Anyway, I prayed for the strength to go and I made it, we took a taxi and went very fast to the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, which is second only to Mecca in importance and beauty. I have seen it on TV so many times and seen it in books but to see it at night, it is all lit up and just incredible, the most amazing thing. I was just stunned, so I sat outside, I went inside and prayed, it was very difficult, he told me to take my camera but not my video camera, keep it in my bag and not even attempt a photo unless he was with me and asked a policeman, as if I got in trouble I can't speak Arabic to get out of trouble, well that is true. There are ladies on the women's side fully covered in abayas but with patches on their shoulders, very serious women to keep you from doing anything wrong (like a picture!) So I was very careful, of course there is no time to see anything and many of the places inside are closed off. It is also not open 24 hrs. like the mosque in Mecca so you cannot just go and stay at any hour. So I walked around, then he came back and we walked around the outside, I have to be careful because of course I don't know where is OK and where is forbidden. I also noticed a sign for a parking lot, it was marked "women only" which was strange to me since women can't drive, but the drivers must wait in their cars down below for the women to come, that is the only thing I can figure.

Seeing the Prophet's Mosque was incredible, but it was just like a taste, there was so little time, and I only saw a small part. Afterwards, we went over to the market and bought some things, after all I am in Medina, I had to buy some things to take home, it is unbelievable! He was such a gentleman, he got water for me from the holy well which they bring up and he said if I prayed and drank it, it would help my stomach, which I did, and I actually felt a little better, but it was hot and I had to be even more covered than usual to be there. He always made sure I had a place to sit and carried my stuff when he went into a store, I was just sitting outside looking at everything, totally in awe.

So we finished and then got a taxi for an hour, it was only $20, no problem, and drove around and he held my camera out the window and took a lot of photos, then we went to the Qiblatain Mosque, just outside, it means 2 Qiblas, Qibla is the word for the direction of Mecca, so when you see a Qibla in a mosque you know which way to pray. So originally people prayed towards Jerusalem, but Mohamed got a message from God that they should pray to the black stone in Mecca so Mohamed came in when people were praying, he waited until they were done and said, God has told me we should pray in another direction, so they moved the other way and prayed that way too. If you put an -tain on the end of a word it means 2, therefore Qiblatain is 2 directions. It is very famous-I also saw the Hejaz Railroad Station, from the Lawrence of Arabia times, there are rail lines from Damascus to Mecca, and were used in the early 1900s. Of course Medina was a big stop on the road for the pilgrimage. The city is incredible, with modern shopping malls, we needed to buy some film for one of the guys in the group, I went to a grocery store in the mall, here I am in Medina in a mall buying film, as I write this I have to pinch myself! It is impossible to believe it. We also passed the cemetery where many members of Mohamed's family are supposed to be buried, but it is dark and we can't see, also the graves have no markings, but I was there anyway! There is a beautiful waterfall along the road, it is so beautiful here, I wish I had more time. We got home about 11 pm and I didn't feel well but I got into bed after getting myself organized, as we must be up at 4:45 am tomorrow to go to Madain Salah, which is why everyone else got hours of extra sleep but I was out running around and sick to boot, but when will I get to Medina again? I cannot believe I am here!!

Of course it was 4:45 am all too soon but this is a highlight of our trip, a full day excursion to Madain Salah, which is a Nabatean ruin that is very similar to Petra, Jordan, and not that far from Petra as the crow flies, about 4 hrs. by car. I am sure you have seen Petra, the rose-colored rock and the buildings carved into the rock, well this is quite similar but not the same rock so not rose colored, but orange, and not as large. It is about 3 hrs. away from Medina and is really in the middle of nowhere. We took the bus up to the ruins and had a picnic lunch at the Hejaz RR station up here, which has an old rail car inside. We ate on the ground, they work very hard to give us box lunches with sandwiches and fruit and drinks, I am taking it very easy on the food because my stomach is a long way from normal, but I am on Cloud Nine from my visit to Medina downtown, and thank God I made it!

The mountains around here are so red, it is really amazing to see it They are happy I got to Medina and so are thinking of how to get me to Mecca-I think all have figured out this is very important to me, so Lauren said she would explain to the other people when we get to Jeddah that I have to go home on time but they will arrange for Samer or one of the people in his office to take me, even if I have to miss seeing some things in Jeddah which I said was fine, whatever they can do. My bottom line is to get there and not look like a dufus to the people in Jeddah because I just feel awful about it, and all the work, but if she can pull this off so much the better.

