The Salt Flats

On Tuesday morning, I took the 5am train back to Riyadh so that I could go on a trip to the Salt Lakes.  Part of me wanted to skip it and just stay in Dammam.  After all, I had stayed all weekend and even Sunday and Monday, and no one seemed to care that I was still in the housing.  Still, I didn't feel 100% comfortable there, because I never knew when they would throw me out, and if I was going to be leaving Saudi soon, I wanted to see as much of the country as I could before leaving.


So I arrived back at the hotel around 10am, just in time to head back out and meet the group traveling to the salt flats at the Sheritan hotel.  It was an interesting group of people to say the least.  Riyadh, the tour guide who had taken me to the restaurant the week before for "approval" was there, of course.  There was also a Moroccan guy, a Pakistani, another Saudi, all men. I was getting a little worried until a family showed up.  The husband was an Italian Chef, the wife a Vietnamese classical guitarist, and their two girls, who were born in India and had lived in a number of different countries, non of which was Vietnam or Italy.  It was a very multicultural group to say the least.  Since there were only two vehicles, I rode with the family.  I shared the back seat with the two girls who were probably between 7 and 12, and were both obsessed with the movie Frozen.  We listened to the soundtrack twice on the hour and a half or so trip to the salt flats, and then we played the "Elephant went on a trip game...." which delighted the girls but exhausted and frustrated us adults with no memory.


I was  very relieved, but a little surprised when we arrived.  The pictures on the internet describing the event had made them seem like huge natural lakes of salt.  In reality, they were smallish rectangular holes in the ground filled with water in various stages of evaporation.  Riyadh explained a little about how it worked.  Apparently there was a heavy concentration of salt content in the soil in this area, and if you dig out the soil to loosen it, and then add water and heat, the salt will naturally separate somehow.  I never really understood it, but it looked cool all the same.  If it hadn't been in the upper 90s, you could have thought you were at the north pole.  The chunks of salt looked like ice burgs or fields of snow.  And it felt and sounded like snow!  If you walked on the looser kind, it sort of slipped under your feet just like slush, and the harder edges crunched just like snow on the second day when the sun has had a chance to melt it a little and it refreezes overnight.  It's strange to say this, but these weird alien looking salt flats, made me homesick for winter.


There was a group of men and a few boys shoveling piles of the newly crystalized salt into bags while we walked around and took pictures.  I recognized the logo on the bags because I had bought that kind of salt in the store.  I silently congratulated myself for buying local, but at the same time wondered how well these men working away in the sun were being paid.  I mean, I think I paid less than 50 cents for that huge container of salt, so they couldn't be making much.  I tried not to stare or take pictures and focused on the empty areas instead.


We spent about 30 minutes there before heading off deeper into the desert so we wouldn't loose the light.  We drove on the highway for another 20 or 30 minutes and then we pulled off the road onto a barely existing road.  It was mostly sand with a few rocks, while the not road was just sand.  The Italian chef who was driving us started to get worried.  He had a jeep type vehicle, but never having driven much on soft sand, he was rightly worried about getting stuck.  Our guide stopped a little ways in and prepared to let out some of the air in the tires so we could go further in.  The Italian protested that it would be fine for now, but when we got back on the highway we would be driving on low tires, and there wasn't any gas stations nearby to fill them.  There was a series of polite but tense back and forths about this, and finally it was decided that we would set up our picnic right here.  We could still see the highway, but it was far away, and we only saw the occasional truck.


Riyadh assured us women we could remove our abayas now and got to work setting up camp.  I took off my scarf, abaya, and shoes and was surprised at how good it felt to feel the wind in my hair and sand in my toes.  The lighting was perfect.  It was just before sunset and it gave everything a warm orangish tint.  I was taking pictures, and so was the Italian guy. His wife is very attractive, and she had no problems striking a pose.  They seemed to be having their own private photo shoot.  On the other side of the cars, their two girls were making sand angels.  It seemed so fun I was half tempted to join in, but the thought of all that sand in my hair stopped me.


Some of the others were laying out carpets with tarp on the back - perfect for camping, and there were a few camping chairs as well, but only three, so the rest of the night we took turns stealing them each time someone got up.  It was sort of like a very long game of musical chairs.  We settled in and Riyadh made us all tea in the "traditional" Bedouin style (on a small camping stove.)  The Vietnamese woman played her guitar.  She was fantastic.  A true classical guitarist with intense fingering and clearly a lot of skill.  She also played some more popular tunes, and her girls joined in to sing, shyly at first, but loudly and proudly later.  When the sun went down we made a fire and then watched it die out.  He used the hot coals to barbeque or chicken dinner, which seemed to take forever for me since I was starving.  Finally it was ready.  There was lots of chicken and some stuffed grape leaves and yogurt and for desert oranges and some cake.  It was delicious and very filling.


 The event was scheduled to last until nine and it was 8:30 or so, so when we began to clean up from dinner and I assumed we were packing up to go.  But as soon as everything was back in the coolers, Riyadh started the fire again and we all moved in to sit around it.  It was getting a little chilly, so I was grateful but confused.  I guess we were staying longer.  Someone suggested a game but no one could think of one, so, ever the teacher, I pulled out some classroom favorites.  We played "two truths and a lie", "have you ever..." and "mafia."  After each game ended I kept expecting Riyadh to say, well, that about does it and start packing to go, but he just kept asking for more.  We told jokes, we sang some more songs, and finally, I was sure we were going to leave, but he broke out a bag of marshmallows and added some wood to the fire instead. I think it was two more games and a cup of tea later when we finally called it a night.


It was 1 am when we left the desert and nearly 3 before I got home. It was fun but exhausting. And for the first time, I was glad I didn't have a job so I could sleep in the next day.