Old Jeddah by night

Our Saudia A330 landed in Jeddah around 1730.  With a lengthy walk and waiting for our luggage, we didn’t get into a car till 45 mins after landing.  Traffic was heavy and it took about 35 mins to get to the Touq Balad Hotel near Jeddah’s historic district.  Perhaps it was the traffic or maybe it was the airport pickup, but our final Uber charge had some unexpected extras.

From the motorway, we saw large tracts of darkness (apart from a few car headlights).  Were we at sea?  Or is it desert?  I learnt more about it in daylight a couple of weeks later and from some work on Google Earth.  Read about it here.

We headed out before 2000 on foot to the commercial area adjacent to the old city.  We settled on Indonesian at Wong Solo, after seeing that Garuda was packed to the brim with pilgrims.  Our New Year’s Eve treat comprised of a nasi campur with a good dollop of rendang, a plate of chicken satay and an avocado shake.

After dinner, E took me out for evening walk around the inlet (shows as Lake Arbaeen on the map).  I thought it was a very pleasant waterfront walk until we entered the old city.

The old buildings with their “roshan” windows in various states of restoration and disrepair immediately stole my heart.

A few of the old buildings open for visits, free of charge, so we took advantage of that.  They had displays of various kinds, of which the most memorable was the various shapes of coffee pots that come from different regions.

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We did a few rounds in the hope that there would be some activity for New Year’s Eve.

After about more than 2h30 of walking, with the area getting more and more quiet, we decided that there would no celebration.  We returned to the hotel around 2340 to see in 2024.