Riding in the Desert

So, sadly, one of my friends and co-workers here will be returning to Canada for good at the end of the week.  To celebrate her last week in Saudi, we decided to go to the desert (some dunes near the beach) and ride four wheelers.  She has been before, and wanted to return to do it again and to take some photos and video of it to remember it by.  So three of us piled into a car with her usual taxi driver after work and headed off to Half Moon Bay.  Only, there was a problem.  Her usual driver had to pick up someone else at 3:45 and so could not take us to half moon bay.  So at a point midway between the University and her apartment, our driver pulls off the road and starts making phone calls and approaching randomly parked cars.  We all assumed he was looking for another driver for us, but it also kind of looked like it could have been a drug deal, though that is highly unlikely here.  We drove off again after five minutes and then a few minutes later, pulled in behind another car on the side of the road.   He indicated that this was our new ride and we swapped vehicles.

On the road once again, we decided to stop for a quick bite to eat at a grocery store that had an Indian food cafe and we ate chuppa, which is crumbled bread / chips, topped with spices and beans and then covered in yogurt and then three layers of different kinds of chutney and then parsley, some chilli peppers and then sprinkled on top some yellow crunchy stuff.  It was both delicious and filling.

We told our driver we wanted to go to Half Moon Bay and ride quad bikes, but our new driver was from India, and his English was very poor, as was his Arabic, so the few words we knew in Arabic for giving directions were useless.  Luckily, the other teacher who was with us is from India and they were able to speak together in Hindi.  After So we thought he knew where he was going, and we thought he new where he was going, but it turns out that no one was really sure where we were going because Rasheeda (the Canadian) was the only one who had been there before, and she couldn't really remember the way.   So we rode on for another 15 minutes, watching out the window for any sign of something familiar and hoping we were not lost.  It turns out, we weren't lost.  But when we finally saw the rows of quad bikes laid out waiting to be rented, it was too late to turn, so we made a lap to the next u-turn, and because it was on the other side of the road, ended up passing it again on the way back before we could do yet another u-turn and finally end up where we needed to be.

Sudanese workers who rent out bikes

There weren't many people around yet, just rows of bikes waiting to be taken for a spin and the guys who rented them.  Rasheeda is making a video blog, so we spent some time trying to get good footage of her talking with bikes in the background, unfortunately, the wind was making it hard to hear anything she was saying, so we gave up and focused on footage of the guys doing tricks on the bikes instead.  They were doing 360s and driving on 2 wheels and all kinds of crazy things.   I was anxious to try it, but I didn't think I would be wanting to do any crazy stunts.  We spent a while negotiating a price, but then finally settled on something reasonable, and Rasheeda and I each took a bike out while our other friend watched and took pictures.

The thing about these four wheelers is, there are only two speeds.  Stopped, and really fast.  The handle you pull to accelerate is calibrated to respond to the lightest touch and interpret it as petal to the metal.  While somewhat scary, it really isn't so bad on the straight aways and in the flat part of the desert.  But when you climb into the dunes, the sand is softer and choppier and you hit bumps and are constantly flying off the seat and holding on for dear life.  As we flew past a few people stuck in the sand trying to dig their four by fours free, I realized why slow speeds weren't a good idea.

Rasheeda checks out the horses

We drove our quad bikes into the desert a ways until we got to the horse and camel pins.  The horse handlers were all too happy to let us have a look, and encouraged us to ride the horses.  We had rented the bikes for an hour, so we told them we would finish our ride and then we would be back to see the horses again.  I was nervous about having the loud noises and sudden movement of the quad bikes so close to the horses, but they were clearly used to it and were unfazed when we speed off in the distance only a few feet from the horses.

We drove up and down the dunes, turning circles and trying to write letters in the sand with our tire tracks (unsuccessfully).  Suddenly Rasheeda came to a stop.  Her abaya had gotten caught in the wheel or something and pulled her neck and shoulders down.  She got it free, but it was ripped, and she had a pretty bad rug burn on her neck.  We both re-adjusted ourselves and tucked our abayas and scarves in well and under us to keep it from happening again.

Rasheeda and I drive through the desert

Funny thing though, when you are speeding across the desert, things don't like to stay tucked in.  It wasn't long before my hijab had slipped off my head.  It was wrapped around me a few times like a scarf, so I knew it wouldn't fly off, and it was so nice to feel the wind through my hair, so I wasn't in any real hurry to put it back on.  That is until a couple of guys in a pick up truck pulled up beside us and tried to practice the few phrases of English that they knew on us.  I recovered my head and we took off for another dune where there were more people riding bikes.  They would stare at us, which is why we had left for a less crowded area in the first place, but at least they weren't trying to talk to us.