So we look at everything, took some very famous photos from the ruins that I hope will look like the postcards, then stopped in Al Ula on the way back. There is a new hotel there people want to look at, which was very nice with a gorgeous view of the ruins. Of course then you don't go to Medina, which would be devastating as far as I am concerned. But it might be nice to overnight here after you have been to Medina because you are a long way back. If one had a lot of time, you could visit several ruins in a car, like from Al Jouf to Taima, Tabuk, Madain Salah then end up in Medina, drop the car, but oops we can't do that so we have to fly! I don't think there are any hotels in the other places either, so this will all happen in time. After all, things are changing at a fast pace, slavery was only abolished in 1962, though the servants stayed on with their families, and no one ever believed there would be tourists from western countries, if it ever happened, people thought it would only be from Islamic countries.

When we got home to Medina again we had all slept on the bus and I went right to bed, about 10 pm after getting my suitcase together (we never have time to unpack them, we just get some clothes out and throw on our abayas), and off to the airport to go to Jeddah. Samer is from Jeddah and he says it is the best place, everyone says so as it has had the most cosmopolitan influence, having the port on the Red Sea and being the port of entry for the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca) they have seen foreign people and many ideas for 1400 years. It was pretty cool in the airport to see the pilgrims who make the Umrah or lesser pilgrimage which you can do any time of year, the men wear a special type of clothing and you have to put it on before you get to Mecca, so there are a lot of guys in these clothes waiting for their airplanes, and people from every country, a large Malaysian group also going on the Umrah and you can feel the difference.

So we flew to Jeddah and had lunch at this gorgeous restaurant overlooking the sea, with huge windows, it reminded me of the Punta Morro Hotel in Ensenada, right on the water with a fabulous view. It is very, very hot and humid, but Jeddah is a gorgeous place, with beautiful sculptures at each traffic circle, and a fantastic Corniche with a sea view everywhere and beautiful stores and everything so modern I cannot believe it. And you can walk here, even the women! This is great! I am still not feeling well, just small food which is better for me anyway, ha ha, I have never looked at fabulous buffet food and just went, no, not really interested, just a couple of bites! We stayed at the Inter Continental which is right next to the sea, and a McDonalds right across the parking lot, yippee! I asked if it was OK to go, they said yes, I thought maybe I need something familiar, not that I eat there at home but sometimes your stomach just needs something plain, not fancy. So I got a hamburger, I walked in by myself which the Filipino guys behind the counter were pretty amused by, I asked if it is OK to be there, I looked carefully for the family door, a couple guys saw me walk in like I was mentally ill but the guys inside said, oh no Madam, you are very welcome, do you come from America? Duh, even in our abayas we don't look like we come from around here. I took my burger back to the hotel though, it was a little too weird to try and eat it there even in the family section upstairs. Jeddah is also the first place where we saw Americans in the hotels and people doing business there.

Then we went to see old Jeddah which is being restored. Like many cities, buildings are often torn down for progress, but they are working very hard to restore this part of the city, which dates back to 1487. There are many beautiful buildings, the old market which is the shopper's mecca; you know, I think how often we use the word Mecca, or Wall Street being the financial mecca, or the Empire State Building being a tourist mecca, we use this expression all the time and now we see where it comes from, the center of the thing, which of course comes from the holy city of Mecca. We bought a lot of stuff in the market in Jeddah, this is the ultimate shopping and dealing place, I am pretty good at bargaining and my Arabic numbers are excellent. We toured the Nassif House which is 300 years old and being restored, in fact King Abdul Aziz lived here at one time, there is wood furniture in the style of Damascus that we saw the originals when we were there, friends of the people we stayed with in Damascus you may remember. We had a beautiful dinner on the roof of the Nassif House, overlooking the city, positively amazing. So Samer comes to me and said, we have someone to take you to Mecca, right after dinner you will go. Of course I am ready right now but I have no control over this so I must wait, I ate a little but I am not hungry and also anxious!

We got back to the hotel about 10 pm and we haven't gone anywhere, but not to worry, it will all happen, we will call you. So they did, one of the guys, very cute, Essam, looks like David Cassidy, he got me at the hotel and took me to his house where we would pick up his wife, since we are not supposed to go places unaccompanied as I am a single female. I imagined his wife as serious all dressed in black, we walked in, she was in jeans and a
flannel-type shirt, hi, come in, have some tea, they have a baby about 18 months old playing on the floor watching music videos, a kitten is eating in the kitchen, getting food on the floor, just a normal family. I feel I should be more dressed up but I don't have any better clothes to wear so I have to think God likes me just the same.

