Explore Saudi Arabia

The past week was all about 'Discover Saudi Arabia'.
It all started with me driving to the northern part of Saudi Arabia for fieldwork from Monday to Wednesday. Our fieldwork took Sebastian (a post-doc from another research group), Amr (our Saudi fieldwork technician), and me to Duba, on the northern Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast, about 750 kilometers north of KAUST.
The journey itself was already an experience - among other things, we stopped on the side of the road and tried fresh honey straight from the honeycomb.

Oh, there's even something green at the arrow :-)

How is it possible for bees to produce honey in this area? Yes, even here in Saudi, there are occasionally green areas. They are very sporadic and often only last a few months a year, but still. That's why real honey from the region is very expensive - a jar starts at around 25 euros.
Duba itself is a very nice small town. Among the few places I have seen in Saudi so far, it is also one of the cleanest. Since tourism has not been a major topic here for a long time (except for pilgrims and a few Saudis who travel within the country), we were a real attraction. Or rather, I was... haha
Every time we docked at the harbor with the boat we had rented for diving, there were more men who absolutely wanted to 'check it out'. The boat driver's daughter even came just before we left to take a photo with me. It was all a bit strange, but everyone was nice.
Among other things, we were also invited to eat several times - my first authentic Saudi experiences in this regard.

Traditional Arabic food

The harbor of Duba in the evening and an Ottoman house

This 'authentic' Saudi Arabia experience also includes the hotel amenities. It includes an Arabic toilet (yuck) and instead of the obligatory Bible in the bedside table, a Quran and prayer mat. The 'service' even went so far as to provide worn-out old flip-flops so that we wouldn't have to go barefoot in the shower toilet.. (Fortunately, I had my own)

The fieldwork was also quite successful. I took tissue samples from my mussels there and counted shells again. The reef where we were working was really beautiful, with lots of corals, fish, and of course, killer clams.

Fortunately, it wasn't as cold as I feared. The water is still warm at 25 degrees (although I now need my 5mm wetsuit and a hood) and the air was probably still around 27-28 degrees.

At work

On the way back on Wednesday, we only briefly stopped on the side of the road to 'visit' a group of camels. They are almost everywhere here, but usually I couldn't get close to them because we often traveled by bus rather than by car.

That was definitely a highlight of the trip, especially because there were a few young camels in the group! It got a bit eerie when one of the camels became curious and started slowly following me. As nice and friendly as they always seem, I don't think you want to mess with them.

But the exploration of Saudi Arabia for this week was not yet over with this field trip.
Felix and I were spontaneously invited to join a few friends on a weekend excursion. So on Friday afternoon, we set off with 12 other people into the desert. When you are on the roads here, you always discover something bizarre, for example, this converted bus that serves as a pick-up truck... The inspection probably wouldn't be too thrilled about it, haha.
The first stop of our trip was a dilapidated Ottoman fort:

The only annoying thing during these trips is wearing the abaya. (If it's very remote and far from any settlement, I usually don't wear it, but if there's a chance of running into Saudis, it's better to be safe).
Then we continued to the 'Moon Mountain', a mountain surrounded by granite/sandstone rocks somewhere in the middle of nowhere. There were also a lot of Saudis there - but everything was different than usual. Because here in the desert, people get together on the weekends and turn the rules upside down. Everything was professionally prepared, with a DJ and all (of course, without alcohol, although I'm not so sure if some people didn't bring their own private cocktails, haha). Anyway, a lot of Saudi girls were walking around there in T-shirts and without headscarves.
We parked our cars a little apart and started climbing around in the 'mountains'.

After sunset, we sat comfortably by the campfire and enjoyed delicious grilled food.

Currently, it is still cool enough for such trips. The temperatures don't drop below 20 degrees at night, but it's still close.
That's it for today.
Best regards
Felix and Susann