West Asia

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Tabuk’s Hejaz station and fortress

Driving to Tabuk We wanted to give the Al Jouf Regional Museum one more chance, as it looked impressive from the outside. We turned up at 0730, the time indicated on Google Maps to find it completely dead. So, we returned to the hotel and once fed and checked-out, we gave it one final shot […]

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Sights around Dumat Al Jandal and Sakaka

Marid Castle The Al Farhan hotel came with a good buffet breakfast on the top floor.  After a leisurely start, we left at 0945 to the Al Jouf Regional Museum, which was closed, and its adjoining outdoor area which was Marid Castle. The construction technique at Marid Castle walls comprised of rock bottom with mud […]

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Jubbah petroglyphs, hospitality & museums

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 […]

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Driving to Hail

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 […]

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Fadaq & keystone tombs

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 […]

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A big failed day

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 […]

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Exploring Medina

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 […]

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Old Jeddah by day

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 […]

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Old Jeddah by night

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 […]

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Rijal Alma & Soudah viewpoint

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 […]

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