I was so blessed to be able to see Mecca for myself, and only 45 mins. from Jeddah. I had seen it on TV for years and it is the place where all Muslims point to when they pray, the black stone of Abraham and Ishmael. It is huge, and has been expanded several times. 2 million people come there every year at Hajj time and it was still crowded even at midnight on a normal weekday, but it was just thrilling to see the hills where Hagar was looking for water for her child Ishmael and ran between the 2 hills and then a well sprang up, now called the Zamzam well and still providing water today (Genesis 21). I drank the water there and brought some home and to share with friends, it was amazing. I can never describe how long I had read and researched about this place and how exciting it was to actually see it. The black stone was smaller than I thought, but it was because the mosque surrounding it was so incredibly huge. There is a display with a footprint of Abraham, and I will always remember how the black cloth smelled, it is finely embroidered and has the smell of incense and the touch of it, just overwhelming and unforgettable. The colors are beautiful, the ceilings, the spots where there is air conditioning (even at night it is 90 degrees and warm inside, parts have a roof and parts are open). No matter how prepared I was, reading about every part and everything, I was just stunned and overwhelmed and forgot everything, I was just staring at it! I wanted to sit there for 2 hours and just look at it, try to soak it up, but we didn't have much time, so we had to leave and go back to Jeddah. It was part of the contradiction too that as we walked out of the Holy Mosque, that was just overwhelming, and in front is the Hilton Hotel and a Burger King! At the checkpoint there is a gas station and a McDonalds! It is really amazing, there are definitely no words to describe it, on every level. I had resigned myself that if I was supposed to see it, I would, and God provided!

After that, I didn't need to do anything else, in fact we were there until about 3 am, so the next day I was so tired, doing all these extra things while the Smithsonian people were sleeping! Of course it was worth it, I can sleep at home! We flew to the south of Saudi, to Abha, about 6000 feet and cool and green. I had to stay awake, I don't want to miss anything! The hotel was the most elegant we had stayed in, written up in Leading Hotels of the World, the Abha Palace, gorgeous, allied with Dallas' Mansion at Turtle Creek so you have some idea. I had like a suite inside, fantastic view and definitely the world that I would like to become accustomed to! They had tons of cable TV channels, with Arabic news, CNN and ESPN and a pretty racy music video channel from Europe, especially by Saudi standards. Another contradiction, no record stores but you can get videos on satellite, so Saudi TV was really boring by comparison.

We met Raed, our guide in Abha, who was very handsome and looks like Gregory Harrison with a mustache! He was very helpful. Abha is the base for the Asir
National Park, the first area they are trying to develop for tourism, mostly from other Arab countries. They have a cable car into the canyon and a nice market and another large town called Khamis Mushayt with an American base with Tornados and F-15s. We were in the market and saw some women in abayas next to us bartering with prices in Arabic and then said in a perfect American accent, "I think we got a good deal" so we didn't know them and I asked, "where are you from" and they were as amazed as me! Their husbands
worked at the base at Khamis and they couldn't believe we were tourists! We saw a beautiful artists' colony with traditional architecture and fantastic paintings and murals and Arabic caligraphy, I wish I could have afforded some of it!

We also visited a small village, Al Sooda, with traditional dancers and a museum that was 500 years old. We are at the highest point in Saudi, 10,000 feet (3100m), such contrasts around the different areas of the country! These people were really fascinated with us, as we were with them, and we felt like we were in a National Geographic special. The experiences we had were just amazing, seeing the children, watching the dancers, it was great. We are only about 100 miles from the Yemen border here, of course Saudi borders almost all the countries in the region so it is frustrating that we can't visit any of them!

We have to go home now, though, so we flew back to Jeddah for a wonderful dinner at a very posh country club and then left Jeddah at 2 am for New York, arrived at 7 am and cleared customs then got on my flight to LA, arrived home at 2 pm, not too bad! I was able to sleep about 8 hours, it is incredible how you could fly so far but still be home in a day. It was an incredible experience, though and absolutely fantastic. I would recommend this trip to anyone who wants to see an entirely different culture blending with an ultra-modern society, it was just fantastic!

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Photos by Cristy Trembly