Author archive
9 January 2024
We walked to the nearby Keralan restaurant for a breakfast of dosai before departing Tayma around 1030, driving towards Al Ula. I had marked Naslaa Rock as a possible stop but it appeared to be a bit off-road and I had my doubts as to whether it was reachable in a normal car or even […]
8 January 2024
After a breakfast of rusk and fresh cheese (for a change rather than processed cheese), we departed around 0940. The day’s drive to Tayma is around 3h and I drove for 1h45 of that. That has got to break my record for my share of driving for the day! Getting to Tayma’s museum, it looked […]
7 January 2024
Driving to Tabuk We wanted to give the Al Jouf Regional Museum one more chance, as it looked impressive from the outside. We turned up at 0730, the time indicated on Google Maps to find it completely dead. So, we returned to the hotel and once fed and checked-out, we gave it one final shot […]
6 January 2024
Marid Castle The Al Farhan hotel came with a good buffet breakfast on the top floor. After a leisurely start, we left at 0945 to the Al Jouf Regional Museum, which was closed, and its adjoining outdoor area which was Marid Castle. The construction technique at Marid Castle walls comprised of rock bottom with mud […]
5 January 2024
For breakfast this morning, we had the leftover curries and roti in a leisurely fashion. Fortunately, I had woken in the wee hours of the morning and taken them out of the fridge so they wouldn’t be too cold to eat. Today, we’re headed to Dumat Al Jandal we would use as a base to […]
4 January 2024
After exploring the sights around Al Hait, I took the wheel as E wasn’t feeling well. I wasn’t used to driving on the right-hand side of the road and sometimes ran into the textured line on the side of the road. This would wake him up and aggravate his headache. I handed the wheel back […]
4 January 2024
E woke up unwell in Al Hait today, with the beginning of a headache. He sounded congested as well. Could I have given him Covid-19 so soon after having had one himself? We had leftover bread from last night’s dinner, with cheese and set-off at 0945. He seemed well enough to handle the day. First […]
3 January 2024
Sorting out the car The hotel breakfast was an awesome buffet. We fuelled up big time at 0740 and departed on our road trip at 0900. First up, we went to the Budget office to report the slight suspension or shock absorber noise and hopefully change to a different car. It wasn’t serious but we […]
2 January 2024
High Speed Train Today we leave for Medina (Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah) by train to collect our rental car for a big road trip that will take us at least 2600km over 11 days. But we will overnight in Medina before starting the road trip in earnest tomorrow. I had been feeling a bit sweaty the last […]
1 January 2024
Our hotel booking came with breakfast included. I had actually booked many months ago but upon reviewing, I noticed that I could now get a better room with breakfast included for less than the original booking. It was a no brainer to rebook but this was a rare exception. Most of our hotels had gone […]