Al Habbalah Village- The heaven on Desert

Continues from Al Habbalah- The Pulse of a City

The steep cable car ride took us to the hanging village of Habbalah within minutes. Even those who were dreading the ride enjoyed it. The slow movement of the cars and the scenery around the deep valleys made us forget everything outside. We were at Habbalah village in Abha, a dreamy land with deep valleys, misty mountains, green foliage and much tramped paths.

As we got out from the car, we stood at the spot for some more time to admire the climb and descend of the cars. In the backdrop of the huge mountains and the in the wide distance between the stations, the cable cars looked like play toys.

It was cold, sunny, steep, adventurous and overall an enchanting village. The children started to get really ecstatic and run to the open and  steps all around. Shreya escaped very soon from our hands and following her I reached the top of the ruins before others.

The steps were adorned with  bougainvillea on one side and wild bushes. The shrubs looked so similar to shrubs from our home country. It was truly a nostalgic sight. The barren desert mountains glazed in the afternoon sunlight across the ruins.

The ruined house also consisted a mountain cafeteria whose kitchen, store room and restroom were on the top of the house. The terrace in front of that was unkept and opens to the wide chasm below the mountains. As I stood at the edge of the terrace, my heart raced both with fear and excitement. 

Can you spot the cable car?

However, the real shock to my heart came very soon. I relaxed while Shreya got out from the terrace and ran to play with her friends. However, while climbing the steps, she lost the balance and was falling back to the narrow gap of mountains leading to the above mentioned chasm. I am sure that there was a divine hand that steadied her at that moment without which we I would have lost myself too.

 I was sitting shocked and numb for some time before Sreejith found out something to rejuvenate us.

Continues in Into the Forest…

A Walk into the Red Sea

 Continues from Al Rifa'ai-The Heritage Coral House!

The sea held its most beautiful charm as we reached the beach. Huge sea shells and lifeless corals were scattered all over the shore. Before plunging into the sea, we explored the sea shore to collect the marble white and perfect sea shells. 

Low tide, chill water and the borders

The time was of low tide.  To the far stretch of the sea, the water reached only till our ankle level. The short waves drew designs on the sea floor. Mud mounds stretched across the shore, turning golden to give an enchanting edge to the sheen sea.

 As we carefully walked on the coral filled and slippery sea floor, somewhere in my mind a fear for Tsunami erupted. Whatever happens, I didn’t want to die there. My soul always belongs to my mother country.

Though the beach was safe enough to remove Abhayas, I wasn’t so eager to get into the deep water. As we crossed the shallow water and reached the deep waters, all of sudden, the temperature of the water changed from warmth to chill. I waited as Sreejith, Nadeer and children plunged into the deep waters.

Fun in water

As I stood neither on the shore nor in the deep waters, the sublime scenes started to erupt around. At the horizon, the clouds turned scarlet, orange, red and dark. The Sun was coming down to the sea.  In that blissful light and ambience everything turned beautiful than ever. Even my strands of hair flying loose had a unique beauty in that air. The children looked like angels swimming down. I felt a moment of pause in the air as the Sun finally dipped under the sea. Darkness spread over and we walked back to the shore. 

The fun at the beach was not over yet. We were starving to the core as we reached the shore from the water. Thankfully, our friend’s family had brought a flask of tea and some fruits with them. As we reached a peaceful level, the children started to play around and Nadeer started his photography while others readily stood as the models. 

Low Tide and Sun Set at the Red Sea

After a while, I and Shehnaz sat down on one of the benches at the nearby park. As we looked onto the dark sea and watched the children playing, we were unusually silent. Sometimes silence has its own meaningful words in a friendship.

Afterword: The wall picture of this blog is a scene from the mentioned beach during Sun Set.

Continues in In the Heart of the Sea!

The Sand Blushes under the Sun’s Kiss

Visiting the Sand dunes in Saudi Arabia, during the middle of April is definitely not a good idea. Yet, our time in the Kingdom is limited. We are not sure to experience the good climate of the holy land again! Therefore we planned our trip to the ‘Red Sand’ along with the members in our NOMA family.

The so called Red sand is a location situated 40 Kms away from the city of Riyadh. It’s a well known place for weekend hangout among Saudi residents. The place is famous for desert walks, bike riding and the sheer joy of a picnic.

Considering the climate of Riyadh in the month of April, we scheduled our trip for early morning hours on a Friday. Our cars started in line from Hara around 5.30 am, when the sun was shining bright above us. My family got into the Appuetan’s car. The choice was worth! Appuetan (Real name-Thrivikraman) who lives in Riyadh for the past 25 years updated us about the desert valleys, hanging bridge, forts and other destinations in Riyadh.

