One Jeddawi Summer

Photos: Courtesy of Saudi Tourism by JONATHAN DELISE

In the summer of 2017, two years prior to the release of U.S. tourist visas, I went full-on Jeddawi. And I liked it. I had been hired to teach English in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city. While temperatures throughout my stay were frequently over 100 degrees, wanderlust and the knowledge that my time in Jeddah was limited led me to brave the elements on long walks each day. It was on these walks that I discovered Jeddah’s remarkable diversity.

While many travel to Saudi Arabia to forge better lives for themselves, a fair number are also working to pay for pilgrimages to nearby Mecca (written locally as Makkah). On any given day, I passed Turkish barbershops, Palestinian baklava shops, Afghani tea salons, Sudanese barbecue places, and Filipino shipping companies. During my time there, I got to know the locals who owned and frequented these restaurants and shops, and came to love the easy and hospitable Jeddawi way of life. Today, five years after my summer in the Arabian sunshine, upscale brunch spots and resorts are being built in anticipation of tourists from well-heeled parts of the world rushing in to explore this previously inaccessible land.

While the landscape is getting a makeover, the culture is also changing, including the rules around the calls to prayer, which are known locally as adhan. Early in my stay, while availing myself of the air conditioning in one of Saudi Arabia’s innumerable shopping centers, I found that the stores closed for adhan. Similarly, cars would wait to fill up at the gas station until after the prayers had been said. And, more than once, I dined in darkness while a restaurant paused to pray. I am not Muslim but I came to cherish these brief breaks as my own special moments of

reflection. Today the restrictions are loosening for the benefit of residents and visitors alike. A small part of me will miss this unique aspect of Arabian life.

My summer as a Jeddawi also lacked the cool darkness of movie theaters, as cinemas had been banned since the 1980s. The year after I returned home, I learned that the first new movie theater in the kingdom in 30 years had miraculously opened. In 2021, the country’s first film festival, the Red Sea Film Festival, was inaugurated in Jeddah. Saudi Arabia’s first concert headlined by a female musical artist drew crowds in December 2017. The following month, women were invited to attend sporting events. And a ban on women driving ended in June 2018. To celebrate and embed the win, a women-only motorsport rally, Rally Jameel, was held for the first time in March of 2022.

Not all of Jeddah’s cultural history is fading away. One of the metropolis’ most popular attractions is Al-Balad, a centuriesold neighborhood famed for buildings made of Red Sea coral and houses with well-preserved mashrabiya—wooden latticed windows, which preserve privacy while letting in the natural breezes. As Islam expanded throughout the region in the A.D. 600s, Al-Balad became the main port of entry for Muslims arriving from overseas. The opening of Egypt’s Suez Canal in 1869 further added to the district’s cultural richness. Yet, it wasn’t until 2014 that UNESCO finally honored Al-Balad as a World Heritage Site.

On weekends I would journey with a mix of expats and locals to Taif, a city roughly 6,000 feet up in the Hejaz Mountains. Thanks to its markedly cooler temperatures, Taif is Saudi Arabia’s unofficial summer capital. Traditionally reached via a former camel caravan route from Jeddah to Makkah, the climb is now made more easily via a 2.6-mile cable car ride, which offers astounding views of the shadowy Hejaz range.

Another favorite memory is jetskiing in the, dare I say, delicious temperatures of the Red Sea. New to the sport, I gunned my engine and sped over the waves with bravado. It wasn’t long before one particularly fiendish-looking wave got the better of me. The jet-ski went one way, I flew off in another, and my prescription glasses sank to the bottom. Thankfully, no harm was done and a local optical shop was able to restore my eyesight.

Since my return to the U.S., Saudi Arabia has undergone substantial, even progressive, advancements. By 2030, Jeddah’s attractions will include a new opera house, museums, a sports stadium, a substantially-larger oceanarium, and upscale Red Sea resorts that rival those in the Maldives. One aspect I found to be true during my stay that I cannot imagine ever changing is my impression that Saudis are some of the most hospitable folks one is likely to encounter while traveling.

Lately, news of hotel openings has been coming from a region largely unexplored by even the most intrepid world travelers: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (or KSA as the kids are calling it). Major development projects are in progress all over the kingdom. Starting in 2023, we’ll have our pick of glittering new rooms and suites across five islands and two inland destinations.

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