Camels, deserts and airplanes

Dear friends - I am now safely moved into the Jeddah Hilton. My room is simply gorgeous.
And I have internet access that will allow me to work on my own blog. Many thanks to Denise for doing a beautiful job keeping it up - using my pictures and a text document sent each day.

It would be impossible to tell you all of what we did today. We started at 7:15 and headed for the desert. First we headed for Gara Mountain - where we walked in a beautiful cave area with incredible peaks around us. No one would believe we were in Saudi Arabia- instead it looked like Arizona.

Then we went to the Ib Rahim Pasha Palace - a very old fort like palace. We walked around for a long time - and were so impressed with the old architecture. I think the place is about 400 years old (if not more)

Then we headed to a Pottery Business where we watched a man make pots the old way - first by kneeding clay with his feet and then hand throwing the pot. It was very neat.


Then we went to the Intercontinental in Hufuf - a large town in the desert - mainly because it is an oasis. The lunch was extraordinary - as always

At this point-my camera battery died. So I had friends take pictures at the camel farm and will try to post them tomorrow.

After lunch we headed to the camel farm. This is only the second trip that has gone there. Previous trips went to the camel market. One man knew of this bedoin (sp?) farmer with hundreds of camels on many many acres of land. And they arranged for us to go. While I was a tad disappointed that I didn't get to ride the camels (and maybe a bit relieved), we had an incredible experience- we road for a few miles in SUVs to this encampment with lots of camels. Then we went into one of the pens - and actually stood among the camels - which gets exciting when they decide to take off to another part of the area. The noise was lots of fun - I recorded it and will try to broadcast that tomorrow - sounded like someone who had either drunk too much or had the stomach flu. Then we were invited into a tent for tea and dates on the rugs. The sun was setting over the dunes - the camels were callling - and I was simply amazed to be so lucky to be there.
Our drive, although very long, was fascinating as we saw many many industrial sites (Aramco), many high dunes, sand storms across the highway, many monstrous houses in the middle of nowhere (often started but not finished), the Crown Prince's farm, miles of aquaducts.
We arrived back into Dharhan at 7:02, ran to our rooms, threw on our abayas, grabbed our suitcases, checked out and were headed for the airport at 7:35.
Then I had one of the more interesting experiences of my life. The plane was full of Saudis - almost everywoman had a full-face veil. The men were not interested in sitting next to unrelated women, so the stewardesses were shuffling people all over - until everyone was somewhere they could tolerate. Then there were probably 20-30 people doing Imman (sp)- preparing for their pilgrimmages to Mecca. As I understand it, they must come clean - and so these men were literally sitting in the airplane - naked except for bath towels wrapped around them. But we made it to Jeddah and this hotel was worth the effort. We ate dinner at 1 and here I am at two.
More later.