Jeddah

Well I don’t know what I expected, but Jeddah is not what I expected.

It is split between somewhat poor and palatial estates. The old city was poor, old and rundown. But it had an unusual architectural aspect. All the buildings had wooden additions that kind of looked like balconies added as an afterthought. (There is a term for this architectural feature but for the life of me I can’t remember it.)



Outside the old city there were palatial compounds reminiscent of multi-million dollar houses in Florida, with a slightly Middle Eastern feel.



The city is full of empty lots with piles of garbage sometimes smack dab between two amazing palaces. There did not appear to be any zoning. Houses were next to gas stations.

There were sculptures all over town. The city had more sculptures than any city I have ever been to.



That being said, due to Islamic rule, not a single sculpture was in the image of man. They were all modern art. And if they had a distinct directional aspect, they were always oriented to point to Mecca according to our guide.

The city seriously siestas. Everything is closed from 1-5pm and the streets become ghost towns. This naturally arose from it being the hottest time of the day, in an extraordinarily hot place, and people avoiding the heat.

So some interesting information I picked up about Jeddah. Women are not allowed to drive. They are allowed to have what our guide referred to as soft professions; they can be doctors, bankers and teachers. I think what he meant by soft is not physically challenging professions. But they must have a driver if they want to get anywhere.

Despite our guide saying that women were treated fairly, it was quite noticeable that there were far fewer women on the street than men. (And the women were quite noticeable as they were all in black.) All women wear abayas, the black wrist to neck to feet garb. We were told that this is Saudi tradition. In order to respect local tradition and custom, and for all I know to prevent us from being hung, this included us tourists. So I wore an abaya for the day.

This is an abaya shop in old town.



I could help but notice the fact that American franchises were everywhere. I mean, I guess I expected McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC and Baskin Robbins, which are ever present in the Middle East. But they had every American Franchise ever known, Chili’s, Fuddruckers, Hardee’s, Applebees, Ruby Tuesday’s, T.G.I. Fridays, Chucky Cheeses, Krispy Kremes, Pizza Hut and more. It was a bit strange.

Just about everything was in Arabic and English, which surprised me. And I couldn’t help but notice that the graffiti was mostly in English. For a culture which is so distinctly different, they sure seemed to have taken to our language and franchises.

We were as much interested in them as they were interested in us. A media outfit actually followed us around to get video of the mostly American tourists. That was a bit weird. Oh, and we were not allowed to go ashore unescorted. We had to be on a guided tour. This, as alien as it sounds, is also the case for most people in Russia. However, in Russia, it is possible to get a visa to go unescorted, it is just an effort and expensive so most people don’t.

Oh and the fish market. I am not sure why the fish market is considered an attraction, but it seems like every city I go on tour in, we stop to see the fish market. I am not clear on the appeal. It stinks and there are fish. But here is the obligatory picture.



Finally the museum, which was quite picturesque. The museum itself was packed full of interesting exhibits, from modern art, to Islamic art, to medieval weapons, to vases, to science exhibits. It was quite impressive and worth hours if not days.



Oh, and I can't write a blog about Jeddah without including a picture of a mosque.



The immigrant population should also be mentioned. Like most of the urban Middle East, Jeddah has a huge population of Indians and Filipinos.

My final experience in Jeddah, after going back through customs, there was a man handing to each of us Islamic proselytizing packets complete with CD.



Cool: having been to Saudi Arabia