The Good Men Project

My Daily Life in Saudi Arabia

 

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Transcript provided by YouTube:

00:13
and finally in Saudi Arabia what I’m
00:16
currently in the capital called the liad
00:18
and I want to go to quite a few
00:20
different places here in the area but
00:21
apparently now is the prayer time so
00:22
literally everything is closed and
00:24
everything opens only at like 1 or 2
00:26
p.m. so guess I’ll just roam the streets
00:28
see what happens but quite excited to
00:31
see what this again she’s Oliver I’ve
00:33
been to quite a few Muslim countries
00:34
before but none of those countries were
00:35
ever as serious about prayer time as
00:38
Saudi Arabia literally every single shop
00:40
was closed and everyone in the city
00:42
we’re making their way to the closest
00:44
mosque to pray either way I wasted no
00:46
time I did whatever else I could which
00:47
was a lot more exciting than you would
00:49
imagine
00:50
check this out so once the prayers were
00:58
over the city slowly came back to life
01:00
and I found myself surrounded by old
01:02
antiques in a traditional Saudi
01:03
marketplace after that I checked out a
01:06
few gorgeous parks in the city centre
01:07
and proceeded to the National Museum of
01:09
Saudi Arabia which apparently was really
01:12
interesting I’m literally the only only
01:14
person here I don’t maybe because it’s a
01:16
Friday or maybe because there’s not too
01:19
many tourists it’s here today I don’t
01:20
know what’s what’s the what’s the reason
01:22
but look at it look at all these empty
01:24
empty halls Wow then I hopped into a
01:27
taxi and went to check out the third
01:29
tallest building in Saudi Arabia that
01:31
had a fancy shopping mall one of the
01:32
highest mosques in the world and a
01:34
beautiful skybridge with incredible
01:36
views of the yard
01:38
[Music]
01:39
the next morning things got real I
01:41
caught up with my friend Zak and
01:43
together with his friend Jimmy the DJ
01:45
and madhava the investment banker we all
01:47
went on impro trip
01:48
[Music]
01:57
eventually we hit the vast desert an
01:59
hour away from Riyadh and your boy Jacob
02:02
took over the wheel
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[Music]
02:07
after another hour of driving we finally
02:09
reach one of the most incredible natural
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sites in all of Saudi Arabia the one and
02:13
only edge of the world finally reached
02:16
the edge of the world as you can see all
02:19
around me the views here in saying
02:22
there’s hardly any people because it’s
02:24
so hard to look at that but they’re all
02:28
those cliffs and all those rocks and all
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those mountains everywhere we were all
02:42
super excited to be out in nature and
02:44
spend many hours having awesome
02:45
conversations laughing and simply
02:47
sitting on the edge admiring the
02:49
wonderful views around us we also talked
02:52
with lots about life in Saudi Arabia and
02:53
madhava had a few things she wanted to
02:55
share that night I hopped on a night bus
03:14
that took me literally all across the
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country to Saudi Arabia’s commercial
03:17
center and the tenth largest city in the
03:20
Arab world Jeddah even though Jeddah has
03:23
a beautiful water promenade as well as
03:24
lots of gorgeous mosques and fancy
03:26
buildings my favorite part of the city
03:28
was its old town called Al Balad that
03:30
was founded well over a thousand years
03:32
ago man this place is so cool first of
03:35
all everything looks very beautiful and
03:37
then everyone’s so happy that I’m here
03:40
everyone’s shaking my hands even the
03:41
girls what everyone wants to talk to me
03:44
ask me questions show off their moves to
03:47
me it’s great
03:48
finally I spend the remainder of my day
03:50
walking all around the city of Jeddah
03:52
but since I’m not the biggest fan of
03:53
this city life early the next morning I
03:56
rented a car and went on a pretty epic
03:58
adventure
04:05
[Music]
04:07
just came to some sort of a popular
04:09
national parks here in the area but
04:12
everything seems to be abandoned look at
04:14
that I feel like I’m literally the only
04:18
person in this whole huge part
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yeah the first National Park visited
04:23
wasn’t necessarily the best we hopped
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back into my car and continued driving
04:27
until this happened I am so so happy you
04:31
see very happy I shall hear the people
04:35
very nice very come very easy people yes
04:39
all people come here welcome sit in home
04:43
no problem yes
04:46
thank shot inside the police were so
04:50
friendly dude
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this one guy he hugged me he gave me his
04:55
phone number his sister he said dude if
04:57
you ever face any problems in Saudi
04:58
Arabia always called me in the middle of
05:00
the night early in the morning whenever
05:02
you have any problems just call me and
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I’ll I’ll help you solve everything in a
05:06
chela we’ll meet again they have a great
05:08
trip thank you so much for coming so
05:10
dear even then I rode hundreds of
05:13
kilometres across
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absolutely stunning mountains and made
05:16
my way to one of the coolest villages in
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all of Saudi Arabia called di di on was
05:21
built over 400 years ago and even though
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it was abandoned in late 20th century
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all the houses in the village are still
05:27
very much intact I think I found a house
05:29
I can go inside him I’m sorry to hear
05:34
another door Wow
05:40
Aki this room is much better is there
05:43
anything there no once again not a
05:46
single other person just me no one’s
05:49
guarding the place they can be literally
05:51
anywhere I can do whatever I like
05:52
