Tourist visas have only been available for Saudi Arabia for the last few years, but Allan stepped across the border from Jordan once when he was thirteen years old. His family had traveled to the Gulf of Aqaba for the best snorkeling Allan has ever experienced. He particularly remembers a carpet of sea urchins, and that his dad stepped on one. All of a sudden, on the beach, there was a sign marking where Saudi Arabia began. He grinned when he told me that there was no one around, so of course he crossed the border.
Here in Southern California, Little Arabia in Anaheim is home to thousands of Arab-Americans (https://www.littlearabiadistrict.com/), but the restaurants I have found there are mostly Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian, so I tried to get more specific to Saudi Arabia by visiting Soriana Restaurant in Los Angeles. Cathy agreed to meet Chris and me there. She even ordered the fried kebbeh and had it waiting for us when we arrived. Chris chose the kabsa chicken (the medium spicy option between the mild mandi chicken and the spicy madghout chicken). I added the fattoush salad and we had masoub for dessert, a combination of bread, cream, honey, molasses, banana, and pistachio that I’ve never had before. The owners were gracious and encouraged us to order one thing at a time so we could enjoy each individually. If you wanted to make them for yourself, here are some recipes:
I went heavier into history than literature for this country. I read The Siege of Mecca by Yaroslav Trofimov first. I thought it was fascinating that while I knew quite a bit about the hostages in Iran, I knew nothing about what was happening in Saudi Arabia at the same time. The Los Angeles County Library has this book in hard copy, on CD, by ebook, and by eaudiobook, so it’s not at all hard to access.
Next I read The Bin Ladens by Steve Coll. The Bin Ladens had showed up in The Siege of Mecca because, having renovated the mosque, they held the plans to the areas captured by the militants. Coll’s book is well written and shows the Bin Laden family history as a significant part of Saudi history. The Los Angeles County Library also has this book in multiple formats.
To get more background, I watched:
· Arabia after World War I from the Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/euro-hist/middle-east-20th-century/v/arabia-after-world-war-i
· Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia, a documentary from Frontline. I was engrossed the whole three hours! It comes in two parts:
After all that history, I read The Green Bicycle by Haifaa Al Mansour, a middle school book that I picked up from the San Bernardino County Library. As a tourist in Saudi Arabia, it is doubtful that I would see behind the high walls and protective measures surrounding women to where girls play computer games with their fathers or compete in school. I enjoyed The Green Bicycle because it wasn’t what I expected.
To tell the truth, there were more options to travel to Saudi Arabia while staying at home that I hadn’t expected:
· The Saudi soap opera on Netflix called Takki.
· Art from Arabia’s pre-history: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/global-prehistory-ap/paleolithic-mesolithic-neolithic-apah/a/anthropomorphic-stele
· The music of Waed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6VyZ2S8wuA&t=6s
· Seeing the instruments that make this Arabic sound and realizing that some of them are familiar to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvSXe8s0KKM&t=13s
My favorite thing that I didn’t expect was the series on Saudi Arabia by Oskar and Dan, two Swedish guys traveling the world. They visited in February of this year. I loved their perspective, not only on today’s Saudi Arabia, but that they looked for and found the vegan options – who knew! I watched all four, but if you only watch one, I recommend the first one:
· We Went To Saudi Arabia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvSTLwpRkuM
· Our INSANE Day In Rural Saudi Arabia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHQE19tPgc8
· Our 48 Hours Of Van Life In Saudi Arabia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqfY0GZOC2o
· The Extreme Contrasts Of Saudi Arabia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ3knm9d7G4
Here is the Saudi tourism site https://www.visitsaudi.com/en and a selection of places to go from Atlas Obscura https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/saudi-arabia/places. I would love to go (and that was unexpected for me to say). I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Saudi Arabia and throughout the world.
Photo Credit: Abdulrhman Alkhnaifer https://unsplash.com/photos/kUANvJwGN4M
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