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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

I’m adjusting to local time still and woke at 0330.  I managed to doze till 0700 to prepare breakfast of leftover curries, steamed in the motel’s pot. We hit the road at 0915 on our way to Najran with via Wadi Lajab.  The road got windier as we headed inland and we reached Wadi Lajab […]

Getting to Farasan Having retired around 1900 and with 5h difference with Malaysian time in my body clock, I woke at 0100.  I managed to doze till the alarm at 0400. We had been advised verbally to have the car join the ferry queue at 0430 (but officially 0530 report time on the ticket) for […]