Our Adventures in Jeddah

We decided to take scuba diving lessons this month with our friend, and relative, Marc. He and his wife Betty are moving to Shanghai in October so we took lessons from him before he left. We heard that the diving in the Red Sea is some of the best in the world, so we decided to try it.

After many hours in the pool at Marc and Betty's, four tests and a final, we were ready for a trip to Jeddah to certify as Open Water divers. We started our weekend on Wednesday by driving from Riyadh to Jeddah...Only 8 hours and really a beautiful drive across the desert. We were able to use the bathrooms at the local mosques when we stopped, which was quite interesting at times. Jeddah was really different from Riyadh...More relaxed in some ways and VERY humid! Our hotel was quite nice, and we took the bus from the hotel to the beach each day.

Betty was nice enough to watch the two youngest while we were diving and they really had a great time snorkeling in the lagoon. The water was the most beautiful color of blue-turquoise and the beach was really very nice with a grill and covered areas.

Our first dive was an easy one, and we were all pretty pleased...I even got some pictures on my disposable water camera. The problem came when I tried to get out. Everyone else was up the stairs, but I kept slipping and falling on the coral and ended up being pushed away by the waves. The coral and rock can be quite slippery and if you don't get out at a certain place, it isn't very fun. By the end of the day, both Emma and I had been washed away while getting our fins off and we both bear our own battle wounds on our legs. Our underwater camera ended up floating away and we were unable to recover it. We braved going in again, though, and got three dives in the first day. We took Friday off to visit with friends.

Friday we visited some wonderful friends in Jeddah and had a great time. Then we went to a great Lebanese restaurant. On our way to the restaurant, we were amazed by a few men walking their fancy camels just on the side of the road. I got some pictures out the car window. After dinner, Marc showed us around a little bit and we ended up at a little plaza near the sea. We got out and found the camels we had seen a few hours earlier. Our youngest didn't want anything to do with the camels, so he rode the little pony, but the kids got a great camel ride around the plaza. It was so fun! By the time we got back to our starting place, all the local vendors had gathered around to try to sell us what they had...And they don't give up very easily. The guy giving the pony rides wouldn't let our son off the pony until he had gone around the plaza three times...Jim finally had to just pull him off. The guy of course wanted the 3 times the fare we had talked about earlier (I can't help but feel for these guys...Half of them are supporting a family in another country and we are so incredibly rich comparatively.) We really had a great time, and it was fun to see Jeddah all lit up for Ramadan.

We did our last certification dive on Saturday morning and it was great. We went down to 18 metres that dive. After we were fully certified, we took a short break, changed tanks, and went down for a pleasure dive...That was fun. It's not so fun taking your mask off at 12 metres or showing you know how to remove cramps underwater or do an emergency controlled ascent from 6 metres, but it IS fun when you actually get to look at the fish and enjoy the reef wall. We saw little clown fish and got to play with them a little bit. We brought a banana down and fed some of the trigger fish, and we looked all over for the lion fish (Betty and Naomi found a baby in the lagoon while we were gone.) We really had a good time. By the end of the second dive, though, we were exhausted! We packed up and headed back to the hotel and back home.

Our drive to Jeddah was only 8 hours, but unfortunately, our drive back was 15 hours! We had just planned on 8, so we are exhausted! The signs from Jeddah directed us to another road than the one we came from and our map said it went generally the same way, so we decided to take it. To get to Jeddah from Riyadh, a Muslim can go straight through Makkah (Mecca), BUT if you are non-muslim, you need to go around because only muslims are allowed into the city. On the way, we had gone around the north of the city. On the way back, the signs directed us to the south of the city. After about 3 1/2 hours of driving, we were about 70km past Makkah when the road just stopped. Apparently, there was some construction and the road is not open. We had to drive back almost to where we had started from and go around Makkah the other way! It was already dark by then and we were not excited about the prospect! Long story short, we ended up getting back to Riyadh about 6:30 am. Jim stopped a few times at some gas stations to sleep when he was tired, so he was safe, but that drive went on FOREVER! Let's just say that I am really happy to be home. The kids lucked out and got another day off of school, too.

We are really pretty comfortable here. We enjoy that the Saudis are so family oriented. The abaya can be hot, but it is a great equalizer... And it is really pretty convenient. I wear a lot of long skirts and tshirts underneath. I don't have to worry much about my outfits when I go out...I can just be comfortable. The veil can be challenging...I have a hard time keeping it on my hair, but it can hide some bad hair days pretty well. People have really been kind to us here. We attract a little attention when we go out, but not too much. We are careful when we go out and respectful of the Saudi culture and we find that people are very nice to us. We are learning a few phrases in Arabic that help, too. Most of the people here seem to like Americans, even if they disagree with our foreign policy, and the foreigners I know from the compound let me know what is appropriate and what is not. For example, we cannot take pictures of mosques, although there are some very beautiful ones here. I wish I could record the call to prayer for you all (but realize that some do it a little better than others). Prayer time can be an inconvenience (like when we had to wait 30 minutes for gas yesterday), but I enjoy that these people are so devout that they would pray to God 5 times a day. The people here take their religion seriously and I really appreciate that about them.

So, we are enjoying our time here with little bouts of homesickness here and there. The school is excellent and our compound is very comfortable. Next month, we are learning to golf :) Take care and thank you for your emails and contact with us! I'll try to update our Saudi Sandlot when we have some more good pictures to add! Our computer hard drive crashed this month and although I have limited use right now, I am unable to post our pictures at this time. I'll ty to get them up as soon as possible, because there are some great pictures from our trip!
Love, J&J family