It was while we were running from the guys in the pick up that Rasheeda's abaya got caught up in the wheel again, and this time it was really caught up.  Isn't it always the way?  Not that there is ever a good time to have your abaya get caught in the wheel, but having it get stuck when you are trying to avoid Saudi men heckling you is the worst timing.  Rasheeda never does anything half way, and so in true Rashida style, this abaya was thoroughly trapped.  To unwind it from the wheel, she had to take it off completely and then pass it through the the bottom and under the bike and around the axis a few times.  I'm sure the Saudi men in the pick up were loving the show of a woman in jeans and a t-shirt sans abaya for the few seconds it took us to unhook her and re-clothe her.  The abaya was a lot worse for the wear, and was now beyond repair.  Good thing she only needs it for another 9 days. The men in the truck offered help (after we had already gotten everything under control) but we declined and decided it was probably time to return the bikes.

When we returned the bikes, the men with the horses were there waiting for us.  Rasheeda didn't really want to ride too much, she just wanted to get some photos of us on the horses.  So we negotiated a price, I thought was just for getting on the horses having a quick photo shoot and then being done with it.  Rasheeda chose a horse that was further away than the one I got on, so he walked me and my horse over to her.  She had asked ou taxi driver to take pictures of us on our horses, so he was following along behind us, I w
as all set to pose for our one photo, but now the guys were leading our horses out into the desert, so, I guess now we were getting a ride as well.

Rasheeda on horseback being trailed by a car full of Saudi Men

When I turned around to look at the taxi guy for a photo, I noticed that a car full of Saudi men was following us into the desert on our horses.  I thought it was a little strange, but tried to ignore them, when I noticed a second car following along next to Rasheeda.  Now there was a car on either side of us, both of them crawling along beside us at a snails pace.  Rasheeda and I decided it was time to go back, but the guys leading our horses obviously wanted us to stay on longer so they could try to ask for more money.  I turned my horse, and he would turn it back.  We did this a few times before he finally gave in and turned us around, possibly because now the two cars had turned into about five, circling us.  It's an odd sensation to feel like you are being circled by sharks while on horseback in the desert.

Now that we had turned back, the men in the cars following us were becoming more vocal.  Evidently, they realized their window of opportunity for harassing us was coming to an end.  At first it was fairly innocent, "Hey, where you from?"  "Hey, can I take your picture?"  I decided my strategy would be to ignore them.  Thinking perhaps that he was being helpful, the guy leading my horse was trying to help translate for them (even though he spoke less English than they did).  He would tap my leg to get my attention and then point to whatever Saudi guy hanging out the window had asked him to get my attention. Then he would "translate" by making wild hand gestures that mostly seemed to indicate taking pictures or getting phone numbers.  At least, that's what I hope all those gestures meant.  I tried not to look at any of them and just shook my head at the guy leading me and tried to encourage him to send the guys away.

Apparently, this was the wrong tactic.  They started to get more aggressive, "Hey, you know you are very sexy?" (a remark I found fascinating since I was covered in my abaya and headscarf and so the only possible thing they could possibly see were my ankles).  and "I am the only one who knows English here, will you let me ride with you?"  I think that is when I figured out why the guy leading the horse wasn't being more insistent that they leave... he was hoping for more money from them.  The closer we got to our starting point and taxi, the closer the cars came.  At one point a car came so close I thought they were going to run straight into the horse and while I was busy watching the front end of the bumper come within inches of hitting the horse, a guy sitting in the window of a jeep leaned over and reached out and ran his hand along my thigh before they drove off.  I was so surprised and shocked that I didn't even know how to react.  Rasheeda was a little bit ahead of me and I saw the jeep pulling up next to her, so I called out to her to watch out because he was going to try to touch her, but it was too late, he did the same to her.  We were shocked.  I wanted to get off the horse and be done with it, but I figured we would be worse off just walking along, even though we were now only about 200 feet from where the taxi was parked.  I was really upset at the guys leading the horses, and at the taxi driver who was still taking pictures.  I know we weren't their sisters or mothers or anything, but we were paying customers and they should have at least told the other guys to leave us alone, but they didn't seem to see anything wrong with what was happening.  The jeep came back around for round 2, and I shouted at him and turned the horse away in time, and Rasheeda threw her shoe at him.  It missed and hit the car, but they got the message and drove off.  I should have said, "Would you let someone treat your sister this way?" or "WWAD (what would Allah do)?"  I don't understand how they can reconcile such behavior with their religious beliefs.  It seems so contradictory.

We got off and got back in the taxi.  As we were pulling away, one of the cars that had been following us pulled up next to ours and shouted, that they were really sorry for all of that, and isn't Saudi a bad place?  Apparently, they didn't consider their own role in what had happened as bad, since now, afterward, their intentions were good.  "You should come in the morning" he said, "No one will be here to bother you then."  In fact, we had come on a weekday specifically because it was not as crowded as it was on the weekend, and at first, there hadn't been very many people, but as the sun went down and the night got cooler, more people came.  I think maybe we would have been better off on the weekend after all, since there would have been more families around and that might have kept the men in check.  Still, there were a few other women there tonight, but they had all come with men.  We were alone. Maybe that is where we went wrong.

The taxi took us home, and even though it had ended on a sour note, I'm really glad we went.  It was nice to drive in Saudi Arabia, even if it was just a dirt bike.  Check out the video below that Rasheeda made of our adventure.....