Editor Pick
Desert Camping
- November 25, 2001
- Rated 3 of 5 by
Overlander from Muscat, Oman
Saudi Entertainment Reality Check
Riyadh, which is in the center of the Nejd, the most conservative region of the Kingdom, is a place where you have to "make" your own entertainment. There are no movie theaters, no bars, no night clubs, no theaters, and no concert halls. These traditional Western forms of entertainment exist only on certain compounds or inside the precincts of an embassy. If you don't have the right connections, then you're fresh out of luck. What to do?
Desert Exploration
One favorite activity of Westerners living in or visiting the Kingdom is to head out of town a few miles and into the desert surrounding the city. Assuming you have a 4x4, which is really a necessity for these adventures, you've got a lot of space to play in. If you connect up with the expat community, very soon you will find yourself bouncing over hill and dune and having a merry old time of it. People often have evening barbecues and maybe pack along a top-flight stereo system and have "concerts" in natural rock "theaters" that can be found along the escarpment the runs roughly north-south a few miles to the west of the city.
Driving in the desert is not without its dangers. The first rule is never to strike out on your own. Make sure someone knows where you're planning to go and when you're expecting to return. People do get lost; vehicles do
stall in the middle of nowhere; and people do die of heat prostration if they're not careful. It's also unwise to pursue desert trips in the summer, when temperatures reach astronomical levels in the daytime. However, the
winters are perfect for it, if a little cold after the sun goes down. And I do mean cold: temps can easily dip below freezing in January or February.
Bedu Encampments
While driving along the many desert tracks outside of town, you not infrequently run across what appear to be nomadic Bedu encampments. Often you will see huge Toyota Land Cruisers or Land Rovers parked alongside the camelhair tents. As you get closer you'll often hear the sounds of Arab music blasting across the sand out of loudspeakers hooked up to stereo systems, for these people are rarely "real" Bedu, but people who live and work in the city but spend their weekends getting in touch with their roots, as it were. That doesn't prevent them from maintaining herds of camels, either, which will also be seen either wandering around on their own or tethered nearby.
Desert Nights
The Saudi desert is best by night when the stars come out, there is only a faint,distant glow from the lights of Riyadh on the eastern horizon, and a million stars come out. I've never seen the Milky Way clearer and brighter than out there. I've spent many superb evenings huddled around a campfire, eating, drinking foul home-brew, and listening to tales of the Saudi expat.
From journal Riyadh, the Saudi Capital