One day tour in Jeddah

Oct 8, 2009

I am lucky today as a Portugese friend, Andre, get me into speed at Jeddah. We spent almost 10 hours touring the city today after breakfast a 9:30am. I felt that I am ready to blend in as a Jeddah resident after the tour.

Balad (old Jeddah city) tour is a must to get a glimpse of the ancient architecture and artifacts of Arab. The word old is relative but is definitely older than hundreds of years I presume. Apparently there are no active effort to preserve them, probably because there is no intention to make this city a tourists' attraction. Why do that, when the sole purpose for millions of pilgrims arriving in Jeddah is for umrah and haj. Then perhaps they will also paying homage to the two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Medinah.

I did the walking and photo snapping under the scorching sunlight. Its fun to experience the Arabic culture, past and present, but next time I will remember to wear a cap to shield myself from the heat, just like what Andre did!

Present living is something that a new visitor like me should experience. For that, we visited the fish market at the Balad, and then walk some distance to the Balad. We also took a taxi to somewhere for local food, and then took another two separate taxi trips to visit the Red Sea Mall, and a chain bookstore nearby Sari road. Of course, we participated in the taxi fare negotiations.

I took more than 100 photos, an here's some of them.

Fish market - the entrance

Slipper losters.

Fishes

Crabs

Men in action at the fish market.

Ships basking under the sun.

Walking along the river leading towards Balad (the old Jeddah).

You will find this in Balad.

Traditional artifact.

More traditional artifact.

Walking through the zig-zag roads in Balad, I stumbled upon this "ruins".

Old building constrasted by a modern hotel building at the background.

His majesty the guardian of the two holy mosques King Abdullah and other nobles.

Modern laundry in an old house.

Soothing street view in Balad.

A mosque.

An intricate piece of work.

Another street view.

Ancient city gate?

Any gift for the young ones?

Ancient gate standing in middle of the road in the old city of Balad,

A bank.

Cooling breeze combing this part of the street.

Merchandise.

Took a taxi to the Red Sea Mall.

An advertisement in the mall.

Sesame street in Arabic.

Sale alert!

Buy! Buy!

Adidas.

Will try this shop next time.

Or was it me?