One of the many reasons that I love traveling is that it helps me break down misconceptions that I previously had about destinations. No, they do not wear grass skirts and coconut bras in Hawaii, kangaroos do not hop down the street in Sydney and Mexicans don’t survive solely on burritos (Just kidding – kind of….). Traveling has opened my mind to different places and none more so that Saudi Arabia. Known as one of the world’s most conservative countries, Saudi was closed off for many years to most forms of non-religious travel. This “wall” came crashing down at the end of September 2019 when the country began issuing tourist visas for the first time in decades.
Never one to miss out on the chance to go off the beaten track and having spent years wondering what was really going on in this huge Gulf country, I organized a trip as fast as I could. I found a friend willing to go with me, purchased the online visa and booked a hotel in the center of Riyadh.
I began looking into round trip flights from India but quickly discovered that I could fly to Kuwait then to Bahrain and cross the border from there to Saudi for much, much cheaper than normal round-trip flights would be. I also knew that the “overland” border crossing included a long seabridge and that there was even an “immigration island” for the actual border crossing. Bahrain is also known as the sin city of the Gulf. I had a few spare days to travel before meeting my friend in Saudi so it quickly became a no-brainer. With a rough itinerary in mind, I began finalizing my travel plans.
Step 1 – Kuwait
With my flight tickets booked, I started looking at hotels. Most of the hotels in both Kuwait and Bahrain were very expensive and I didn’t feel like spending to sit around a hotel room feeling lonely. Instead, I quickly logged onto Couchsurfing and found a host. I did a few quick google searches of what to do there and I was all set to go.
IMPORTANT VISA INFO: I arrived on an early morning flight from Mumbai and followed the signs to the visa issuance office. You MUST make a copy of your passport and take a number from a little green machine and then wait to be called. I didn’t have my couchsurfing host’s address with me so I had to wait for him to send it to me. Overall, the process took about 15 minutes and the visa was free of charge.
I was told by my host to take a bus to downtown but I couldn’t find the stop and ended up sharing a taxi with a very nice man who also gave me a mini-tour of Kuwait City including stop at the Kuwait Towers which are much, much shorter than I imagined them to be . I had some time to spare before I met my CS host so I wandered around the souk. Everything was well-organized and felt very safe.
That evening, my host and his wife gave me another mini tour of Kuwait’s shopping malls and we had an enormous meal of falafel and hummus (the first of many, many chickpeas that I would consumer on that trip!). The next day, I ventured out on my own for a visit to the Grand Mosque of Kuwait. The complex offers free guided tours where you can learn more about Islam and see some of the places that are noramlly off-limited for women. I had a wonderful tour guide who answered any questions that I had and even gave me a free 3D puzzle of the Grand Mosque at the end of the tour!
Sadly, my trip to Kuwait was a short one and that evening, I boarded a flight for my next destination – Bahrain.
Step 2: Bahrain
When I was a little girl, I remember my mom saying that one of her friends from the Army was getting relocated to Bahrain. For some reason, this conversation has stuck in my mind for the past 30 years and recently, I have heard more and more people say that it is one of the most open places to live in the Gulf. I knew that I wanted to check it out with the help of an expat living so I found a lovely Brazilian woman through Couchsurfing who had been living in the Gulf for awhile and graciously accepted me as her guest.
I met my Brazilian CS host at a bar in the expat bubble area of the city near the Bahrain Airport. The bar was full of American expats which was quite a site to see after being in India for a long time! We had a few drinks before grabbing an Uber back to her apartment along with her Bahraini boyfriend.
The next morning, we were up bright and early to start exploring the city. We hopped on some bikes and began our journey. My host showed me where riots had broken out a few years ago and told me many stories of what it was like to live in the Gulf (and to date men there!). We even watched the sunset over Bahrain Fort that evening.
I am really grateful that I was able to find a female expat Couchsurfing host in the Gulf’s Sin City. It was a really interesting glimpse as to what it was like to be in the Gulf as an expat woman and her story was fascinating. Sadly, 1.5 days in Bahrain was all I had as I was off early the next morning to the main event: Saudi Arabia.
IMPORTANT VISA INFO – You can get a visa on arrival for Bahrain but I choose to get mine in advance through the government visa website. It cost about $10 more but gave me piece of mind.
Step 3: Saudi Arabia
After years of watching media reports of the human rights violations coming out of Saudi Arabia, I had no idea what I would find when I arrived to the country. Despite people telling me that it was safe and relatively open, I couldn’t bring myself to believe them. To say that I was nervous was a bit of an understatement!
So when a friend of my hosts asked me if I wanted a ride from Bahrain to Dammam, I wasn’t sure what to do. Would I be arrested for crossing the border with a man that wasn’t related to me? After being told repeatedly by a number of people that it would be fine, I decided to “risk it”. Of course, nothing happened. I was greeted warmly by the immigration officials and received a hearty “Welcome to Saudi Arabia!” Once I realized that I was going to be let into the country, I even asked the border guard if I was one of the first tourists that had crossed. Turns out, it wasn’t even close but she did humor me and tell me that there had been a big increase in tourists, including Americans. My companion and I continued on our journey and I was shocked to see how normal everything felt. I could have just as easily been in Arizona as in Eastern Saudi Arabia. The streets were lined with the same fast-food restaurants and name-brand shops and American cars whizzed by. We even stopped at a shopping mall and I was floored by the amount of lingerie and fancy dresses that you could buy. My image of Saudi Arabia began to chip away minute by minute.
After a late lunch in Dammam, I climbed aboard a train to Riyadh. I bought the ticket online in advance on the national railways website. The train cabins were mixed and although it was 90% female travellers (many of which who were travelling on their own), there were men scattered around. The train was fast and clean and at roughly $20 for the 3 hour journey, it was quite a good deal!
I arrived in Riyadh and got a taxi to my hotel. Despite the taxi driver getting very lost and driving in circles, we eventually found my hotel and I never, ever felt unsafe. I checked into the hotel around 11 pm and told them that my friend would be arriving in the middle of the night. No issues at all…..
After my friend’s late-night arrival, we got a late start the next morning to visit Riyadh’s few tourists sights. The old city of Al Diriyah was sadly closed but we did get to see the Riyadh Fort and the National Museum. Both attractions were well-kept and clean with plenty of information available in English to actually know what you are looking at. As we were leaving the museum, a Russian band started playing near the entrance. I was told that this was something that never could have happened even 5 years ago.
The next day, we spent the morning lounging around the hotel and then caught an early afternoon flight to Jeddah where I had arranged for another Couchsurfing host named Yaz to meet us. As we walked through the airport, a man with a bushy beard and long white robe called out my name. I never would have guessed that this man was the same one from his Couchsurfing profile photos. This set the stage for a fantastic 5 days in Jeddah where every remaining misconception of Saudi shattered.
From late night talks about sex and relationships to early morning info sessions about Islam, Yaz represented the Middle East in a nutshell. Warm, friendly, and multi-faceted. During our stay in Jeddah, Yaz was the perfect tour guide. He helped us find amazing places to eat, introduced us to his family, helped us find an awesome snorkeling place in the Red Sea and let us experience what life is really like there. I felt like I was part of his family and leaving at the end of the week felt like I was saying goodbye to an old friend.
My trip through the Gulf was amazing. The hospitality that I received was second to none and despite being from a place that was so “different”, I never felt even an ounce of hostility. I strongly recommend everyone to visit this unique (and rapidly changing) country.
