Random things I saw in Jeddah

This might be more than usually random, but I have nothing to add.

Opening up to the tourist trade

Nothing remarkable about this picture, but it makes me smile. All of the tour guides in Saudi Arabia were charming, and so eager to show us their country even as they struggled to figure out this whole “tourism” thing.

Where was I again?

I'm laid up with a nasty cold, so maybe I can actually finish up with Saudi Arabia in this decade. Yesterday I was wishing for death; today if I'm lying down watching television I don't feel terrible, but the minute I do something strenuous—like walking to the kitchen—I urgently need a nap.

Here's an interesting juxtaposition of the three stages of building repair in old town Jeddah.

Saturday reflections

I have no idea what this building in Jeddah is (though I do like the marching camels), but there's the Arabian sky, reflected, so here it is.

Urban poetry

King Faud's Fountain, seen in the distance the night we left Jeddah. It's the tallest water fountain in the world, because of course it is.

Sunday bird blogging

Pigeons on a building in Jeddah. With reflections, so two birds with one photo, so to speak.

This wasn't a fun week. I've been having laptop issues for the past few weeks, so I've had multiple visits to the Apple store, and had to work around all of this to try to get all of my class materials done. There has been a certain amount of yelling and cursing, and I have to admit it was not always directed at inanimate objects.

The laptop is still on life support, despite paying $250 dollars and three days downtime for a new battery, but I'll scream about that next week.

On the streets of Al Balad

Is it obvious that classes have started again? I will post the remaining Jeddah pictures, but the pictures that haven't been processed yet (Knossos, Ephesus, Yanbu) will have to wait a while.

Urban poetry

I think this counts as urban poetry: the outdoor seating area of a cafe in Jeddah honoring Muhammad Ali.

As a world-famous Muslim, Ali was very popular in Saudi Arabia. He visited many times, first making the Hajj in 1972.

Minaret

I couldn't decide which of these photos of the minaret of the Al Shafi mosque in Jeddah I liked better—the one with more detail? Or the one with more context? So I'm posting both.

The mosque is the oldest in Jeddah, dating from the 13th century, though it has undergone extensive renovations.

Saturday reflections

The courtyard of the Al Shafi mosque in Jeddah.

Our Days of Bliss

This small museum recreates the interior of the old houses of Al Balad as they looked a hundred years ago.

They served us Saudi coffee, which is very different from the Turkish or Greek-type coffee I was expecting. This was made from very lightly roasted beans that were still green, so the beverage looked more like green tea than coffee, and it had cardamom and other spices in it.

Not anachronistic at all

As we walked through Al Balad, we constantly had to jump aside to avoid the golf carts that the construction crews, and occasionally other, unidentified but obviously official, types were driving. And when the walk was over and it was time for us to meet the bus taking us back to the ship, we also went by golf cart. I took the picture on the right through the windshield as we careened around corners at a speed I hadn't realized golf carts could achieve, while the call to prayer from multiple mosques echoed through the streets.

That's actually my favorite memory of Jeddah. (The horse-drawn carriages at Petra have also been replaced with golf carts, and while I appreciate how much more efficient the carts must be, not to mention cheaper to feed, I did miss the carriages.)

More blues and greens

Those same colors are used for doors and decoration throughout Al Balad.

Blues and greens

Most of the rawasheen are left the natural teak color, but some of them are painted green or blue.

Rawasheen

Al Balad became a thriving port in the 7th century. And because it is less than 50 miles from Mecca, Al Balad was, and Jeddah is, a gateway city for pilgrims. The 650 buildings in the district—now a UNESCO World Heritage site—mostly date from the 19th century; many were built from blocks of coral carved out of the nearby Red Sea, with distinctive wooden balconies called rawasheen (singular roshan).

Many of the buildings are dilapidated and some are in danger of collapsing, as the steep cost of upkeep led to many of the families leaving for the newer, more modern living options in Jeddah's suburbs. The Ministry of Culture has now financed a full restoration project, and the streets were full of construction crews when we were there. The pictures show examples of rawasheen on a building that has been restored next to one that is still waiting its turn.

Saturday reflections

A window in central Jeddah.

Building and rebuilding Jeddah

The picture on the left shows the view on the other side of the corniche in Jeddah. New hotels, new offices, new everything. And it looked like that all over central Jeddah.

The picture on the right shows another busy construction site, but this is renovation rather than new construction, in Al Balad, the oldest district in Jeddah.

The green Red Sea

I loved the colors of the water by the corniche. I think those are rocks covered with algae or seaweed but it was hard to tell.

Back to Jeddah

As I mentioned previously, this dumb sign was the big attraction on our tour of the corniche in Jeddah, along with the distant view of the “only partially built, but may eventually be” tallest building in the world. But I do like that I managed to frame one of the locals in the first giant D.

Leaving Jeddah

I admit I'm a little weary of ruins and there are still so many to go through: Olympia, Ephesus, Knossos.

So here's something from this millennium—a tugboat arriving to escort us out of the very busy harbor at Jeddah.