Speak of the destiny? Here the musketeers march from Jeddah. I was asked for autograph by Saher ‘vehicle speed detector’ with all due respect. Petrol was filled twice. Speed breakers never missed call me as law breakers. Beautiful landscapes and larger than life mountains were repeated to cucumber my eyes. Had reached al-Ula within 8 hours, traveled almost 700kms, and successfully explored and completed al-Ula’s oldest city currently known as district of Deirah. Found a hotel with very impressive price of only SR.120/day. Unpacked our bags and time to eat our lunch…
The local restaurants are located in hotel surroundings and by the way, there are no popular food chains in the city. We all three walked the nearby places. And believe me, with an impressive 3-hour-exploration on Deirah, I imagined every small residential buildings in my surrounding as ruins of Deirah town. Yeahh apologies!!
While searching for hotel, my fellow musketeers had x-rayed a shawarmatic site in the town. So we reached the spot with all high hopes of delicious shawarma but all in vain. Only broasts were ready enough to serve us. We ordered and returned hotel with all haste of hunger. The name of that restaurant for we South Asians was a bizarre. The name was ‘al-Mazaaq’ which literally means ‘Fun’. With a broad meaning, you may say Mazaaq means ‘making fun of’ or ‘having fun’. Oh my! it was terrible to receive our food from a ‘mocking’ restaurant but the food was delicious.
Time to take a rest with full mood of using my laptop and transfer the data from memory card to there. It came to my lame understanding that with every considered stuff in my bag I remembered, I did forget to bring one very important thing and that was my laptop’s charger -_- The battery was left 19% and FML moment was that begging for help to use their chargers won’t even work due to the fact that I carried ASUS laptop and they both had Acer -_-
Our room was luckily with a view… a majestic view!! <3 A small bridge connected the two lanes, the two areas. On the opposite end was a beautiful masjid calling for prayers at our disposal. A view far behind the masjid was specific mountains of unusual shapes which we had been observing in our whole trip in the surrounds.
The time was almost 6 in the evening and the temperature was conveying the message that ‘Winter is coming’. The plan was to reach the heights on one of top of the mountains. It was 26kms drive towards that mark. I am not a detailed narrator of the locations and addresses but according to my knowledge, there is a bridge which connects you towards Madain Saleh, Hail, Khaybar and Tabuk. I was suppose to take a u-turn and join the road going towards the mountain. The easy access was a signboard with the name ‘Harrat Uwayrid Park’ coming on that same road telling you to turn towards the right.
So I joined that road and in our surrounds were those unusual shapes of mountains. With no street lights to offer, that destiny towards the top became more scary, creepy and mysterious. With the sun almost set and darkness harking, the nearby mountains were like corpses and very shamly inviting.
I was supposed to trust on my vehicle lights (with only a right side of halogen working). Oh boy oh boy! it was absolute dark and the next wierdo thingy was two small pillars (one each on right and left) made from henge of stones placed for an unwelcomed welcome. Now at that point, we realized that we actually were on right path relying on navigation. The road now had many short and dangerous curves. It might slip at your losing of an edge due to the fact that the rising will begin.
My car was ascending at 40-60kph and building a height were eardrums stopped beating. There was no two way and hazards were on. Kept driving like that for further five minutes with not a single street light offering a dangerous path to drive at your own risk. The temperature was speaking and many huge stones were snoring at edge-ends. There was no stopping and had to expect the car might arrive from the opposite end.
That wasn’t enough at all. After all ascending and dangerous climbing, we were back on base with a complete blackout. Five minutes later, my vehicle lights provided us an opportunity to view a sudden shock. With no life stored on the top in the blackout, we witnessed a caravan of black camels :S In a limited lighting, those camels were not less than a sudden-cameo epic of slender man.
The rising was abandoned and were driving flat. All of a sudden, we saw a communication tower hub 100 meters far which convinced me that life is stored for humans on the top. Non-serious speed breakers guided us to locate the mark. We parked and reached the destiny. Here I felt the real cool breezing Ula. Air was blowing and temperature was dropping. We shivered with cold and began walking to the top. It was a decent park with proper sitting areas and shades to avoid sunlight.
The name also is King Abdul Aziz Park National Park which is located on al-Harra mountains 6500ft above sea level. The protective fences are installed to avoid danger. We reached the end and witnessed a beauty. A hawk-eye view of al-Ula. I fell in love with that heavenly view. The temperature had touched almost 10 degrees celsius. We forgot to wear gloves as advised and were freezing. It became hard to make videos and pictures from my camera due to excessive cold.
We stayed there for an hour or two. My fellow musketeers intended and sat on the rocks ahead of the fence close to the end. It was very risky but I gave my second thought of having a larger than life moment in this trip, so why not make a go and join them. My legs were shivering as one epic blunder might make ill fate of all of us but Alhamdulillah, that never happened. I lied on the rock where both were sitting and enjoying.
My eyeballs were fixed more towards the sky. Being almost 2000m above sea level, I imagined myself close to the stars. I had cut myself from the world. Lying on the rock, my heart beat had a burden, the whole body was like lifted in the air above the skies to feel the beat of new age music. Closed my eyes and sound of wind blew across my eardrums. Ascended towards the sky and Djembe was played around with the herd of camels below groaning. I couldn’t move a muscle of my leg. My thigh muscles were frozen dead and myself not normally breathed.
