Honestly travel is my all time like forever hobby but it requires lots of patience to earn and spend to explore desired destinations.
Similar to telepathy, I guess, The National Geography recently aired the beautiful travel documentary “Postcards from Saudi Arabia” which is available on JioHotstar. A must-watch travel documentary.
I was completely indulged in the documentary last night with the most stunning actor and host Ridhi Dogra. This documentary would not have made so perfect if she wasn’t hosting it! simply marvellous. Its just not only about the beautiful places that she has covered in this documentary, but the way she has portrayed it, her elegance, her gorgeous looks, beautiful accessories and the way she has dressed up is classically alluring! its just mesmerising to intrigued with her throughout the journey of SAUDI ARABIA!
“Where an ancient trade meets most marvels modern architecture and the warm golden sand makes the way to ocean, welcome to Saudi Arabia!” so poetic.
‘The First’ place she has spotted is Alula, which was opened for public in 2020, 8-10 hours of journey from India via Jeddah. Well, I got stuck in-between while I and Ridhi were reaching to this place, it’s fun to imagine ourselves while watching this magical journey! isn’t it ;). But where was I stuck? I stuck in the name, Alula: what does that mean? Alula in Arabic is “The First”(courtesy: of-course, Google) which references the first jump to gazelle.
The journey was by road, and so was easy to get along with different places. As we move ahead we reach to ‘Hegra’ 22km from the heart of the city. Not to forget we’ve had a ravi, an Arabic story teller named Amal! she was a guide who helped us understand the history.
Hegra is a door to Saudi’s Nabataean archaeological site and Saudi’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site! This troop of civilisation was ancient and known for their mastery in trade and rock-carving skills. The travellers were stopping there for Water, and the oasis had 109 tombs and 130 wells.
One of the important mentions by Amal was a tomb of a massive rock of 22 meters high decorated with 4 towering plasters, named Tomb of Lihyan a Son of Kuba, an ancient Arab kingdom especially was known for impressive artistry and ingenuity, structured and carved into sandstone.
While moving ahead what I experienced is a mysterious arabic background music which makes us peculiarly stick into the surroundings. Around the mountains there is girls mountain “Jabal al Banat” in Arabic, known as “Mountain of Daughters” or “Girls Mountain” beautifully carved utterly out of respect for the daughters.
16km from Hegra, and 25km from the city, Ridhi chose to stay in the Caravan. Brilliant!
Moving forward about 21km from staycation there was Alula old town! This place had 900 mud brick houses and 500 shops of Traditional Pottery, Hand painted scarves, truncates and other Souvenirs.
Alula’s first design centre is another example of the beautiful combination of an Art and Innovation. Furthermore we visited a beautiful hand crafted 52 metres high Elephant rock! In one of the centers named Dan Tantora (Arabian Sundial, a timekeeper for centuries which has more than 1700 candles), another mud house where an Arabic man welcomed and greeted us by “Hayakallah” meaning Pleasure to meet you! We then moved to Alula Music Hub, where we met Hani and Mustafa, who were music instructors playing beautiful Guitar like instrument or was it a Guitar? No, it was Oud a popular instrument in Arab and Eastern world.
Jeddah, is Saudi Arabia’s commercial capital and beloved port city. Another gateway to Makkah! Well, meaning of Jeddah, is a GRANDMOTHER in ARABIC! four and a half hours direct flight from Mumbai.
While searching for hotel, we landed in historical Al Badad, founded in 7th century and centre of Jeddah! Al Badad meaning ‘the town’, has 650 historic buildings. Imposing tower houses were constructed in western Saudi Arabia, region of Hijaz. These houses are carved in stone and wood, tick-wood from India and coral stones extracted from the Red sea. Interesting part of this city was Cats everywhere! very quite cats, wasn’t seen cat fights! shoo quite please another CAT is seated next to my room but this Cat is not CAT (Common Admission Test) Ha ha ha!
Beit Jokhdar, is a boutique hotel, with only 9 rooms, marvellous interior steeped into history of Old Jeddah. Baeshen house, famous home of Tea trader, Saudi’s prominent trading family of 1856, which has now preserved as beautiful museum, opened to public and filled with rare photographs and manuscripts. Interestingly this trade was sending boats to India to get back the rice, sugar and other goods for the Arabian market. We met the decadent lady of the house in cafe inside the Baeshen house. With this meeting to Baeshen house we found a beautiful connection to India, through trades and secrets! Real fairytale.
Ah! there we go my favourite Oud fragrance, is natural resin extracted from the agar-wood tree originally found in India and Bangladesh, exported to Middle East and some parts of Assia. Reached to Saudi through Silk route and today Saudi consumes 60% of Oud trade all over the world.
Jeddah, second largest city of Saudi Arabia and the biggest city on the Red sea, a port and gateway to Saudi’s imports and exports filled with different nationalities from Yemen, Syria, Egypt!
We had a very special lunch invitation from Hadeel who runs Qunnateer who teaches Arabic and Saudi culture to visitors. We had been offered Coffee with Dates! And then Mutabbaq for lunch. Mutabbaq means ‘Folded’ in Arabic, well, for me it’s not Khallas until I taste this delicious dish! 🙂
Further we headed to Bab Makkah! Three arches gateway and holistic place from where we enter to souq market. Wait a minute is this place familiar to me? as it was resembling the Gold Souq market of Dubai, which I visited last year. Here Ridhi bought a bag of Dates! Islamic arts Biennale, an art centre filled with historic artefacts, further we visited to TeamLab borderless first digital art museum of Saudi Arabia and Middle East. Beautiful and mesmerising experience with classic soundtrack. Very artistic exposure!
Riyadh, a capital city and largest city of Saudi Arabia, four and a half hours from Mumbai and guess what, Riyadh has 7 million of Indian population! Well, what is the meaning of Riyadh? Riyadh means gardens, beautiful isn’t it? These gardens are located amongst the modern architecture of the steel buildings. Further, we visited Al Diriyah, first capital of Saudi dynasty. We saw a family tree of Imam Mohammad Bin Saud who established first Saudi state back in 1727.
Al-Tuarif within district of Al Diriyah, is UNESCO’s World Heritage Site since 2010 and regarded as Saudi’s first birthplace. This place is distinguished by Al Firaj or Najdi style triangle which looks quite similar to Warli painting an ancient tribal art form originating from the Warli people of Maharashtra, India. Al Diriyah’s Horse Museum is preserver of elegance and power of history.
VIA Riyadh, is a luxury lifestyle destination in the heart of capital wrapped in stunning art and artefacts. In VIA Riyadh we entered in Gymkhana, where we tasted Pani Puri, that was homely feeling, isn’t it Ridhi?
After experiencing Metro for first time in Saudi, we reached to Lulwa Al- Homoud is Saudi Arabia’s contemporary artist whose art has reached around every corner of the world. We explored her arts which communicates in Arabic language, Geometric shapes and the Calligraphy art. She studied sociology in King Saudi university. Her beautiful and creative work reflects the spirit of modern Najdi woman! Loved it. This further extended to Najdi Village where we met an Indian family which was living in Riyadh since 25 years, what delicious dinner we had been offered. Thank you 🙂
For the last destinations I would suggest to watch this most intriguing travel documentary. Salute to National Geography, Cameraman and again the gorgeous Ridhi Dogra. I think this is my lengthiest article on someone else’s journey as if it was my own. Cheers!