Author archive
5 January 2024
For breakfast this morning, we had the leftover curries and roti in a leisurely fashion. Fortunately, I had woken in the wee hours of the morning and taken them out of the fridge so they wouldn’t be too cold to eat. Today, we’re headed to Dumat Al Jandal we would use as a base to […]
4 January 2024
After exploring the sights around Al Hait, I took the wheel as E wasn’t feeling well. I wasn’t used to driving on the right-hand side of the road and sometimes ran into the textured line on the side of the road. This would wake him up and aggravate his headache. I handed the wheel back […]
4 January 2024
E woke up unwell in Al Hait today, with the beginning of a headache. He sounded congested as well. Could I have given him Covid-19 so soon after having had one himself? We had leftover bread from last night’s dinner, with cheese and set-off at 0945. He seemed well enough to handle the day. First […]
3 January 2024
Sorting out the car The hotel breakfast was an awesome buffet. We fuelled up big time at 0740 and departed on our road trip at 0900. First up, we went to the Budget office to report the slight suspension or shock absorber noise and hopefully change to a different car. It wasn’t serious but we […]
2 January 2024
High Speed Train Today we leave for Medina (Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah) by train to collect our rental car for a big road trip that will take us at least 2600km over 11 days. But we will overnight in Medina before starting the road trip in earnest tomorrow. I had been feeling a bit sweaty the last […]
1 January 2024
Our hotel booking came with breakfast included. I had actually booked many months ago but upon reviewing, I noticed that I could now get a better room with breakfast included for less than the original booking. It was a no brainer to rebook but this was a rare exception. Most of our hotels had gone […]
31 December 2023
Our Saudia A330 landed in Jeddah around 1730. With a lengthy walk and waiting for our luggage, we didn’t get into a car till 45 mins after landing. Traffic was heavy and it took about 35 mins to get to the Touq Balad Hotel near Jeddah’s historic district. Perhaps it was the traffic or maybe […]
31 December 2023
Rijal Alma We have time today to explore the sights west of Abha before flying out to Jeddah in the afternoon. My calculations suggested that we would have some buffer time to return the car and get to our flight if we left after 0800. After a breakfast of oats, rusk and cheese (again), we […]
30 December 2023
Al Jahamah I’m adapting to local time better and woke at 0430, then getting out of bed at 0630. After a breakfast of oats and milk, and cheese on rusk, we departed around 0900 for Abha with two stops planned, namely Al Jahamah historical village and Al Habla viewpoint. After about 1h40 on the road, […]
29 December 2023
Mud houses After a breakfast of muesli which I had brought along from Kuching, we headed out for a drive around 0830. We went on in search of some nice traditional mud houses and found some good ones south of Wadi Najran. Text continues after this gallery. Unfortunately, the Al Ukhdud archaeological area but […]