Happy people in Saudi Arabia

February 5, 2025, to March 10, 2025

We are traveling through the south of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We really enjoy the landscape with its many mountains and the contact with the Saudis. The south is much less visited by tourists. We don’t meet any other travelers, but we do meet hearty Saudis.

Dance Festival in Layla

In Layla, we visit a museum, a collection of everyday objects from the last generation. After the visit, we are approached by a pedestrian. He invites us to join the weekly local festival here. A festival with the local population is, of course, great; it’s the icing on the cake of our trip. Gabi says it’s more like jam on a sandwich, but it’s definitely one of those situations that greatly enriches our travels to foreign countries and increases the opportunity to understand the other culture. We walk with our street acquaintance to the festival grounds; an empty square, with no indication of a festival. It doesn’t take long before the pickup trucks with the carpets arrive. The entire square is carpeted, as is customary in the Arab world. Next comes a large music system with enormous speakers, which is wired under the carpets, and more and more people, men, appear. Then the drums and the electric piano are delivered. Using a little fire, the drums are heated to the correct temperature so that their tones are synchronized. More and more men appear, leaving Gabi as the only woman in the square. The music starts and the drummers tune up. The men line up in two opposite rows and dance towards each other to the music. There are young and old present, most in their traditional costumes, but also young people in jeans and baseball caps. It’s a very cheerful and intimate atmosphere. As a man, I’m immediately invited to join in the dancing. As a non-dancer, this is a bit unusual for me, but the dance steps aren’t that complicated choreographed, rather relaxed, so I manage to do it reasonably well. The men dance, chat, and simply sit comfortably outside the rugs. There’s no alcohol or anything else to drink, which would be unthinkable in our culture. But the men here demonstrate that in a larger group of men, you can certainly have a happy and joyful celebration without alcohol. Gabi was “only” allowed to watch – and film – but we were very impressed by the human warmth we received in Layla. A happy coincidence on our journey through the Orient, one we will never forget.

Happy moment

The Ibex Reserve is a reserve under development. It is located in a beautiful valley and is enclosed by a fence. The native ibex are being reintroduced here. We properly check in with the ranger and are, as usual, invited to tea and dates. We can’t drive into the reserve in our own vehicle, but the ranger will drive us in. He does this once in the morning and once in the evening. You see fewer animals in the evening because it gets dark, so we prefer to be driven in the morning. No problem. An employee shows us a beautiful spot in the middle of the wilderness where we can spend the night. The next morning, we arrive punctually at 7:00 a.m., as befits the Swiss. However, the departure doesn’t begin until a little after 8:00 a.m. A whole group of schoolchildren, all boys, come along, so we’re a relatively large group. We stop briefly several times to hopefully see ibexes, but otherwise we race through the reserve like a rally car. We don’t see any animals, but the contact with the young Saudis, who all speak three or four words of English, was exciting and resulted in some nice portraits. Even without ibexes, the valley is beautiful and truly fenced off; no camels and no farmers. We were captivated by the nature and the interaction with the young Saudis; it was another happy day on our trip.

Encounters

In Saudi Arabia, we meet real locals again, Saudis. In the UAE, we hardly met any locals, but rather expats. The foreign workers in Saudi Arabia are not Indians and Bangladeshis like in the UAE, but Yemenis. Since Saudi Arabia was at war with Yemen for a long time, this is somewhat surprising to us. But the people explain to us that the Saudis didn’t go to war against Yemen, but only against the Houthis. The Houthis are a terrorist organization of the Zaydi sect, a Shiite sect in Yemen.

Our acquaintance in the UAE referred us to his friend in the KSA, Mohamed. Mohamed calls himself Abu Bakr, which means “father of Bakr.” He truly welcomes us in Tabuk like a friend. He leads us through the entire city in search of long-term parking, and finally, he drops us off on his farm. He comes to visit us every day and, as a matter of course, drives us to the airport before our departure. It’s a good feeling to be welcomed so warmly. We’re not sure if we’d receive a similar welcome in Europe!

Technology Pitfalls

After parking for lunch, we suddenly heard a rather loud hissing sound. Air is escaping somewhere that shouldn’t be. After a brief search, we discover it’s an air cylinder for our automatic cabinet locking system. When we start the MAN’s engine, all cabinets and drawers are automatically locked with compressed air to prevent any cabinet doors from opening while driving over hill and dale. This is done with an air cylinder that operates a hook, once closed when the large engine is started, and once opened when manually operated. When the cylinder is extended, in the open position, it loses air pressure. We continue to lose air until the air tank is empty. This is unpleasant because then we no longer have any compressed air and, above all, because it produces a long, very penetrating hissing noise. However, it’s not critical to the system because the cylinder is still sealed in the closed position, so we don’t lose any air pressure while driving. However, since the locking system is only connected to the last pressure vessel for safety reasons, this would be harmless while driving, as the first pressure vessels wouldn’t be affected. We won’t even bother looking for a suitable cylinder in KSA; we’ll buy one in Europe and take it with us. We’ll simply continue our journey with hissing or loud hissing noises.

For a smile

At MAN Jeddah, we want to clarify whether we could possibly park Globi here over the hot summer. The clarifications drag on for hours, and in the end, we decide against this option, but we will have our regular annual service done here upon our return. After making the decision, we want to leave again but are held back. It’s now 2:00 p.m. In Jeddah, there is a truck driving ban between 12:00 noon and 10:00 p.m.! Jeddah and Riyadh seem to be extremely restrictive for trucks. We discuss the possibility of simply ignoring the ban with the MAN officials. They strongly advise us against it; in extreme cases, we could be deported, even though we consider ourselves a motorhome and not a commercial truck. We spend the entire afternoon and evening, including dinner, in the idyllic parking lot of the MAN Jeddah workshop. Our enthusiasm is boundless. When we finally set off at 10:00 p.m., the traffic is as busy as rush hour. Fortunately, in the darkness, we don’t see all the wild drivers speeding across the road from all directions. We leave Jeddah without being aware of an accident.