When you think of Saudi Arabia, most probably,
You will not imagine such a scenery.
- Welcome, a thousand welcomes
We will go for mountain rappelling
To be honest, I was unfair to Saudi Arabia
Now let me tell you the reason
♫
I finally went to Saudi Arabia
My trip has destroyed all the stereotypes I had
[ gun shot ]
Saudi Arabia is known for begin a wide desert
However, on this trip
I have seen the other side!
Honestly, everything I have previously known about Saudi Arabia was Haj and Umrah (Pilgrimage rituals)
I'm finally happy to be in the Kingdom
To live a different experience with a different type of adventures, culture, and food
And varied experiences
You probably don't know, but my channel's highest view rate is from Saudi Arabia
However, I have been to 56 countries but never did any video of Saudi Arabia
This is why I'm excited today to make my first video in this channel of Saudi Arabia
And God willing, this will be one of many videos to come
[ zipper sound ]
Good morning!
I woke up today in Tanomah City
In Asir region in Saudi Arabia
And today will be a long day to explore this region
I arrived to KSA yesterday
And this trip will be a quick one for only 2 days
This region is famous for its nature
As you can see the rock formations here
Are very beautiful
It's green and all of these behind us are mountain pathways
That you can go up, this pathway is called
The Book
- They call it The Book because it looks like this, like 2 open pages
Some would imagine Saudi Arabia to be..
Just a desert, mostly desert nature
But we see the variation here, you can see trees and greens
We will see even more
♫
We are going to start our day with Heritage Southern Saudi food
We got a bunch of meals and we don't really know what these meals are
Abdul Aziz is here and he is a Southie who knows what these Southern meals are
Go ahead, tell us what this is
- This is Mabthooth, from white wheat
- Masabeeb are also from wheat and they add custard and things to change its color
- The Maqboosa is from corn
Aha
- And the Areeka is from brown wheat called Hunta
We take some Areeka and dip it in ghee
Nice
I don't know what to say
♫
We're going for a mountain rappelling now
From the top of the mountain near the campsite
Look at the situation
Nature here is more beautiful than what I have imagined
The mountains' appearances are unique
Not the usual mountains with boring colors
♫
What's up, uncle?
♫
We just rappelled down this mountain behind me, rappelling!
Such a wonderful experience and it was my first time I rappel
And although it's a bit scary
Especially for the first time
But it really takes you out of your comfort zone, it activates your adrenaline
👍
Was it nice?
- Super
- Perfect!
How was I? A pro?
- Amazing
♫
[ gun shot ]
♫
We went out of the campsite to go and meet Sheikh Dahdouh
One of the most famous Sheikhs of the region
I want to learn from him the Arabic hospitality customs
From the regions that lived for 60 years and more
Many people passed by Sheikh's house
Some are tourists, others are passersby, and also princes
And he treats them all the same with the same hospitality
Beginning with the gun shot welcoming
- Who is this?
Kasem
From Jordan
- Welcome, God bless you
- As long as you're from Jordan, you are our guest, a guest of the Kingdom!
They display coffee beans and cardamom which were the most precious belongings of their time
- This is pure coffee Ibn Ali is pouring
- Alright?
- And my role is to serve the cardamom
- Here
- This is considered as generosity and honoring the guest
- Honoring the guest
Then the guest scoops, by hand, his amount of coffee
And grinds it
- This is served to the guest, okay?
- And we tell him "be honored"
- Which means he will put this in his nose and smell the cardamom until it enters his brains
- Because the coffee was keif
- Then after smelling the cardamom, he rubs it on his beard
- Be honored, my dear one
And also the coffee serving and the date serving which is preserved in buck goat leather
With ghee
- It's very rare to slaughter cattle for guests
- Unless there is a special occasion such as this moment
- And we slaughter a sheep for guests, why?
- Because we have many
- 60 years ago
We didn't have any of this
- This date is preserved is leather called Eshanna
- A buck goat's leather
- And not sheep's leather skin
- Because the latter is soft
And these were the traditions found in his time
We were honored to be hosted by Sheikh Dahdouh today
Much thanks, God bless you, you have done more than enough
- Welcome, a thousand welcomes
- We welcome you a thousand and a thousand and a thousand times ten thousands!
God bless you
- Alright?
[ claps ]
- This is my only phone
- The number is special, it's 7000
7000!
- I swear I didn't put any effort for it, they just told me my number is 7000!
We have learned a lot
- An entertaining experience
A wonderful experience, right?