I can stand anywhere you know what I
05:54
mean it’s it’s insane
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I mean look at all those views this
05:58
place was built such a long time ago and
06:00
it’s still here I can go inside some of
06:03
the houses and check them out you know
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what I mean it’s it’s crazy yeah Saudi
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Arabia definitely is a very undiscovered
06:11
gem Wow as wonderful as it was walking
06:14
around the eye and the coolest thing
06:15
about visiting the place was running
06:16
into this awesome Ukrainian backpacker
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called Pablo who was couchsurfing with
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this amazing local guy Pablo told me he
06:27
was heading down south and so we decided
06:29
to continue the road trip together our
06:31
first stop was the city of ABBA which
06:33
isn’t too popular with the tourists but
06:35
it’s home to an awesome view Pawnee very
06:37
interesting museum and most importantly
06:39
dozens of really cute tiny house is
06:41
painted in different colors we only
06:43
spent a couple of hours exploring the
06:45
city then hit the road again and arrived
06:47
to the second historical village of our
06:48
roadtrip the village of Rijal Alma
06:51
anciently this village used to be a
06:52
natural passage that link between Yemen
06:54
Mecca Medina
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Livan thus it was an important regional
06:58
trade center these days as you can see
07:00
it only features around sixty multiple
07:02
story buildings and is a pretty famous
07:03
tourist attraction with quite a few
07:05
things to see okay apparently we are
07:24
being attacked by wait this is advanced
07:27
all around us I don’t know where they
07:29
are now bro no bad so far Kim but I can
07:34
hear them everywhere even though our day
07:38
was already going pretty well it was
07:40
nothing compared to what happened next
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you see we took our car up to the
07:43
mountains above the clouds and jarring
07:45
definitely the most beautiful rose and
07:47
view points I had seen in Saudi Arabia
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until we reached this man this place is
07:53
insane it’s so calm so peaceful it’s so
07:59
beautiful I can literally only hear the
08:02
wind and the mosque sounds from that’s
08:06
me bouncing village right there that’s
08:08
it you know somehow I never expected to
08:11
be in a place like this in Saudi Arabia
08:13
no definitely not not what I thought I
08:15
would find here
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[Music]
08:24
the next morning I said goodbye to my
08:26
brother Pablo and spent 10 hours driving
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over 700 kilometres up the beautiful
08:30
coast all the way back to Jeddah where
08:32
he hopped on a bus and went on my last
08:34
adventure in Saudi Arabia to the ancient
08:36
desert city of Al Allah Allah Allah was
08:39
established thousands of years ago as
08:41
the capital of ancient kingdoms of sedan
08:43
and Lee Han and was a vital crossroads
08:45
along the famous instance trading routes
08:47
running from southern Arabia north into
08:49
Egypt and beyond because of that is home
08:51
to ancient settlements gorgeous rock
08:53
carvings and even a famous UNESCO World
08:55
Heritage Sites as much as I enjoyed
08:57
visiting an Allah the best thing about
08:59
it was the fact that I got to explore it
09:00
with a group of nine other Saudi people
09:03
who are some of the friendliest and
09:04
nicest people I had ever met in my
09:07
entire life because of this guy I am
09:16
coming to your country for you with my
09:19
wife and my family
09:20
amazing you’re always welcome well it’s
09:24
gonna if this is the kind of it all of
09:28
us hopped into a couple of epic 4×4 sand
09:30
spend days exploring Allah and having
09:33
lots of fun in the process
09:36
[Music]
09:38
[Applause]
09:39
[Music]
09:57
we also shared great food together
09:59
learned all about the ancient history of
10:02
alula want to see an incredible
10:03
live-action performance did
10:05
semi-successful flips on trampolines and
10:07
spend lots of time talking and sharing
10:10
stories with each other me as a lady to
10:18
come and visit these places before I I
10:21
would never ever be able to come to this
10:24
place and explore my country do you also
10:29
have a driver’s license
10:30
ah you like that yeah nice okay thank
10:35
you so much man so far the tour has been
10:41
completely amazing and actually the guys
10:42
organizing the whole thing they invited
10:44
me on this tour for free so that I could
10:46
share it with you you legend so if you
10:48
ever want to go on a tour in alula check
10:50
them out in the description box down
10:51
below and what a percent sure they will
10:54
never disappoint we spent our last
10:56
evening together smiling laughing and
10:58
having lots of fun it really did feel
11:00
like I found my own family in Saudi
11:02
Arabia and that felt absolutely
11:04
incredible even though I obviously had
11:06
my doubts coming in to Saudi Arabia
11:08
traveling all around the country I was
11:09
astonished by how friendly and
11:11
hospitable everyone was I never felt
11:13
unsafe for even a moment and was treated
11:16
very kindly anywhere I went I know that
11:18
Saudi Arabia has had a unique history
11:21
but I’m very happy to know that the
11:22
country is opening itself up to the
11:24
world and providing all of its citizens
11:25
with the same rights thank you to all
11:27
the amazing people I met traveling
11:29
around Saudi Arabia your hospitality
11:31
kindness care and your smiles absolutely
11:34
made my days the moments we shared
11:36
together will stay with me for a very
11:37
long time and I wish you all the best
11:39
inshallah I’ll see you again
11:44
you
11:46
you
11:53
you

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

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Photo credit: Screenshot from video

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