Rose Factories, Baboons, Mountains, Gondolas, Green Bushes: Are we in Saudi Arabia?

Since Bryan's mom is visiting we needed to give her a true Saudi adventure.  However, our journey felt like we transported ourselves to a different place in the world.  Traveling in Saudi is always something you should do in a group since service stations are few and traveling in the hot desert isn't a great place for car trouble.  So we found 6 other cars to join us on an adventure.  There is a place called Ta'if that is about 2 1/2 hours from here.  It is a large city in the mountains and you can often find Royal family members vacationing there. 

The draw for our family was the possibility of seeing rose gardens and baboons.  I am missing the tulips at home so the thought of seeing rose gardens got our family excited.  These fields were not like the Skagit valley in April but it was fun to see some greenery in a place that is so barren.

I believe this is the only country in the world that has special highways based on your religion.    I wonder if that sign spelled Muslim incorrectly or if I need to learn how to spell.

 

We do have fortresses in this country!  I can't wait to go back and explore this place.  I hope Charlie and Alicia are seeing this!   

Every trip involves camel sightings. 
We had to pull over so Jolene could snap lots of photos.

Pee stop number 3!

Interesting rock formation.  The sky was hazy because of a sand storm to the south.  Thankfully it never came to us.



In the mountains we found bushes!  Very exciting!



Once we figured out our GPS and determined where we wanted to be we found the famous rose gardens.  These gardens only bloom 45 days out of the year, so it is important that you time it just right.  Our timing was perfect.  However, the field had just been harvested so we did not get to see the bushes in full bloom.

 

Saudi Arabia really likes perfumes and the roses are made into rose water, rose oil, soaps, perfumes, etc.  I am not sure if it sells around the world but was told that they sell to Dubai.  The small factory reminded me of a place that could be making moonshine.  Maybe that is what they do the other 320 days of the year! 

 

The room of roses.

The boiled rose water dripping into the glass jar.

About 15,000 petals are placed in these metal pots and then boiled at extremely hot temperatures.  It was so hot here.  I cannot imagine doing this as a job in the high heat of Saudi.

This was the only man that spoke English.  He gave a tour and then decided to spend the rest of the day with us.  He really liked having friends from 5 different countries!

The Rose Factory Headquarters.

The tour.  The workers had their cameras and were taking so many pictures of us.  We could have been the first foreign visitors and even the first women visitors.  They were very curious about these women that were not covered.

Can't you picture moonshine?

Do you see Carter in the rose garden? 



I said "Cheers" and he said "Mam, this is not whisky!"  I told him that North Americans like to say Cheers with anything that we are drinking.

 

Jameel, our new friend, decided he wanted to take our group on a VIP tour.  He would not accept no as an answer.  In fact, whenever we said no he would say, "Come, come and see!"  Some people were a little uneasy about the VIP tour but it turned out to have a happy ending.  We are all back to our bubble safe and sound.

 



You had to be quick if you wanted a picture with Jameel.  He wanted us to see his VIP garden.

 Once we were able to peel ourselves away from Jameel we began to make our way back home.  We were told there are baboons in Saudi but it is hard to believe since the climate is so harsh.  However, we were quite surprised when we turned the corner and found many baboons! We also found packs of wild dogs as we made our way down the switchback roads.

I didn't even realize he was a boy until I got home and looked at the picture!  Yikes!

I feel this photo tells a story.  I sad story.  It might inspire me someday to write this story.

Our next blog will be about the butts of these baboons.  I am going to let Cameron and Carter write that one.

Our day was special day in so many ways.  However, spending the day with friends from so many places around the world was truly special.  Especially for Bryan's mom. She has made a whole lot of friends during her weeks in Saudi.

This boy might be trouble someday!

 I know we live in a place that is in the news quite often.  I guess I am learning to not judge by what we hear from others (especially the news).  You need to form your own opinions by experiencing something first hand.  We all have opinions and most of them are second hand opinions and were not formed by our own experiences.  Bryan and I are just as guilty, but we are learning that life is what you make it.  We hold the power to seek the good or the bad.  We are seeking the good while we live in the Middle East and we are finding a lot of good on this wonderful adventure of a lifetime.  We hope that sharing it with you will make you realize that you cannot judge another culture or place in the world until you have experienced it. P.S. Saudi might be handing out visitor Visas in June. :)  Come on over!  Our house is big enough!

One last note: As a parent you always wonder if you are messing up your kids, but when Cameron said, "When I am a dad I am going to make sure I take my kids all around the world." Bryan and I knew that this crazy decision to move 10,000 miles away from home is impacting our family in a positive way.  Once again, Life is Good in the hot sands of Saudi!