As we mentioned at the end of our last post, when we arrived for dinner on Monday, Leo, the Maitre D’, told us that as far as he knew, we would be alone at the table and would we mind if he seated another couple with us. When we said we would be happy to have company he thanked us and said “Mr. Hugh Downs and his wife Ruth like to sit with different people each night.” How often does one get to have dinner with a legend??? Needless to say, the dinner conversation was fascinating. One of the more interesting facts is that at 88 years of age he is licensed to fly virtually anything that does, including hot air balloons, and the only thing that “prevented” him from flying on the space shuttle with John Glen, was his wife Ruth. He went through all of the training with Glen and although he was never actually considered to participate, he was medically and physically qualified to go!!! It was a great evening and we both hope we are as active and full of joie-de-vive at age 88 as the Downs’ obviously are! He told us this is his third retirement and he is hoping this one “sticks”.
The other all encompassing topic of discussion on Monday was our visit on Tuesday to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In retrospect, the best way to describe the atmosphere all over the ship is to paraphrase Winston Churchill; “Never in the history of human travel, has so much energy been so expended by so many for so little.” Whether it was the requirement for the women to wear the sack-like Abhayah at all times, or how much hair they could show without it being “too much”, or the fact that ALL the alcohol on the ship, including from guest cabins, had to be locked up, the ship was buzzing. Several “public service” announcements on these subjects from the Cruise Director at the various shows seemed to only heighten the “tension”. I think it is safe to say almost everyone went to bed Monday wondering what to expect Tuesday morning.
After all the build up, one almost expected to open the blinds Tuesday and find the Clothing Police, the Hair Police and the Alcohol Police standing at the bottom of the gangway, slapping truncheons in their palms and ready to deal with any miscreant Infidels! In reality what we got was two guys in traditional Arab dress trying to decide the best place to set up a table (they moved it three times in the course of 20 minutes!) and several rather bored-looking Security types. Onboard, in the meantime, the most common sight was women fussing with their head scarves and trying to get their hair to stay covered up, while bemused husbands (who’s only dress requirement was to wear closed shoes - “It’s a Man’s World in Arabia!!”) looked on and offered unhelpful comments. The best line of the day has to go to Manuel, the Cove Barkeep; “With all these people in black robes scurrying back and forth I felt like I was working in a monastery!!”
Monica in her abhaya and white running shoes - indicative of most of the women on tour
We had been told that we would be bussed to the terminal to clear Immigration, the Final Arbiters of how much hair showing was “too much”, and would then start our tours. Finally it was time to board the buses, so with a final tug at the skirt and a touch of the hair we were off. To much ado about nothing. We’re not actually sure the Immigration Officers even looked at the women, never mind how much hair they were showing!!! Once aboard the buses, the scarves came off for the rest of the day and no one seemed to notice. Or care.
We are really not sure what we expected to find in exotic Jeddah; camels in the streets, flying carpets in the air, temples right out of 1001 Arabian Nights??? Whatever it was, we didn’t get it. What we did get was a rather gritty Western city much like any other Western city we have ever visited. If it wasn’t for the Arabic script on all the signs, we could have been anywhere, or on Yonge Street south of Steeles for anyone who has been there lately. We’re not saying it was boring, far from it, but it certainly wasn’t what comes to mind when you think of a visit to “Saudi Arabia”.
In the lead up to our visit, both the lecturers and the Cruise Director had told us that ours was the first cruise ship to visit Jeddah and the visit was generating a lot of local media coverage. (As a side-note, we actually were accompanied by a local news crew for the entire tour.) The lecturers in particular had warned us that Jeddah’s “tourist industry” was virtually non-existent and not to expect the sort of “polished” tours that we might get in other locations. We think our tour guide must have been eavesdropping on that lecture, because he repeated that statement almost verbatim in his introduction on the bus once we left the Immigration inspection. He said that many areas we would be visiting, particularly in Old Jeddah, will one day become major tourist attractions. As you can see from the pictures, that day hasn’t come yet!! Far from it actually. What the pictures don’t show are the cracked and broken pavement, the boarded up shops and homes that look like they may tumble into the street at any minute. This is Old Jeddah as it is today and our guide didn’t attempt to “sugar coat” what we were seeing, but he did try and put it into perspective. He told us that the government wants to promote Jeddah as a tourist destination but first the money must go into creating the “infrastructure” to support tourism. Things like the new luxury hotels we saw later, the waterfront area and the brand new (so new they still had plastic covers on the seats) buses we were riding in. Once this is done Old Jeddah will get a much-needed facelift.
A typical building in the old part of Jeddah
One of the restored buildings in the heart of downtown, now converted into a museum
Day tours such as this, in such a big city (1.4 million people) usually mean a lot of time on the bus, and this one was no exception. From Old Jeddah we proceeded to the main fish market. This may seem like an unlikely stop, but it was actually quite interesting. Jeddah is the major Saudi port on the Red Sea with a thriving local fishing industry and everything we saw in the various stalls had been swimming in the Red Sea earlier that day. And as you can see from the pictures, the local vendors were only too happy to show off their “catch-of-the-day” to the visiting “infidels”.
From the market our tour continued to The Corniche, the Jeddah equivalent of the French Riviera waterfront. Here is where the luxury hotels, restaurants, “Western” beaches and the King’s Palace are located. This is also the location of the (apparently) famous Jeddah Fountain, which shoots water 365 feet in the air at speeds up to 350 KMH. When it is running, which unfortunately is not during the day, so we missed it, although we could see it in the distance as we sailed out in the evening.
One of the things Jeddah is famous for, at least in this part of the world, is the eclectic mix of sculpture along the beachfront and in the traffic roundabouts. Some of these pieces are a bit odd and modern, yet they seem to fit in. Here’s one of the more interesting ones:
In describing it during a talk, one of the lecturers referred to it as the artist’s commentary on Jeddah drivers.
Also located in this area is the “almost famous” Floating Mosque, which really doesn’t float but is built on pylons out over the water to give it that impression. We “infidels” were not allowed to go inside of course, but we did get some video. After lunch at a local French/Arabic restaurant (still not quite sure what we ate, but it was tasty!) and a visit to a rather eclectic private museum/art gallery, it was time to return to the ship. Going back through the local Immigration officials actually took longer than it did to get into the country in the first place!!!
The Floating Mosque
Outside the restaurant with our tour guide, Maher
As you can see from the picture, our guide was a young fellow and he admitted that yesterday was his first time acting as a guide, something that was not readily apparent to us. Like many of his peers in Jeddah, and Saudi Arabia as a whole, he is US-college educated, but unlike in many other Middle East countries, Saudis come home to work after they get their degree, as a US education infers a level of “status” in their society. He also talked with us about his “traditional” dress, stating that while he wears it at work, at night he and his (male) friends are in jeans and t-shirts, while his female friends, although still required to be in the Abhaya, were inclined toward lighter and more colourful fabrics than the basic lack of their Mothers. And the ladies from the ship!
In talking to both passengers and staff afterward, the consensus among everyone was “I’m happy we came here. It wasn’t what I expected. I don’t plan on coming back.” Which pretty much sums up our own thoughts on Jeddah.
Outside the private museum we visited in the afternoon. Men were just going into this mosque for the 5:00 Prayer as we were leaving.
Today we are at sea, proceeding to Aqaba in Jordan tomorrow. There we will experience the first of two “highlights” (at least for us) of this cruise, a visit to the Rose City of Petra.
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