Al-Ula for the weekend

The 'Unique Palace'.

This time last week my wife and I travelled as part of a chartered group to the city of Al-Ula and the historic UNESCO world heritage site of Mada'in Saleh (or Al-Hijr or Hegra) in the north-west of Saudi Arabia. It's always refreshing to get away from the drab grind of work and get out to see another part of the world you hadn't previously visited. The bus trip in itself (8 hours both ways) was an adventure worth its own small story. Unfortunately, some members of our travelling posse were hardly cut from the same cloth as Livingstone, Amundsen, Shackelton etc. Pampered would be too kind a word to use to describe the above fellow travellers.

Not long after leaving our shared home/work base by the shores of the Red Sea the onboard morass was quickly underway as one of the unfortunate tour guides announced that wifi would be available on the said bus trip. The technologically starved hordes jumped upon the poor man as he swatted and ducked a barrage of questions and requests. Below is a sample of responses and enquiries he received -

• Whats' the code again?
• It's not working, can you give me the code again?
• How come it won't log on?
• It keeps saying incorrect password, am I doing something wrong?  
• Mine keeps cutting out, why is it not working?

A view of Al-Ula from the top of the old town fort.

There was a veritable hum of exasperated inconvenience that lay heavy in the air. People were so upset this wasn't the start to the exactly quoted and timed trip that the had expected. They were aghast at the thoughts of having to sit on the bus having to look at the countryside of their current host land, having to possibly read books, talk to their fellow passengers guides, or heaven forbid they'd have to engage with the guides about where exactly they were going, the history and culture of the place and peoples. I mean it was bad enough that the bus left almost twenty-five minutes after the supposed departure time. Thankfully, the majority of the horde was subdued with the first (of many) complimentary drinks (both hot and cold), snacks and various fruits...this was going to be a long trip.

One of our long-suffering guides.

The Saudi countryside meandered past our windows as we plodded further north, the countryside slowly transforming from the arid to the slightly less arid, to the patchy green, date farm dotted and mountainous features of our final destination. We passed through the city of Al-Ua via the outskirts of Medina (at least the parts us non-pilgrims as allowed to see). Both cities are veritable oases of commerce and life in the otherwise sparse setting they find themselves located in. We all engaged in a bout of continuous people watching as the locals went about their day-to-day business.

Then all at once from seeing the occasional hill and rocky outcrop we were suddenly surrounded by them. Al-Ula itself was snugly surrounded on most sides these rocks and hills. Al-Ula reminded me of a more pleasant and rural version of Jeddah. As we exited the city via the supposed only hotel in the place, we all began to wonder where we would be staying for the night. As I drifted into another daydream the bus unexpectedly veered off the motorway down a dusty, sandy track, panic bolted across the faces of those onboard. However, out of accompanying sand dunes our accommodation finally revealed itself. It was a nifty little set-up of recently built mock tents be it the mod-con and air-conditioned kind again surrounded by a natural bowl of rock.

'Elephant Rock'.

After 'checking-in', we sat down to have some al fresco lunch which looked and sounded like a good idea until the swarms of rabid flies turned up. We then left to return to Al-Ula to check out the old town and fort. It was fascinating to see these ancient structures all tumbled and jumbled on top of each other. I wondered how people ever lived in them, then the guide told us the last family moved out in 1975! We were then whisked away to view 'Elephant Rock' (you guessed it, it's a monolithic rock in the shape of an elephant) as the sun set on the desert. We were told we would be having dinner (again al fresco) at 7:00 p.m. We eventually had dinner about two and a half hours later as 'the pampered few' complained aloud at how they were tired and how it would be better just to go back to the camp to sleep. I mean they had a point, after all, it's paramount to get a few extra hours sleep in to prepare for another exhausting morning of being ferried around on an air-conditioned bus. I mean why would you choose to stay out under a beautiful starry night when you could be tucked up in bed complaining.

The next morning we departed for the 'big one', Mada'in Saleh, one of the ancient kingdoms of the Nabatean people. I mean the internet is great for giving you a sense of what it is you are about to experience. However, nothing compares to when you see something as amazing as Mada'in Saleh in person. I had never seen anything like it. These vast intricate tombs surrounded you everywhere you looked and to think they were only tombs.

The star of the show is undoubtedly the 'Unique Palace,' or Qasr al Farid. A standalone monolith that looks as if it was just dropped to earth from another dimension. The architecture and detail involved in these tombs were staggering, especially considering the technology available to the builders at the time. After Mada'in we visited the Hejaz railway station site. It's fair to say the guides were easily the most excited out of all of us to see the recently renovated site.

The Hejaz railway station.

The station was part of a vast Ottoman built a train line that linked Damascus to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. It served as one of the main routes for pilgrims to the holy cities that was until a certain T.E. Lawerence and his cohorts got involved. Thankfully our stay there was brief, and before we knew it, we were back in our desert camp for our lunch before the long journey home. After a brief 'freshen up' and lunch (this time thankfully held indoors) we were back on the long road home.

It was all looking like plain sailing home until the 'pampered few' raised their ugly heads again. The original plan was to have our Al Baik dinner box in a park usually only reserved for locals, we'd eat there thanks to our gracious hosts so as the driver could rest and our tour guides plus driver could say their prayers...that was the plan anyway. As we pulled up to the park, a collective howl of derision went up from the 'pampered few' as the guide filled us in on our dinner plans. The bus quickly became divided between those who wanted to stop and eat in the park and those who wanted to eat onboard, to save a few precious minutes on the 'arduous' commute home.

Shouts ran up about how people had meetings in the morning, how they were tired, how they didn't want to stop here, it was getting late etc. Even after one of the guides rightly pointed out the bus would stink for the remainder of the trip home and that eating onboard would be messy and cramped. In the end, there was a stalemate some got off to eat, some stayed on board, but the bus never moved. I'd just like to point out for those who don't know one of the biggest insults you can give a Saudi or Muslim person, in general, is to turn down an offer to eat together but manners and respect for other cultures weren't high on some of our fellow passengers agenda.

The mood had darkened as we got back on the bus with the majority of people pissed off with each other. Ironically, we stopped to refuel the bus (amazingly these things need to be refuelled when you drive such distances) only to see the forecourt and pumps were closed as the employees had just knocked off for the Salat al-Maghrib prayer much to the disdain of the 'pampered few' who crowed aloud once again.

• The pampered few: Why are we stopped now?
• Tour guide: Because we need to refuel. But now it's evening prayer time.
• TPF: When did it start?
• TG: Just now. Insha'allah it'll be over in 20 minutes or so.
• TPF: (Sardonically) More like 40 minutes then. We're tired, we want to get home early. Can we just keep going?
• TG: No, we need to refuel once the prayer time has finished we'll move on, thank you.
• TPF: Well it should have been better planned. How long is prayer time again? 

So not only were the mob intent to first insult our hosts by not eating with them, they were now prepared to comment on the 'nuisance' that a cultures nightly tradition was causing them. If we had gotten off the bus and entered the park as was originally planned, by the time we had finished eating the petrol station would be open, and we could refuel quickly and continue on our journey without having to stop again. But the absolute ignorance of a few caused us to have another unscheduled break. Thankfully some of us apologised for the ignorance of our fellow guests s we exited the bus to go to the toilet.

We eventually made it home just after midnight, exhausted but so happy that we decided to go on the trip in the first place. We were also happy that we got to see another part of this unique country. Thankfully, the ignorance of a few did not diminish the eagerness of our hosts to showcase their encamping homeland.

Prayer time in the desert.

The old houses in Al-Ula old town.