For approximately 10-15 minutes, I was connected with the stars or if they were twittering me. I was panicking as monsters on the stars were gobbling. I realize that they were not monsters but legends, angels and pious earthlings. They were shining of good deeds and were satisfied of what they have fed and how they have served the inhabitants on earth. Is it reminding you ‘The Lion King’ scene? Yeah it happened with me too. This was the magic of breezing Ula!! Billions of stars were welcoming the Jeddawis…
I kept lying there as my fellow musketeers began leaving. They began calling me as it was time to leave. With all my weight on the rock and being at edge, I felt a little oops as I tried to pull myself and got worried not to slip to the other side of rock as legs began shivering again. With no danger I was back then.
An unforgettable experience was yet to come. We were returning and just crossed the communication tower. The next was complete blackout. Without any sense of logic, I turned the car lights off and stopped to feel the horrible darkness. But it turned to our surprise when we turned our heads above the sky. Our eyes were invited by the next door to heaven. It was not about those billions of stars twinkling. It was about my first ever lucky experience towards the site people would ever love to view. Yes, a Milky Way….
Ohh what a view!!! <3 Allah Almighty gifted us this wonder. There was a world lying behind those stars. Hidden but not forbidden. Carved but not starved. Lasered but not tasered. One cannot deny this magic of lighting. The major part of whiteness under Milky Way was like a feast ready for the Kingdom of Elves. I was lost in this world but staying for long with my car lights off was not less than any sign of danger. What if those black camels become the dragons? LOL So we left the spot in haste and began descending the same route of mountain properly.
Returning home, sleepless for around 40 hours!! I was exhausted with a minor backache and eye balls falling low. I was yet to sleep or at least stretch my back to bed. The dinner scene was on in couple of hours as one musketeer had a client here in this city to work for a very short-notice. I lied on bed for hardly an hour and half.
One of us wanted to have a small shopping. We went to a garments shop. Clothes were cheap. We entered the shoes section and our eyes stuck on one shoe box with the title never fitting with the product. A weird message with no connection but salute to the logic of box designers. They surely were mentally retarded.
Our musketeer met his client and after 10-minute exchange of regards and words, the rest of us were introduced with a plan that we will have dinner at his client’s ‘House of Commons’ where even hookah ‘sheesha’ will also be available for drinking. It sounded exciting to me. With more than 40 sleepless hours and a minor body ache, it was a ‘Yes’ for me.
The place was a 5-minute-drive and we met some other of his client’s friends in their rest house. There were around 10 people of different sizes and ages, and to no surprise all were Bedouins. It was pretty pleasant atmosphere as the people under the rest house were friendly and good hosts. They excused us for the dinner to wait for an hour. One musketeer began working on his assignment and the other replied his guesting feedback to the friendly hosts by playing Arabic songs from his laptop.
All were nice people having fun but the one just put me in embarrassment or u may say for me was an embezzlement. When introduced that we all three were Pakistanis, one old gag spotted me and doubted me of being a Pakistani. He went on to say that I resembled like a guy from Madras (Chennai) or Sri Lanka -_- I know most of the readers here will make a guffaw but surely you won’t put yourself in my place and ask yourself how does it really feel if a guy speak this way to you in front of ten new faces in unfamiliar environment in a different city. It surely was a harsh comment to bear but had no option. May Allah Almighty direct him.
One guy offered us an Arabic tea and a basbousa sweet. The other offered us sheesha. Sheesha was double-apple flavor with four big charcoal cubes decorated on the top. It was very well prepared and the outcome was passport to heaven. My fellow colleague had a sheesha with lemon and mint flavor, with the same excess of smoky excitement.
Feel the beat or smell the meat. You certainly can expect that is coming close to you. Specially more closer when you feel hungry, when your physical strength hasn’t met its fate to bed in a long run, when your eye-balls are failing to muster up the tales in the dreams and so and so. I was bound to sit on floor and eat because I am used to eat on table. I am not comfortable eating on floor. Traditional rice with chicken was served in large plate for all hungry men. It was so delicious and heavy. Every flesh of chicken made my tongue watered.
One thing I learnt from the Bedouins of the city. I am not fluent in Arabic but my fellow spoke to one of the host and repeatedly used the term ‘Vannas’. Even other hosts used the same word many a time. I sensed there was something special in it. I asked him and he told me that the word ‘Vannas’ is obviously an Arabic word which is used in this city for compliment. For example, if I say “this food is awwwweeeesome”, it will be like “this food is vannnnnnas”. I do like the complimentary term because the food was delicious but more than that, sooo vannas :) We kept eating and vannasing.
After the food, I wasn’t feeling well for two major reasons. a) After a long time, I got very physical in my activity… my fellows had taken rest and slept in the car during the destiny as I solely drove the car all the way from Jeddah to here, straightly explored the old town, reached the peak of mountain for a hawk-eye view and now a heavy dinner plus drinking sheesha phewwww and b) I didn’t sleep for at least 40 hours at all. I met a huge headache, my backbone was killing me, my legs were getting cold. My body was breaking, my soul was shattering and level of anxiety was about to cross its limit. I suffered the pain for further half an hour because one was waiting for the client to return to rest house and make a proper thanks for all his kind service and wish him good bye while the other was busy on an urgent call. I wasn’t able to walk normally and pain was growing. I badly needed a bed or a grave to lie like a harlot for a night stand.
I was like losing my consciousness and I had a feeling that my fellows aided me to lie on bed. Tomorrow we are leaving home. But before we leave, the musketeers will march towards the most critical exploration land near al-Ula, Madain Saleh. Let me die for a temporary period, let me enjoy my wild fantasies with my virgins lying and waiting for me in the clouds. Hope I recover and new knowledge I discover.
Thanks for reading and do wait for the last chapter under ‘The Breezing Ula’. Till then, reply the blog or give your feedback. You may ask any questions related to the trip. Good night!
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Sami Naik | Film Critic 