Yanbu

Last week, I decided I would check out Yanbu on the weekend, so I arranged to go with an English  Co-worker. By providence, a  mutual colleague, an American has planned to go there at the same time. We'll call the Englishman "The Brit" and the American "The Yank". (No offense, if you guys are reading!)

It only takes about an hour and a half to get to Yanbu from Rabigh, and time went quickly, and we had lively conversation the whole way. Yanbu is a small city, of somewhat less that two thousand people. It's split into two areas: "Old Yanbu" (or simply Yanbu); and "New Yanbu" (or Sinaiya). The Brit and I had planned to go the bookstore in Old Yanbu, so The Yank dropped us off and went to New Yanbu to meet  his friend. Jarir Bookstore, it turned out was only one story, but very large indeed.

We went to the Jarir bookstore for the purpose of finding English books--something or a rarity if Saudi Arabia...come to think of it, if Rabigh is any indication, books in general are something of a rarity here. Except for the Koran, of course. Anyway, Jarir, had quite a good selection. I got handy Arabic phrasebook, and a copy of Crime and Punishment, which cost me a mere fifteen riyals. In addition to carrying books, Jarir, also carries electronics. I was able to price out cellphones, TVs and projectors while I was there. they even had video games and consoles. Next month, perhaps I will go back and buy a bunch of stuff. It was really big in there, and we must have spent an hour looking around. The Brit came out with a stack of books.

After a bite to eat, we took a taxi to New Yabu, which took about fifteen minutes...it's really far away enough, and certainly different enough to be considered it's own city.  Old Yanbu is nothing special to look at. It's crowded, not laid out very well. To be honest, it's rather dirty, and not much to look at, either. It reminded me of the older parts of big Korean cities. Sinaiya couldn't have been more different. Created by royal commission, the whole city was planned out--very well. The roads are of a proper width, there are proper sidewalks, the zoning is logical and convenient, there are long swaths of beautiful parkland along the coast, and best of all: it's not all covered with garbage.  

It was really gorgeous there--it didn't even feel like Saudi Arabia. I imagine Dubai is like Sinaiya. Anyway, The Brit and I did some shopping in a modern grocery store, where he bought smoked cheese, and other delicacies not to be found in Rabigh. I bought some baklava. Eventually The Yank Arrived, and we walked around the seaside for an hour or so.

The Yank was staying so he could go scuba-diving the next day, so me and the Brit went to catch a taxi back to Rabigh. After several attempts to get a cab back to Rabigh from Sinaiya, we relented and went back Old Yanbu to connect from there. We were crammed into a car with two others, minus the driver, who was trying tenaciously to find a fifth passenger. The Brit and I very nearly took another cab, but seeing we were out of patience, the driver got going. We probably should have found a cab for just the two of us, as I had to sit in the middle of the back seat and neither of us were very comfortable...but it was only seventy rials a piece, so we bared with it. Actually, the cab ride back was a lot of fun. We just told jokes and laughed the whole way back. The Saudi must have thought we were mad!