Amusingly, whenever we pull into port, each bottle is removed as part of a 20-minute process. Now the ship is sailing, there are plenty of places to try a tipple or two, including the whisky bar, where 110 bottles adorn the shelves. An Indian tasting menu awaits in one of the handful of restaurants - and, joy, a drink! The searing heat means it's a relief to return to a cold towel, stylish cabins, and spacious interiors of Scenic Eclipse, where every crew member seems to know our names. I'm only sorry we can't enter the Nasseef family house, which apparently has a specially built staircase to allow camels to carry the shopping to the well-ventilated kitchen on the top floor. We explore the house opposite, too, with its upstairs living room for women, downstairs one for men. Others have been restored, including one owned by the wealthy Baeshen family with its three doorways - one for men, one for women, one for the office - leading to a flagstone-floored interior filled with memorabilia handed down through the ages. Many have seen better days while they haven't quite gone to the dogs, they have certainly gone to the army of scrawny cats prowling around. Here, 19th-century merchants enriched by the Asia to Europe trade route built imposing tower houses with large, intricately carved wooden windows protruding from the walls for better ventilation. While ships are in port, you are quite literally in a dry dock.īefore we can sip at sea, there is Jeddah's historic heart to explore. On board, it's different too, with a COVID-19 test taking the place of the usual glass of champagne to start the voyage. The cruise port at Jeddah is so new, officials aren't quite sure how to deal with us, so going to and fro is a bit more bureaucratic than normal (though it's not as bad as the airports, where women are scanned separately in a private room). Which is why I'm clutching a print-out of one of the new e-visas as I arrive at Jeddah airport with the first group of international passengers to sail from Saudi on a cruise since 2004, on board the uber-stylish Scenic Eclipse. It isn't somewhere this female journalist had previously been interested in venturing, but the prospect of seeing Saudi the easy way on a luxury cruise made it suddenly appealing I would be able to enjoy all the comforts of life on board while making short, organised land forays to see the highlights.īy submitting your email you are agreeing to Nine Publishing's Now, though, the kingdom built on oil wealth, is making a concerted effort to play catch up with other Middle Eastern destinations, aiming to attract an ambitious 100 million visitors by 2030. This is a country known more for its human rights abuses, treatment of women as second-class citizens, and no-alcohol policy rather than for opening its arms to travellers. We are in the AlUla region of Saudi Arabia, 682 kilometres from Jeddah and 1000 kilometres from Riyadh. This is neither your usual bucket-list site nor your average tourist destination. It's just us, 111 tombs carved from boulders as big as buildings, and mile after mile of desert.Įxploring the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hegra. But while at Petra, tourists flock down a narrow rock cleft to reach the hidden city and are offered a camel or a mule to ride every few paces, here, our group is alone. It was here in the first century BC that the nomadic Nabateans carved ornate tombs from enormous rock structures, just as they did in Petra in Jordan. Built in 2019, this modern masterpiece couldn't be more of a contrast to the ancient architecture on show at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hegra, a mere 20-minute drive away.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |