The Good Men Project

10 Things Not to Do in Saudi Arabia

 

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Transcript provided by YouTube:

00:00
as you might already know recently I
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actually had the chance to spend two
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weeks traveling all around Saudi Arabia
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which was actually very very very
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different experience to what I thought
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it would be you know and because that
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experience I learned so much about Saudi
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Arabia and its culture norms and the
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local people and today I want to tell
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you the top ten things you should never
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ever be doing in Saudi Arabia if you
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ever get the chance to go let’s go
00:27
think not it in Saudi Arabia number one
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is do not be afraid of the police I know
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that most foreigners think that the
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rules in Saudi Arabia are incredibly
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strict and of course they are and
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because that a lot of people tend to be
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quite afraid of the police I think and I
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guess I also had those really mixed
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feelings going there but all the
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interactions I’ve had with the police
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traveling throughout the country were so
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good do it for example one time I was
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driving my car on the highway and then
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this policeman approaches me and we
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start stalking him I’m a bit afraid
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because maybe they can actually find me
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for not having this howdy license I
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don’t know but he asked me to like step
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out of the car and we started talking
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and stuff and he starts asking me all
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these questions about where I’m from and
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why I’m here and he’s so excited that
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I’m inside here it was like dude if you
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ever need any help whatsoever please
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call me this is my whatsapp this is my
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Instagram send me a message in the
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middle of the night doesn’t matter when
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I’ll be there for you man hope you have
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a great time yeah get back on the road
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we loved we loved foreigners visiting
01:28
Saudi Arabia yeah after all these
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experiences I really do you think that
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the please there are super awesome thing
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not to do number two is don’t try to
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sneak into Mecca so I don’t know how
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much you know about Islam but Mecca for
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those people is the holiest place in the
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whole world ever then there’s no
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comparison nothing is even close to you
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know and obviously there’s millions of
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pilgrims visiting back every single year
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for religious reasons and I know that
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there’s many people who are not Muslims
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but they managed to you know sneak into
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Mecca as well as as like
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or whatever so they would like that
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they’re Muslim and he like said I’m
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gonna come or whatever and then
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sometimes people would let them through
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and there’s even videos on YouTube about
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it and stuff and if I’m being completely
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honest I don’t think that’s a good thing
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to do because yes you could probably
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sneak in but at the same time it’s such
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a holy place to those people why would
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you go there as a tourist if you don’t
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actually believe in it you know what I
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mean so even if you do get the chance
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even if you find some local people who
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say you know go with us or whatever I
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don’t think you should really do it
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thing not to do number three is don’t
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start talking to women in full of bias
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unless they start so once again a lot of
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tourists when they go to Saudi Arabia
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they they think that there’s no way they
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will ever get to interact with any woman
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and actually that’s not really true I
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mean traveling around some year ago I
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met quite a few girls with whom we meet
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friends and angleton you know had fun
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and talked about everything and and it
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was I mean it was great you know like
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not all that were actually been wearing
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a bias or even hate jobs and stuff and a
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lot of them have traveled to other parts
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of the world now there’s one thing if
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you see a woman will in a fool you know
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black by are completely covered and
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everything
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you probably shouldn’t start talking to
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them yourself but actually a lot of them
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will start talking to you for example
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there were these situations where I’m
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sitting on a bench chilling you know
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next to some sort of a museum and
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someone comes up to me and they’re like
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hello where are you from hope you have a
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nice day you know suddenly this and then
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I go well
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hi that’s nice you know thing not to do
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number four is don’t plan too many
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places for your road trip so the thing
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about Saudi Arabia is that it’s hard
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you’re huge country dude I go from one
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city to another it’s thousands of
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kilometers you know what I mean and when
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I was in this big city of Jeddah I
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actually rented a car and I only had to
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think for nice to drive the car and I
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was driving literally all day every day
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in those forties I think it did around
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2,000 kilometers or so which is a lot of
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driving but I still only managed to
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cover like this much of Saudi Arabia and
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only visited a handful of places
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simply because the distances from one
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place to another for once
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to another are massive you know so yes
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if you’re going there and you want to
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get a car and do a road trip make sure
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you have a lot of time or if you don’t
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have a lot of time only explore a
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certain region of Saudi Arabia rather
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than trying to do the whole thing
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because it’s a huge thing not to do
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number five is do not wear shorts so
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when I was there there wasn’t a single
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occasion where I was actually wearing
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shorts and so some of the locals
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I met they were like yeah dude no
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worries you can definitely wear shirts
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in whatever but actually I never saw a
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single person doing it so yes I think
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legally at this point you could be
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wearing shorts it’s it’s probably not
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forbidden but at the same time you know
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if 99.9999% of the people are now doing
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it it might be a little disrespectful to
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some local swore once again maybe a bit
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more conservative and don’t want to see
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your your legs are everywhere okay
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legend let’s take a very short break
04:57
here because I want to tell you
04:59
something very very spicy recently I
05:01
launched my new channel called stay
05:03
curious where we’re making very short
05:04
fast based educational videos about
05:07
beautiful places around the world and we
05:09
also have a few videos about Saudi
05:12
Arabia as well as you can see around me
05:14
here so once you’re done watching this
05:16
video smash the link in description box
05:18
down below support the channel bin join
05:21
as many videos as you like and and learn
05:23
them quite a bit about this beautiful
05:26
beautiful picture
05:27
thanks so much let’s get back to the
05:29
video very important thing not to do
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number six is never ever ever ever say
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no to people’s hospitality the people I
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met in Saudi Arabia where some of the
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most hospitable and some of the
