Tag: Travel

Visiting Saudi Arabia

On By DanielIn Travel1 Comment

For the first time in its history Saudi Arabia has started to issue eVisas for tourism to people from 49 countries. In addition, it has relaxed its dress code and allowed single women over the age of 25 to travel alone.

I’ve always wanted to travel to Saudi, which predates my Arabic studying days. Back then I used to search for ways to get a transit visa to Saudi, and always stumble upon stories in which women couldn’t get a taxi or check into a hotel alone. So when I saw the news that Saudi finally opened up for tourism, I applied my visa and booked tickets right away. Since the tourist visa program only started in October 2019, there is still a lack of adequate tourism infrastructure, such as tour operators and public transportation. I tried my best to search for resources, everything from googling and searching hashtags on Instagram. Fortunately I was able to find several interesting activities.

Edge of World

If you want to explore Saudi Arabia at some future point, here are my experiences and tips.

Safety

Saudi is safe. The fact that it’s under Sharia law and even small crimes have heavy punishments makes it very safe for solo female travelers. I walked around by myself in Riyadh and Jeddah, and not once I was harassed or cat called.

Dress Code

Local women are still required to wear abayas but as a foreign woman, I can basically wear whatever I want as long as I cover my knees and shoulders. A headscarf is not required, but I wore one on the first day during my trip because I wanted to try out new styles. Soon after that, I got tired of it and stopped wearing it for the remainder of my trip. I mostly wore jeans and yoga pants with a tank top, then a shirt outside, and it was totally fine.

Kingdom Tower, Riyadh

Drinking Water

The water used in Saudi is mostly desalinated sea water, which has a weird taste but drinkable. I drank mostly boiled tap water but you can also buy bottled water (I try to use less plastic).

Interaction with Local People

Saudi people are among the friendliest I’ve ever met. Unlike in Egypt and Tanzania, in which people try their best to scam tourists out of their money, Saudis are just proud of their country and want you to have a good time there. On the first day of my trip, a stranger showed me around a historical site, explained the portraits of their kings and pointed me directions to their souqs. In Egypt, a person would be like, “a small tip, 20 dollars.”, but this stranger just left afterwards, wished me a nice day and said “welcome to Saudi Arabia”. A lot of random strangers on the street, or the tour guides I hired for a day trip often asked me if I’m there for business, and when I replied, “it’s for tourism”, they were all very surprised. Since Saudi never really had tourists in the past, except for Hajj and Umrah (Islamic pilgrimages), locals are generally happy to see foreign tourists, some even want to take pictures with me.

With my guide Asem

Vegan

Saudi is vegan friendly like New York City, there are a lot of Indian restaurants that serve vegan food, and whenever I went to a coffee shop and asked for vegan milk, there were multiple options like soy, almond and coconut. A lot of cafes and casual restaurants have falafel, either with a platter or as a sandwich.

Falafel wrap and latte with coconut milk

At the end of my trip, as I was riding in a Uber alone on my way to the airport, I thought about an old thread on TripAdvisor, the one in which a female traveler had a layover in Riyadh and she wasn’t allowed to leave the airport because she didn’t have a male guardian. Things have certainly changed, and today women can travel in Saudi Arabia alone without any problem. There has been great progress towards becoming a more moderate country, as well as improvements towards women’s rights. Even though Saudi is not comparable to western countries, I’m still amazed at how far they have come, and hopeful that more people will travel to Saudi and discover its beauty and hospitality.

Essentials on a Long Haul Flight

On By DanielIn TravelLeave a comment

A good friend is planning her trip to Europe and is asking me what I bring in my carry on bag for a flight. I don’t travel often but when I do, it’s purely for leisure, to Africa, South America or Asia, so my in-flight packing list applies mostly to 10+ hour flights.  Some of my recent and future destinations includes Antananarivo (17), Santiago de Chile (10), Rio de Janeiro (10), Beijing (14) and Cairo (13).

1. Pen. You won’t know how important a pen is, until you have to wait in long lines to fill border crossing and declaration forms. Bring a pen in flight will save you a lot of time.

2. Sheet mask. This is why my skin always looks radiant right out of the exit, besides the fact that I’m Asian. I always put on a mask when they start to serve food, so for a 10 hour flight, I need 2-3 masks.

3. Sleeping pills. Especially for red eye flights.

4. Eye mask. Some airlines offer it for free (ie. Ethiopian Airlines), but I’d still bring my own.

5. Flip flops. Or slippers, whatever that’s comfortable to sleep in and easy to take off.

6. Thick socks when I have a window seat. I almost always choose aisle seats but sometimes unfortunately I miss my flight and get assigned to the next one on a window seat. The window seats are colder on the walls so a pair of socks will help you sleep.

7. Foldable water bottle. It’s very important to hydrate in a flight and foldable water bottles take up less space. I usually bring a thermos too, because you know, I’m Chinese and I drink hot water.

8. Noise canceling headphones. It’s not necessary if you don’t care a crying baby onboard and in your proximity in the next 10+ hours.

9. Lip balm.

10. Entertainment. I download audiobooks before flight but in reality I always fall sleep.

** I don’t need a neck pillow because I basically can sleep in any position; and also I don’t bring a jacket because international airlines (at least the ones I took) always provide blankets.

I was robbed in Guatemala City

On By DanielIn Briefly noted on life, Travel5 Comments
2017-01-19-10-45-38

I was robbed today a little while after taking this picture. It was about 2pm in the afternoon, a bright sunny day. I was in Zona 10, right under the Torre de Reformador, at exactly this location. I was waiting for Uber with my phone in my hands and two guys on motorcycle stopped by me, grabbed my phone quickly and went away.

I’m glad at least I’ve synced my photos with Dropbox whenever I can, so I can post this one from my computer. I only lost a couple photos from Museo Popol Vuh. Now I need to either buy a cheap digital camera or a single use film camera, as I’m leaving for Tikal tomorrow. While it is not my intention to speak about the relative safety of other third world countries, except to say that I did not experience similar events in my recent trips to China, Mexico and Honduras. I feel that most Guatemalans are nice, friendly, and honest people who would probably be more enraged what had happened to me in their country than I was. I’m simply sharing this information and hoping other travelers who also plan to visit or already in Guatemala to be careful.

I want to have my life for the unexpected

On By DanielIn Briefly noted on life2 Comments

I find it’s hard to answer these questions,

「お国はどちらですか？」
「出身はどこですか？」

Which one should I choose? The place I was born, the place I had lived for most years of my life, the place of my current residence on the record, the place my parents are from and the place my parents currently living – are all different. Therefore I don’t know which one to choose.

—

I don’t know where I am from.

Neither do I know where I am going.

Sometimes people would ask me where I plan to stay after graduating from college. “Going back to China?” They would ask.

“No,” I’d reply, “I’m definitely not going back to China.”

I have lived in China for more than ten years – more than half of my entire life, and want no more of.

Then I left for the States.

Programming is logical, abstract, cool. I chose it because I love languages, and thought since I can learn natural languages, then it won’t be too hard for me to learn artificial ones. I am ready to study seriously again – programming, technology, and everything related. At the age of 18, coming to my senses as a human being at last, I am not done with learning. I know I am no longer ashamed of my ignorance, nor afraid of liking things.

Perhaps I should be impressed by the fact that I haven’t attached myself to things, that I am loose and free enough to walk away from anything at anytime. But what am I free for? I want to have my life for the unexpected.

Anyhow, I still take it for granted that not settling down is a necessary rebellion.