Rihlah 7 : Day 1 : Riyadh - Tayma

11 October 2013

 

Its the opportunity we're waiting for in our attempt to fulfill our target of conquering 34 places in SAudi Arabia before going back home.  As we are still uncertain of how long we will be in this land of Sahara we knew that any long  holidays available must be fill with activities to achieve our target.

As for this EId ul Adha holiday, we decided to explore northern region of Saudi Arabia which is Tabuk and Jouf.  Our journey will start from Riyadh going up via Hail to Tayma which is in Tabuk.  From the town of Tayma, we will go further up to places in Tabuk for 3 days.  Continue from Tabuk, going to northwest to Jouf.  From Jouf, we will take the Northern Border highway to Jubail as we need to meet our friend there.  Then we will go back home to RIyadh to continue our norm.  The whole journey will take us a week.

With some preparation on the routes and places based on the internet, we started our journey on a bright Friday morning.  It will be a long journey for us as we will drive straight to Tayma of about 1100 km from Riyadh.  A veeery long way to go!  As we have already explore Hail, we wouldn't want to waste our time staying at Hail.  As for that, our journey will be straight to Tayma and stay overnight there.

Still a long way reaching Tabuk via Hail…

Side road view along the way…

Not much difference that we can see on the way to Tayma as we have already took the route to Hail last year.  Seems that the highway is still under construction at Hail, the progress is quite slow.  Thinking of all the money that this country have...surely you're expecting development progress are faster and smoother.

Some views along the way…

When mentioning Tabuk, it reminds us of the Battle of Tabuk during the time of our beloved prophet Muhammad (saw).  It was a war where The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) ordered his Companions to prepare to fight Romans at a time when men hard pressed; the heat was oppressive and there was drought; fruit was ripe and the men wanted to say in the shade with their fruit disliked traveling it that season.

Unlike his previous experiences, the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) informed his Companions by the people whom he were going to fight because the journey was long, the season difficult, and the enemy in great strength, so that the men could make suitable preparations.

Though there was no war actually took place, it is a big test among the muslims and the hiphocrites. Even by a comfy car with airconds, we can feel the long journey. Imagine them at that time having only camels, no roads and it is summer!  Subhanallah...may Allah bless the muslim who join the battle of Tabuk.

Travelling to these region is quite challenging  as it is not easy to find hotels. From the internet, we could only find 3 hotels in booking.com for Tabuk.  Hence, we decided our journey will be quite an adventure.  Accomodation won't be our priority..so we decided to sleep at  any available istirahah where quite numbers of pump oil offer the service for drivers to sleep for few hours for their naps before continuing their journey.

For today, we reach Tayma, a city in Tabuk at around 8.30 pm.  It was quite a long day before a fresh starts tomorrow.  A qood sleep is enough for us already.  Hence, we settle down today at Shefini Hotel for SR100 per night.  While dinner was only at the restaurant below the hotel which was so­so.  Kapsa and bbq.

Night! Night! – tw&