Making a friend on the train

              

This adorable 14 year old Indonesian girl, I’m sitting next to on the train, just told me I looked so young. She said I looked about 20/21. Ahh thank you! I’ve always loved Indonesians since visiting there. Check out that sweet open smile!

Riding the Saudi Metro

 

I’m back in NYC and still dreaming of beautiful, clean, efficient, aspiring, architecturally significant Riyadh Metro. The metro system just opened in 2024. It cost $22 billion to build and covers over 176 kilometers, or about 110 miles, across six different lines. It is the world’s longest driverless metro system. There are a few knock it out of the park architecturally stunning stations that left me swooning. Overall traveling in Saudi, where there are so many huge investments being made, really reminded me of the possibility when an aspirational vision pushes forward beyond people’s wildest dreams. This is complicated because clearly there are many underlying issues behind Saudi money and labor practices, and building in a desert climate, that make every project questionable, but I can’t talk about the trip without admitting that all the new stuff adds to all my feels about the trip overall.

Abu Dhabi Observations

Today I decided to flip through all the tv channels in my Abu Dhabi hotel. I feel like I traveled all over. They have channels from Sudan, Qatar, Russia, France, Iraq, UK, US, Israel, China, … I settled on a Bollywood channel. I need joy for the last days of my trip! Now I feel like dancing my way through the day.

Its all about malls in Abu Dhabi

 

So much of life on the Arabian Penninsula happens in malls and on the eve of heading home I went to a great one! I loved getting a peak into Emirati culture.

King Fahd Fountain - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Since 1985, the King Fahd Fountain has shot water 260 meters (853 ft) in to the air at 6pm every day, earning it the Guinness World Record for being the world’s highest water fountain. People gather for picnics and await the occasion. I was invited to have Saudi coffee, dates and cookies with one nice family and able to watch many others enjoy it. Jeddah is the entry point for people coming on religious pilgrimage to Mecca, so there are lots of people from all over the world there.

 

I find the best places to chat up women in the Islamic world is the ladies room. So today in Medina, I started speaking to a Bangladeshi, who lives in London, here in Saudi on pilgrimage, and I say “I live in a Bangladeshi neighborhood in New York and she immediately says “Jackson Heights?” Yup! I live in a neighborhood that is known and home to people from all over the world!

Seeing rock art in Jubbah

 

Change of pace… it’s time to share another aspect of my trip… history. We visited Saudi historical rock art in Hail Province, which has been a global historical site since the nineteenth century. Arab ancestors left traces of their human experiences through drawings representing human and animal figures. It was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2015. Jubbah is one of the most famous rock art sites in the Saudi Arabia. It is an oasis with remnants of an ancient lake that was once rich in vegetation, wildlife, and human habitation. Now, it is surrounded by a sea of shifting sands in al-Nefud Desert. Unlike paintings and engravings from the New Stone Age found in other parts of the world, the rock art in Jubbah is characterized by deep carvings. These display very prominent images that still retain their original features significantly. The engravings depict images of men and women, providing insight into the clothing people wore in the past and how they styled their hair. These artistic relics also display animals, hunting scenes, and weapons such as bows, arrows, sticks, and spears.

Jubbah is distinguished by passing through three different eras: the modern era, the Thamudic era, and the late prehistoric period. Thus, its rock art does not belong to one era or one civilization. (Saudipedia) It dates back to up to 10,000 years old.

Observations of changes in Saudi Arabia for women and girls

 

I’m having a super hard time figuring out how to summarize my recent trip to Saudi Arabia. It’s a country in the midst of a major cultural shift, but as a short term tourist I’m just not sure what I was seeing no matter how many books, podcasts and people I consulted. Please don’t rush to judge my comments. My effort is to help shed some light on things, but I realize my observations are very limited.

So with that caveat, let’s start diving in. Figuring out the societal norms in Saudi was challenging. As recently as 2016 it was illegal for unrelated men and women to be together in public. These days that reality feels unreal. Now there are lots of “fun” activities, where all Saudis go out together and outdoor cafes with tables of men alongside tables of women. I’m sure people are constantly policing themselves and know the limits of the freedom, but to an outsider like me it felt pretty open if one could look past the idea that most women are still wearing abayas, hijabs and niqabs. (I try super hard not to make any judgement on veiling, since it has deep cultural connections.)

Since the late 1970s the mutawa, officers of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) were a heavy presence in Saudi Arabia. They patrolled public spaces to make sure people followed some very strict conservative Islamic norms. All women had to be veiled. Strict segregation of the sexes was enforced, meaning unrelated men and women could not be seen in public together. But in 2016, Mohammed Bin Salman announced a sweeping change and overnight the religious police were demoted from power and society was allowed to begin to open up.

Over the last ten years that has meant major changes in daily life. Restrictions have been eased on women's rights, easing rules around dress and veiling, allowing them to drive, attend sports events and concerts alongside men, and obtain passports without the approval of a male guardian and thus be able to travel by themselves outside of the country.

