Bangla Market, Khamis Mushait (not my photo)
[from FB post: February 7, 2015]
I stand by the Abha Khamis main road with a Bangla friend and silently wait for a taxi. We get in... no one speaks. I could be from Turkey or Syria or Egypt, but certainly not the USA. We arrive and walk around the center of town, which on Fridays is taken over by foreign workers. I feel as though all the vegetables of Saudi Arabia which are missing from the markets make their appearance in Khamis on Fridays. The atmosphere is vibrant and active. There is an edge to it that is not so nice. I never feel in danger, but I never feel as safe as I do walking in Al Mansak, Abha. My friend and I get a ride back - always a fascinating experience with some "adventure" bound to happen. Finally, we reach Al Mansak and have the last thrill of dashing across the busy Abha-Khamis Main Road. It is something I like to do on occasion just to mix things up. But it is also something I don't like to do too often... I think there is a PhD dissertation just waiting for someone in Khamis Mushait on Fridays after Jummah Prayer. Really, it is one of the most fascinating places since I have been in KSA.
Abha, on its cliff-edge setting of the Hejaz Escarpment, was beautiful (sort of). Of the twin cities of the region, it was the glamorous one. Khamis Mushait (or just Khamis) was always the ugly sister, always the second best - mentioning "Khamis" literally meant "not as good". HOWEVER, although Khamis Mushait did not hold the second homes of the wealthy of Saudi Arabia like Abha, it held all the shopping, the markets, and the daily necessities that made life possible. With the exception of supermarkets, anything anyone needed to buy in the area had to be purchased in Khamis Mushait.
My problem was.... I had no car and there was no public transportation between the sister cities. There were not even any taxis! "Every car is a taxi in Saudi Arabia" used to be the joke. People routinely picked up passengers travelling between the two towns for a few extra riyals. But, that was fraught with danger since many a tale of misadventure abounded, not least of which was sexual assault. Hence, it was always better to travel with a friend. My supermarket buddy, Shaheen, from Bangladesh always was keen to travel to Khamis with me. Although I never liked the experience all that much, Abha did get boring. I often went just to do something more than surf the internet in my room. Luckily, I had someone with me to flag down the "taxi" and get us to Khamis. For his heip, I always treated Shaheen to a good lunch in a show of gratitude. As I stated in my FB post, each trip could have been the basis for an anthropological study.
After riding silently to Khamis (I learned never to give away I was American, it was simply too disruptive), we got out of the taxi and walked by the big central mosque which, on Fridays, was a hive of activity. Almost all the shops were open out of necessity (except for during the prayer time) because Friday was the only day the foreign workers had off and they travelled to Khamis to remit money, go shopping for food (great vegetable market as I noted), and buy anything else they needed for the week. Again, Abha literally sucked for shopping while downtrodden Khamis "had everything".
The old, open space of the market square (which was not beautiful whatsoever) was filled with people and pickup trucks laden with goods. An absolute mass of people, it felt more like South Asia than the Middle East. It looked like South Asia, too. Almost all the shoppers were foreign workers from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The place had a dark vibe to it. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I noted there were very few Saudis there. That time and place had been reserved for the hard-working foreign labor force to feel "out of the Kingdom" for a few hours and pretend to be at home. Maybe they needed a place free of Saudis just to relax and maybe even to vent?
I followed Shaheen around as he shopped. We usually ate Pakistani food for lunch (biriyani). Eventually after a little more shopping, we headed back out to the intersection where "taxis" loaded passengers into vehicles that would take us back home. That was a shit show for sure because people were not only returning to Abha but to all parts of Asir region. The scene was chaotic and without Shaheen I most certainly would have been mis-directed and put in a vehicle speeding into the desert mountains. Eventually, we always returned. I vowed it was the "last time" after each trip, yet a month or two later I always found myself back in Khamis simply because there was nothing else to do.
The whole experience was so unlike anything other expats lived through who worked in big, established Saudi cities. When I went to Riyadh it seemed so normal. They even had taxis! I am sure eventually all of Saudi Arabia will be evenly developed, but in my years in Abha, I experienced the last gasps of not only the country's oppressive "religious police" but also its last pocket of "un-development". Trips to Khamis will never be a good memory, but they serve to remind me how unique my experience was in the Kingdom. For that I am grateful.