bouts, and this one had a huge sun dial. A mosque and its minarets in the background
Sculptures a along the waterfront highway.
The world tales flagpole, so they say.
Again one of many sculptures.
The first concrete building built in Jeddah and no-one would move into to it as they were afraid it would fall on them. In the meantime they have learned to trust concrete. After all its still standing.
Section of the old city wall and its entry gate to the old city.
Inside the old city, much looks in dire need of restoration
Example of the old building style, using very airy blocks of rocks with wooden planks in between. Since that region has no wood the wood was salvaged from ship wrecks. The airy blocks of rock provided for good airflow and kept the homes cool.
Closer look at the blocks of rock..
One of many homes being restored by the government.
Inside the home of a rich person, now serves as a type of museum. The richer a person was the more stories a building would have, this one had 3. There were many sitting room areas.
Look at that old style telephone, never had seen one on a pedestal like this. Very ornate.
View of one of the bedrooms, the bed was at least a queen size if not a king. Husband and wife always slept in the same bed. And contrary to tales, the men have only one wife legally. Under certain situation they are permitted more than one wife.
The balconies on the houses were painted in different colors to denote a families profession. Green was for agricultural, Blue for fisherman, and brown for merchant.
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Here we walk through a typical Souk, a market area. The stores are all next to each other, each carrying a certain product. And there will be more than 1 store of any one kind of product. This area was the textile area. The storekeepers were looking at us with great curiosity. As you will note the men are wearing Abayas (robe) and in different colors, white, blue brown and so on, though black is still the most popular color.
Here is a man minding his store. All very small and narrow.
A group of boys all lead by a teacher had just come out of the candy shop. I guess even the locals get hot as one of the boys at the end of the line was holding a portable fan up to his face.
Now the candy story was huge, and every kind of candy and sweets could be purchased here and they came from all over the world, the Americas, Europe, and so on.
Oh, and the spices, what an aroma that emanated out of the store. You would think that the mixture of all those spices would give off an unpleasant smell, but rather each spice’s aroma was noticeable.
This was one of the more peaceful alley ways. A lone cat marching towards me in hope of food. Matter a fact there were many cats running around all terribly undernourished. Unlike the free roaming cats in Greece and Croatia.
The view from the board of the port and city in the background in all its glorious smog.
View towards the front of the ship and we saw nothing but a sea of new cards, though they were all covered in a layer of dust.
Jeddah is the main industrial port of Saudi Arabia, that accounts for all the containers and other unloaded cargo.
Glorious smog
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