Hey guys, so I'm back at the studio and in this episode, we go to Saudi Arabia.
Before we start, yes, I am fully aware that Saudi Arabia is a country that a lot of people have opinions on.
And when filming Geography Go,
we aim to just simply document and record the experiences and that's about it.
No, I did not get to see the entire country.
No, I did not meet everyone in the country.
Yes, I know there's a lot of stuff I missed out on.
I was only there for, like, 3 days and this was the experience I had.
So when we last left off, we were on the bridge, just about to cross the border from Bahrain.
Hey everybody, so I'm here with Laith. Laith: Hey!
Hey! And we are on the King Fahd Causeway. We're gonna go to Saudi Arabia right now.
'K, so Laith, explain - why is this road so important to Bahrain?
Laith: Well, this is like an artery for Bahrain, because it links the country to the Arabic Peninsula.
And for us it's considered one of the key roads.
Barby: Okay, so Laith, right ahead over there. What is that place?
Laith: That is the passport control.
Barby: Passport control island.
Laith: Yeah.
Barby: It took me, like, 2 months to get this.
My Saudi visa.
So, right when you enter into Saudi Arabia, the first thing you see is McDonald's.
(laughter)
Laith: And a mosque next to it.
Barby: And a mosque right next to the McDonald's.
We. are. in. SAUDIA ARABIA! Yeah! (Laith laughs)
Saudi Arabia!
I made it!
Laith: Go on.
I got accepted!
My passport got accepted!
I'm in!
Okay, so here's a cool thing:
this is a Saudi gas station.
And guess how cheap it is?
Dude, it's like a quarter...
for a liter of gas, so it's like 50 cents a gallon.
Laith: It's cheaper than water.
Gas here is cheaper than water!
Oh! By the way, does your radio get Saudi radio?
Laith: Yeah, that's right.
What does Saudi radio sound like?
(music starts playing)
Barby: Is this Saudi? Laith: This is Saudi.
Saudi radio!
Fun fact: every gas station in Saudi Arabia has a mosque.
And it has a Burger King.
(laughter)
That's him.
Laith: Yeah.
Barby: That's Ahmad?
Oh, okay.
You know, it's not exactly easy for an American to come into Saudi Arabia.
And likewise, for Saudis to come to America.
In order to get into Saudi Arabia, you have to be vouched by somebody who actually lives in the country.
I was fortunate enough to not only get vouched by a Saudi, but by a Saudi prince.
So for those of you who don't know:
This is what a Saudi prince's dining room/entertainment room looks like.
Here, there's an ostrich.
All these different animals.
I just know a bunch of you vegan and vegetarian subscribers right now are gonna be like, "AH!"
He did assure me that these were shot to help the conversation of the animals,
like, when there's an overpopulation of a certain species.
So it was legal and he was with a group of people and experts that were monitoring everything he was doing.
(call to prayer sounds)
Everyday, there's a call to prayer.
5 times.
This right behind me is Kingdom Tower.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
So we're here at the souk in Riyadh.
And we were gonna go buy some stuff,
but now they're doing the call for prayer and all the stores are closing.
So we have to wait until it's done.
This is Ismail.
He's showing me around.
And he's yelling on the phone.
Shopping in Saudi Arabia is pretty interesting
because you always have to wait for them to finish the call to prayer.
And they do it every evening, every morning, every afternoon, and it's pretty interesting,
and you hear all the speakers, they do the call to prayer.
(call to prayer sounds) Just like that.
Okay, so can you say that one more time? What's the first prayer?
Fajr.
Duhur.
Asr.
Maghrib.
Isha'a.
Those are the 5 prayers they do throughout the day.
Out here you find a lot of incense shops.
Barby: And this is called what?
Maha
This [is] Chahpur
You see that Chahpur? Barby: Yeah.
This is Panda, the typical grocery store here in Saudi Arabia.
And one cool thing you might notice is that
they actually write the prices in Arabic numerals first and then in the regular numerals in the bottom.
I don't know if you can see behind me, but we're gonna ride that airplane.
To the countryside.
Dude, there are camels here!
Interesting little side note:
These right here are desert watermelons.
If you're ever in the desert in Saudi Arabia and you see these,
stay away. They are incredibly poisonous.
Only goats can eat them!
Hey guys, so I gotta show you this.
This is what it's like to stay at the private residence of a Saudi prince.
Alright, just look at that.
It's a king-sized bed.
With a nice view of the palm groves right outside.
Got these nice little lamps with some kind of bird feather on it, I don't know what that is.
Huge little chandelier.
And I get my own bathroom.
This is my first time meeting royalty.
This is crazy!
So right now I'm in old town Al-ghat.
And there's all these mud houses...
that are just kinda falling apart because there's a lot of rain and it kind of...
crumbles them down.
This place should be a UNESCO Heritage Site.
It is amazing, just check it out.
So I'm here on top of a sand dune.
And this is a real Saudi barbeque going on right now.
So what they do here is they dig a hole in the sand
and then they put a big pot where they make a fire.
And then they put the lamb on a spit.
And they put it right above the fire. They cook it for about an hour. [More like 3 hours].
And it can actually get really cold at night.
Even though we're in the desert. Which is why right now I'm wearing a bisht (?).
It's a camel hair cloak type of thing.
It's really warm.
And we're gonna eat some of that barbeque.
This is camel's milk.
[Next episode...]
So Ismail.
Teach me some Arabic.
How do you say "let's go" in Arabic?
(Hayaa bina) هيا بنا
How do you say, "Oh no! Your octopus is stealing my doughnut!"
الأخطبوط هو بلدي سرقة دونات al'akhtubut hu baladi sariqat dunat