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friendliest people I’ve met in my entire
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life ever during my tour in this really
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beautiful desert region called
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Allah I was actually in that in a tour
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group with nine other Saudi people I was
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the only partner and it was great
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because I felt like I don’t know we were
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almost family members and everyone
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treated me as if it was one of their own
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and stuff man was so good and so during
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the tour we kept joking that now I have
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a Saudi father who was called Mahmoud
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the coolest guys ever and either after
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the the Torah had a few days often in
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the city of Jeddah and he actually
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invited me to stay with this whole
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family in his house and he showed me
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around and he was buying everything for
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me and we’d be having lunches together
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dinners together driving around the city
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and stuff it was so beautiful
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obviously didn’t film anything but luck
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would thank you you’re the best guy in
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Saudi Arabia hands down lovin back can’t
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wait to see you again thing not to do
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number seven is don’t be too adventurous
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with religious places so as you know
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Saudi Arabia is a very religious country
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because it’s the birthplace of Islam and
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to them it’s such a big thing and of
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course you always always always need to
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be incredibly respectful when it comes
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to religion when it comes to mosques or
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you know
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very important historical sites but
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there are some places you might not be
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aware of for example II met some
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travelers in Saudi Arabia who are in the
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city called Medina which is once again
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incredibly important because that’s
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where the Prophet lived for a long time
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they wanted to climb up this hill for
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sunset right and so a group of that
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maybe five or six people they climbed up
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and they were watching the sunset it was
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so beautiful and then the police came
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and they said what are you doing it’s
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forbidden for you to be here because
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it’s apparently a very important
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religious place for them and so
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obviously no foreigners were allowed
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there and they said oh my God we’re so
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sorry and stuff you know and they almost
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got into trouble but you know I guess
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because didn’t know they let them go
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twist which is great but yeah so please
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be very respectful very careful don’t do
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anything that you know you think could
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offend them the people of Saudi Arabia
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it’s very very important very important
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thing not to do in Saudi Arabia number
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eight is do not expect the places you go
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to to be open okay so as you know
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Muslims pray five times per day and even
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though I’ve been to many Muslim
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countries around the world but none of
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them were as serious about it as Saudi
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Arabia so in Saudi Arabia almost
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everything closes a few times per day
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when people go to pray and it may close
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for like thirty minutes or whatever and
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so there are be so many situations where
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I would for example go to a gas station
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there’s
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see no one there so I’m just chillin
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there in my car waiting for like 45
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minutes then but I’m someone comes along
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gives me the gas and then I’m on my way
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you know I think it’s a beautiful thing
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that people can actually take time off
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during their days when obviously
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everyone is busy with work and stuff but
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for a tourist who doesn’t really know
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those times and isn’t really accustomed
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to it could be could be a little hard so
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yeah make sure you know when those times
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are plan your day that way and
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everything’s gonna be great think not to
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do number 9 is don’t be upset if some
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twisty places are either closed or not
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really very accessible think about savvy
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tourism is that for a very long time it
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was incredibly hard to go to Saudi
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Arabia as a tourist and only very
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recently they launched the visas which
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obviously I used to get to the country
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as well and because of that we have you
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know thousands of people visiting the
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country a year now but it’s still
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incredibly early for Saudi Arabia’s
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tourism because I mean it just started
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you know so some museums are not you
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know open to the public yet some places
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are kind of hard to find the road signs
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are not always the best cuz they’re made
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for the locals but not the tourists the
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infrastructure is not always the best
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you know what I mean so it’s still very
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very early and that’s exactly why I
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think visiting Saudi Arabia you know was
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a great thing for someone like me
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because I don’t like going to countries
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that are very touristy and here
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everywhere I went I was almost always
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alone and finally number 10 is don’t be
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surprised if you find yourself
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interacting with a Saudi did you find
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apparently
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Saudi Arabia has been changing
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dramatically the last couple of years
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because there were some changes in the
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government and stuff and now it’s really
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opening up to the world once again women
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can drive cars now and laws are changing
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and the ways of life are changing and I
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mean so many things are kidding and one
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of those things is actually that
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sometimes they already have public
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concerts which wasn’t really available
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in the past I mean like sort of party
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line concerts you know and so when I was
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traveling around Saudi Arabia I I got to
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meet this this dude called Jimmy who
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spent a very long time
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in California and and learning how to DJ
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and everything but now he came back home
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and is actually a DJ in Saudi Arabia and
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she was so surprised with this he said
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dude I never expected in my entire
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lifetime that suddenly this could
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actually happen but now he came back
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home he said is the best decision he
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ever made in his life he’s super happy
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to be back in Saudi Arabia and now he’s
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actually meeting and in my concerts and
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venues and events and everything it is
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like you know he was so excited so yeah
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times are definitely changing I don’t
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really know what the situation is gonna
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be like when you you know make your way
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to the Saudi Arabia but I think the
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country is definitely gonna be changing
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a lot in the next few years so quite
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interesting to see what happens
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thank you a wonderful day
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you

This post was previously published on YouTube and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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