- Of course
Beautiful, this was Tanomah
Let's get going
♫
On the roads of South Saudi Arabia, wherever you go you find a bunch of monkeys
They're on the streets eating from the garbage, they wait for people to stop by and give them good
They sit, they play, I don't know what they're doing
But the problem is that if you have food with you
They will mess good with you
We have a leftover of a falafel sandwich
I will give it to the monkeys
Oh guys!
[ baboon sound ]
♫
We're going now to a province called Rijal Almaʽa
I think you have seen this province somewhere, maybe Google or Instagram, its one of the most beautiful places found in South Saudi Arabia
The road on the way is called Aqaba
Which is on a mountain with twists and hard and dangerous driving
So you need to drive here super slowly
Ouff
How it looks from the outside!
How's it goin'?
Hope you're well
♫
We arrived to Rijal village in Rijal Alma'a
Look at this place behind me
In this village you can see how people used to live here in South Saudi Arabia
This village is 900 years old
And as you can see
Its exterior appearance
Gives you an impression of how people lived here in the past
Let's go and check out how it is from the inside
- This is the Yamani Burd or Habri Burd
Yeah
- Of course its a historical burd
- From the ancient Arabian Kingdoms
- And was given a gift to the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him
- And one of the companions, may Allah be pleased with him, entered
Where the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was leaning on a red Yamani burd in the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi
- This is the red Yamani burd
- And he was, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was laid under a Habri Yamani Burd upon him death
- This one
♫
- This market was the biggest educational, handicraft, and trading market in Asir region
This part of the village we are walking in is the part that was left as it is, destroyed a bit
So we see how trees have grown between buildings
However, we're going now to the preserved side
The houses that are still the same
- Of course the entire part in front of you has been renovated by the village locals
- As I told you, in 1485
- They have opened the first museum to Asir's region
- Of course the forts you see in front of you
- Each fort has a name and a history
- One of the oldest forts here are this one
- This one is 600 years old
There's something weird in the buildings themselves, I don't know what this is
However, when I asked
These wooden things on the edge of the building
Was considered the shower room of the house, so that they wouldn't fill the house with any water
Especially for the elderly for some reason
The water used to pour outside the house inside of the he inside
You notice that the houses are built very close to each other
And the reason is that women, previously, didn't want to always go down the streets of the village to visit each other
So what did they do about it?
Jump from a roof to another
And this, of course, makes things easier
The village, from the outside, really looks like a kids' fantasy novel
Just like Alice in Wonderland
Gingerbread
They had houses that looked just like that
♫
We're now in Al Asal Hut (Honey Hut)
This place combines a big group of cultures
Where you can see how they make honey in this region and you can see a multitude of different cultures of the world
The interior decoration and the forest landscape behind us
A nice place
In this place they have collected a big collection of cultures
I mean as you enter it you see this decoration inspired by Santorini, Greece
You go upstairs you find European decoration and Saudi decoration
You see this mill which is in a Dutch style
A really nice place
♫
We're now in Al Soudah region
And this place destroys all the stereotypes you know about the Saudi nature
Look!
The view behind me
We're now above the clouds and under us a green carpet of nature and behind it mountains of clouds
You arrive here and say SubhanAllah (May Glory be to God) how the cloud formations look like!
We arrived the Wooden Bridge in Soudah
This bridge is surrounded by a lot of trees
It looks superb you are in the middle of nature and walking --
You will see it with me
Our luck is great today that the clouds are covering up the region completely
This is the Wooden Bridge, we arrived
It has a view over a whole lot of trees
And currently has a view over a whole lot of clouds
When you think of Saudi Arabia, you will most probably not imagine this scenery
♫
Where do you get this from?
- From the farm
And you make them like this?
- Yeah
You have made these!
- Yeah
By hand?
- Yeah
That all good?
- Yeah
Thank you, what's your name?
- AbdurRahman
AbdurRahman, thank you, AbdurRahman!
In the end we came to this farm
Which is by Pangea
A resort between the clouds, between the mountains
Look at the view behind me
My trip was quick, in 2 days we saw ASir region
In God's will there will be some upcoming trips
I'd like to thank AbdulAziz from Pangea Team
The team who were with me in this trip
And have helped me see the wonderful regions around here
- Welcome, its an honor and a light to have you here and we'll see you again
God bless you
What do we say now?
May God increase your travels
- Amen
Salam!
Subtitles by Omar Younes | transcriberomar@gmail.com
Hello
I am Ibn Hattuta
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