Roadside Mountains

The interesting ride was made more enjoyable with the view of rock walls on both sides of the road. The steepest roads were earlier covered with mountains. Later the government gave contract to the Bin Laden group to construct the wide roads. The construction firm has done a remarkable work by breaking the roads amidst the dry mountains with dynamites and high tech machineries.

Riyadh Check Post

The sun was shining golden across the natural forts and mountains as we drove further. We crossed the Riyadh check post adorned with Arabic sculptures.  We couldn’t decipher the meaning of the art form and ourselves gave the conclusion that it is somehow related with valor and war.

Stalls of desert bikes started to appear in view as we neared the Red Sand area. The landscape looked so different from those we have seen inside the city or at the Edge of the world. The steep cliffs succeeded by dark mud grounds and later by the red sand! After one hour of drive, we reached our destination.

We were the first ones to reach our destination. We took a short desert safari while waiting for the others. Interestingly, this short safari was more fun that the one we had in Dubai.

As we parked our car, the men from the bike stalls started swarming around. Appuetan, who has got a knack for bargaining, started his attempts. He reduced the charge considerably. There were many types of desert bikes. The highly priced big bikes were meant to go up the sand dunes. Sreejith and Sudeep took the lowest priced bikes and started riding. They tried to get their bikes up the hill and had a tough time to get out of the sinking sands.

I started walking and soon found that it’s not easy to wade with my drowning feet in the sand.  Though it was early morning, the plain sand was already tampered with footprints and ride marks. The sand blushed with the first kiss of sun rays. The vibration of life was pulsing underneath the sand layers. The sand remained untouched away from the trodden paths. Among the red sand lonely bushes glowed proudly for their power to stand amidst the trying ambience. 

Continues in Wroom Wroom... It’s Desert Bikes

Localizer Mall

Localizer mall in the capital of Kingdom is a hub of elite lifestyle. If you are in look out for expensive T-shirts, extravagant outfits, posh vehicles, diamonds etc. you are in the right mall here. Attributing to our third world lifestyle, we had never ventured the mall till previous night.

We were in the move of exploring the food courts of Riyadh and ended up parking our car in the spacious parking lot of Localizer mall. It was around 10p.m on a Monday night and the mall was comparatively deserted. For the first 15 minutes of our exploration in the mall, we couldn’t see any woman at all. Young men roamed around in groups. I started to get a weird feeling owing to my uncovered head and Indian looks.

We had not planned to purchase anything from the mall and after the initial wandering, headed straight to the food court. There were stalls for European, Arabian, Chinese and Italian dishes. Interestingly, only the Italian stall named Pastalitia had customers in front of it. We went there and soon found the reason behind the crowd. 

As we approached the stall, delicious smell of pastas wafted the air. After a quick look at the menu, we finalized for Chicken and shrimp pastas. The man at the food stall took the order and arranged the ingredients into the pan according to our taste preferences.  Soon our pan was in the queue to the kitchen fire along others' pans. 

Chicken & Shrimp Pasta

The wait to receive our pasta was quite a test with the tempting smell floating around. The cook was managing two pans together and ours was the sixth in the queue. After fifteen minutes of waiting, we soon had our tray accompanied by salads, garlic breads and colas. We went into the family eat out section adorned in the model of a green house. The pasta tasted so delicious and we decided that if for nothing else, we have to visit this place again for this unique taste.

Shreya in front of new car model

As we got out after the dinner, the crowd at the Mercedes Benz showroom attracted us. It was the launch of a new car model and people were marvelling the vehicle. The car was in limelight! Even Saudi women in pardas were edging to take the snapshot of the new vehicle. We also joined the crowd. Though I am almost illiterate about automobiles, I couldn’t resist gawking at the style of the new vehicle. Also, the mini models of the cars displayed in the counter were worth to watch for once.

As we came out of the Benz showroom, a pre-adolescent Saudi Prince passed us. The slim teenager with the baby face and two body guards of the same age was easily distinguishable with his Bisht¹ over the thawb². I resisted the temptation to photograph him in fear of the Saudi law³ that ban public photography.

We came out of the mall with a filled stomach and fulfilled mind. There are much more that we have to do in Saudi Arabia.

1.       Bisht: It’s a cloak for royal men worn on special occasions for prestige.

2.       Thawb: Literally the word means ‘garment. It’s a white robe with long sleeves worn by ritualistic Saudi men.

3.     Saudi law on Photography:  Public photography is not permitted in Saudi Arabia. It is concerned about the security of the place, local sensitivities and women’s privacy.