As an outsider, who had never seen before times, it was hard to be sure what existed before 2016 and what was new, but I believe basically all the fun public places we went are brand new. Throughout my photos you will see pics in many new attractions that Saudi is building to entertain its majority under 30 population. But here I’m going to focus on one location to give an example.

In Ha’il, there is a new place called Bonchai. According to Guinness Book of World Records it’s the largest coffee shop in the world. (In reality, it’s a big space that has spread chairs around, but only had a small area to be served.) but anyway it creates a big public space for people to gather. It felt like any hip cool coffee house I’ve been to all over the world. Small clusters of young people and families were spread out around the room. It felt very modern and free.

At one point, a 14 year old precocious girl came up to us and asked if she could speak to us. She told us of her educational and career ambitions and beamed that wonderful hopeful energy that the new Saudi opening allows her. She has traveled and seen Western life and now she and her mother, who also came over to meet us, and shared her story of being a working woman in Saudi, are pushing forward and creating change in Saudi.

Also, while I was there a group of giggling high school aged girls asked if I would be in a photo with them. I, of course, said yes! The photo they took on their phone was a normal selfie with me and four loosely veiled girls. After, I asked if I could take a photo with them on my phone. They said yes, but were a little cagey. As I held up my phone, I noticed that they had covered their faces and blocked them with their phones.

In general, the rules are clearly stated and repeated that people shouldn’t take pictures without permission, but this is often stated in other places, but Saudi might be the place I’ve seen it most internalized. Even the some men seemed hesitant. As anyone who follows my travels knows, I’m all about pictures of people. I think that is where you can see the real differences between places. I can’t show the changes happening in Saudi culture without including people, so I am a bit unsure what to do. Looking at the selfie with these girls it really made me think more about taking pics and also about how the cultural changes are happening, but the limits of them too. 40 years of strict religious policing has a lasting hold on people.

But back to the girls… what I’m saying is this public space now allowed girls to gather giggling with no veils, where unrelated men were at nearby tables, but society isn’t quite free enough that they feel like they can show their faces on a stranger’s camera. It’s probably their own parents who are policing their behavior because society norms change slowly even if the new legal freedoms have more ambition. But little interactions like this remind me why I travel. As the girls got ready to leave the cafe, they came over again and gave me a bouquet of balloons and said they were happy to meet me. Maybe me, with my different attitude, did a little to broaden their thoughts of who they can be.

New Year's Eve in Saudi

 

New Year, New Adventure. Starting off 2026 in Saudi Arabia has been amazing so far. Interestingly the Saudi’s recognize a different calendar, so there were no special activities or traditions on NYE. Instead, after a fancy dinner at a mountain top restaurant, we prepared for visiting Medina and shopped for our abayas (traditional female robes) at a busy local market. Towards midnight my group clicked glasses of non alcoholic beers and mocktails at the hotel cafe and made our own fun. One fun new thing was we read horoscopes and Chinese New Year zodiac predictions, which I think might have to be added to my annual NYE traditions.

Picnicking in Ha'il, Saudi Arabia

 

In Saudi, the long tradition of nomadic Bedouin culture still can be seen. One charming thing is that people love to picnic. They put out blankets and pitch tents right along the sides of the road and head out to camp in the desert. To get a feel for it, my group opted to spend an evening picnicking in a national park outside Ha’il. This is no stop-at-a-grocery-store-and-grab-a-loaf-of-bread-and-some-cheese kind of picnic. No, this is a full on multi plate dinner made on open fires, while we sat around an open fire in a huge tent lined with beautiful carpets and comfy pillows.

While the food was being prepped 2 of us opted to go walk around and check out the park and whole picnic scene. Right by us was another tent and when I looked over it was filled with a big group of Saudi youngish men.

Sidebar: throughout the whole trip, men in their throbes and keffiyeh (headscarves) continued to make me stop and take note. It’s all so beautiful and traditional and it really made my heart skip a beat over and over again. Keep in mind almost ALL the men were dressed this way. So imagine glancing over and seeing a group of men in a classic tent with Arabian carpets and think how my brain felt. Opportunity!!! Well, of course I immediately took out my phone and motioned asking if I could take a picture. The response was big waves and inviting us over to the tent. We were invited to join them for Saudi coffee and sweets and sat down to talk with them.

Caveat: all I ever want to do is speak to locals when I travel. In Saudi, the sexes are still pretty careful around each other, even if the laws have opened up to allowed more interaction with strangers. This meant I had hardly been able to talk to men on my women’s focused trip up to this point and with so many changes happening in society I was eager to hear people’s thoughts. This was my chance! I dove in! I used my brazen friendly open American way to ask tons of questions. I learned they were all cousins and they meet every couple of months to camp together and come from their homes in Qatar and around Saudi Arabia. At least 5 of them had gone to college in the US and had interesting thoughts of memories. They were excited about Vision 2030 and the aspiring goals for Saudi. By the time my guide wandered over and found us sitting there, the look on her face showed me that I wasn’t having a common occurrence. She left us to keep talking and after a bit we politely said our goodbyes. Sweetly one of them stopped by our tent later and offered us a dessert to try, hopefully giving a sign that they enjoyed the chance to speak to us as much as we did.

#ThisIsWhyITravel