Tabuk Fort. November 2015
One of the few Saudi friends that I made outside of Abha, AM, and I decided to spend a weekend in Tabuk in order to visit Madain Saleh, the second city of the Nabateans after Petra, Jordan. November is perfect for travel in the Kingdom because the days are pleasantly warm and the nights are not yet too frigid. After work on Thursday, I got a lift to the airport and started my journey north.
Jeddah has one of the most modern airports in the Middle East - now. In my time in Saudi Arabia, it was in the last stages of completion, so I had to use the "old airport". Old Jeddah Airport was consistently ranked one of the worst in the world. I found that statement to be true. Jeddah is the gateway to Mecca, so the airport is constantly mobbed with people on their way to the holy city. The small airport was meant for a limited number arrivals before globalization and cheap flights. Poor signage, frayed employees, unclear announcements, no good food and drink, and HOARDS of people - the place seemed purposely designed to frustrate any traveler. To make matters worse, my connecting flight was delayed. Not to whine too much, but the experience was so horrible I still remember it 6 years later. I avoided layovers (as opposed to arrivals - I love Jeddah) at that airport thereafter. This was an example of something being as bad or worse than I had heard - there was nothing redeeming. I heard the new terminal is more akin to the super modern ones in Dubai or Doha - it looked good from the outside as the plane taxied by anyway.
For those who think Saudi Arabia is completely foreign, my friend picked me up at the very modern Tabuk Airport (loved it) in a rental car from Avis and we drove to the Hilton Garden Inn. I could have been in Houston or Dallas. To AM's disappointment, I was tired and wanted to sleep. Thursday nights are a big night to go out in Saudi Arabia, but after the stressful transit in Jeddah and my delayed arrival, I could only think of sleep. The next day was going to be a long drive down to Madain Saleh [see: Madain Saleh] and we had to wake early.
Tabuk is pancake flat in the middle of the desert (real desert). I immediately appreciated mountainous Abha. I could not imagine living in a place that is hot most of the year without much green, pancake flat, and far from the sea. Finding interesting things to do or decent places to eat in Tabuk, even with AM looking online in Arabic, was a struggle. Tabuk does have two claims to fame - the largest air force base in the country (with a lot of foreigners) and a station from the old Hejaz Railway [see: Hejaz Railway] line from Damascus to Medina. Besides that, it was flat, dusty and faceless. Even AM said "thank God I don't work here". He worked In a factory in Jubail on the Persian Gulf.
After Madain Saleh, we arrived back in Tabuk around sunset (Remember: dangerous driving in KSA at night due to random camels on the roads outside of cities). "Mr. Coffee" appeared to be a local upscale coffee shop, so we headed there after dinner. What is "upscale"? Any coffee shop that serves espresso-based drinks and does NOT show football. A normal coffee shop in Saudi Arabia will be filled with young men drinking Nescafe, tea, or Arabic coffee screaming at TV screens - not my idea of a good time. Mr. Coffee was relaxing and calm. We ended up meeting a group of young pilots from the air force base who asked AM who I was as I was the only foreigner in the cafe. Foreign military personnel stay on base, period. I am guessing there were precious few foreigners wandering the streets of Tabuk. Since these guys were pilots, they all spoke fairly good English. We joined them and they were politely curious about my experience living in Saudi Arabia . Abha no less - for Saudis it is like the end of the earth. Chatting with them reminded me that I have been so blessed to meet kind people on most of my travels. The guys confirmed that there was little to see in Tabuk City. They were amazed we had driven to Madain Saleh and back in a day. They told us in the mountains, some distance from the city, there were some lovely oases. Unfortunately, we had no time as we were leaving the next afternoon.
The next day after breakfast, AM got online, searched the internet in English and Arabic for "things to do in Tabuk", and nothing of note came up. We looked at the map of the city and I saw there was a fort and an old railway station. It was something to do anyway - we had a whole day to kill.
Tabuk Fort is in the city center in a public park, more like a dusty city square with a few foreign workers listlessly sitting around smoking. The Fort, an imposing square stone hulk, is now a museum, but it was closed. We asked people lounging nearby and they had no clue. This was an oft-repeated experience in Saudi Arabia for me. I would arrive at a "tourist spot" to find it closed with no explanation and no one knowing much about it. These days, however, things are changing rapidly and for the better. I missed the grand opening of Saudi tourism by just a couple of years. One of the issues dogging Saudi tourism is that many sites are not Saudi at all. Tabuk Fort was built by the Ottomans to help quell the restive Arabs (you know, the Saudis). It is actually a symbol of colonial oppression. Then again, the locals in this part of Saudi Arabia may not have left much behind in terms of cultural artifacts and the fort IS part of Saudi history. Worldwide, dealing with uncomfortable history is a common theme: destroy, reject, ignore, retell, repurpose, or accept? I have seen examples of all of it. Saudi Arabia is on a path of ignore or repurpose/retell it seems.
In order to keep those "Lawrence of Arabia" riled up Arabs in check, the Ottomans proposed a great railway from Istanbul to Mecca. The last days of the Ottoman Empire saw the Sultans looking increasingly to Europe for how to modernize. Railways were connecting the main cities of Europe, so the Ottomans planned a rail line that would ferry pilgrims, troops, and goods between their capital city and their holiest city - it was only partially completed. Tabuk was a main station along the way and these days it has been renovated into a museum. Unfortunately, it was closed. I wasn't too upset as there was also a small, but informative museum down in Madain Saleh that I saw the day before. The Tabuk Station was much larger with a lot of outbuildings. Again, the Saudis were faced with preserving a history they had opposed. At the time of construction, they did NOT want the railway line for fear it would destroy their monopoly on transport via camel caravan AND they were genuinely concerned about the Ottoman Turks sending whole garrisons quickly to "subdue" the locals. It really is true - Lawrence of Arabia, acting on behalf of the British government (who were anti-Ottoman), helped the locals to destroy parts of the railway. We were 0-2 in Tabuk, two places to see and both closed.
AM drove us back to the airport in the late afternoon. I was on a direct flight to Abha (thank God) and he was headed back to Dammam. We both had work the next morning. I felt another trip to Tabuk to explore the region around it might be worthwhile, but I left the country before I had that chance.