My First Impressions of SAUDI ARABIA السعودية (JEDDAH) 🇸🇦

hello and welcome back to the channel after taking a bit of a break over Christmas I'm now on the road again exploring some new countries and I'm starting here in Saudi Arabia for 2020 I'm gonna be here for around the next month or so and I'm in Jeddah right now this is where I'm staying being looked after by a very generous host here before I dive into it I want to just say one more thing my trip to Saudi Arabia here is not sponsored by anybody fully self-funded and it was my own decision to come here so I just wanted to get that out there enjoy this first video [Music] what's up I'm now here on the corniche a lot of it is a long walkway along the Red Sea Selam aleykum kids playing around lots of families beautiful architecture over there I'm not sure you can make it out Wow it's impressive huh look at that you see lots of people over here enjoying the evening scene and myself of course I'm so excited to explore Saudi Arabia over the coming month or possibly longer depending on you know how much I enjoy it and work to explore more of the country and how long going to stay here let's see Wow look at that sky it just gets even better this boy wants a selfie with me do that how old is he he's like he's five six okay let's do it what an ethnic introduction to the kingdom palm trees cool breeze so many kids and families out having fun I wonder how this is making you feel seeing Saudi Arabia it's so interesting to observe the life and the society the dynamics of the country and how it's all changing at the moment freedoms are better than they've ever been and are gonna continue to improve in the country here by the Jetta site which looks really cool with the distant disappearing sunset which is now during blue hour the hour after gold now Jeddah is probably the most liberal city in Saudi Arabia maybe we'll find that during the course of this video in the next couple or during the rest of my trip I can compare some of the cities and see how they are how they feel in atmosphere but at the moment it's sort of like a paradise in a way lots of these trees and see yeah modern roads it's clean hotels small coffee place here I'm told that the Saudis love their caffeine I've seen a few Starbucks dotted around on my way from the airport already in the past the majority of visitors who would come here to Jeddah would be solely for a pilgrimage to Mecca for Hajj Muslims from all over the world of course make the journey here but now the new Saudi a visa has been released people like myself can now explore the country very easily just by an online visa and perhaps the dynamics of the country are going to change in its tourism industry more non-muslims are now going to have the opportunity to come and visit Saudi and they're not all going to be just pilgrims anymore although that might take some time but it's interesting to be one of the first I suppose hello and welcome to the wall of Arabia this is the largest shopping mall in Cheddar by size there are many of them I think around 10 I'm not too short Saudis love shopping girls the biggest one which also has quite cool design gonna walk around and just this is the food court here you can see a lot of the people all wearing black or white most of the women wearing black most the men wearing white quite interesting I can see Burger King over there McDonald's I think shopping centers are really interesting places to check out along with supermarkets whenever you visit a new country because you can just get an idea of the culture just the general vibe and atmosphere of a place and just people watch that's the best thing ahead you can see the cinema cinemas have only been around in for the last two years it's quite a new thing and of course they're being embraced you can see the rest of the mall down here [Music] super busy because it's actually holidays at the moment and as such as we've seen in this video Saudis are quite social people they're all here with their families having meals and doing shopping and other activities and everywhere I look there's groups of people not individuals mouki around nice and fancy place here with a grand piano in the back and more of them all around here the Lord is just so big but you can get lost in it of course Western brands everywhere though all the sort of shops and places to read that I would see in the UK that will here international brands yo sushi Nando's TGI Fridays many so over there which is Chinese Japanese and then here house Milano cafe pasta pizza and pastry so representation from all around the world and all the places look pretty fullness cues in something to huge modern supermarket just here it looks amazing Wow [Music] I've woken up early on my second day here and I'm about to try some breakfast there's fairly local place just across the street I've switched to my gimbal here from my GoPro which I was using last night on the corniche the waterfront so let's head it now and grab some food you can see a little bit of the street here around me food has now arrived it looks incredible this huge dish which usually is shared let me talk you through a few other things that we've got here so firstly this is a mussel and this is full type of bean paste I supposed to dip using these which is a bit like Indian poori I suppose and also some other flatbread here spicy pickle olives cheese more olives here we have cheese mixed with tomatoes and also here we have tahini so one of that handsome tea to finish up here I have the tea red tea here in Saudi which is a little bit sweet can be had with milk as well shaggy ma please rate my pronunciation in the comments would appreciate it I've made my way back here to the coast once again on the Cornish as you can see beautiful setting different time of day less people is it's a Friday you can see skyscrapers behind me let me know below what you guys think of Jetta so far and would you consider visiting Saudi Arabia I actually think it's quite a livable city for expats you know there's modern establishments all over it is almost a gateway city for pilgrims visiting Mecca on the Hajj and that's why almost everybody on my flight yesterday were Muslims from other countries who are stopping in Jeddah to then make the journey to Mecca to complete their once-in-a-lifetime trip and for many of them it was their first flight lots of people on the plane didn't know how to use the toilet also had no idea about any of the provisions when someone comes part of the trolley the airline host or hostess had a lot of trouble telling them not to steal things because they didn't realize that it wasn't like a systematic procedure where everyone gets their meal it's everyone's just it's a free for what everyone's trying to take the food and when we boarded the flight they just said just sit anywhere you like because nobody understood the system of sitting in ABC on Row 1 228 it was madness anybody who's flown into Jeddah with a lot of pilgrims who've never flown before will also understand what I'm going on about here so I'm now here in a beautiful-looking restaurant which I don't want to show too much off Kyle on a film the other people inside here but take it from me it's very nice it's a head jazzy restaurant similar to where we had our food this morning but this one's a bit more luxurious I could say a little bit higher end and got some great dishes in front of me right now so let me show you what's here okay so first we have here the eggplant pattern and actually has yogurt inside too and right here is the Bamiyan which is an okra type of vegetable there's quite popular in Japan with a tomato sauce and of course the bread the fat Oh which is the one with chickpeas and eggplant it's quite crunchy then also quite soft from the eggplant and the yogurt gives it this kind of creamy sour taste I really like it and the okra here is almost like a curry to be honest it's kind of warm and party so liking both these dishes have got one more coming which I'm actually gonna try next up as you can see in this shot we have beer mug shot which is the main dish chicken meatballs essentially also chili for garnish so take a little bit of a bite for an after kick so didn't quite expect it but the waiter has very kindly brought us some dessert here which I've got right in front of me stash iou's on there quite nutty it's very thin looking the sauce tastes like white chocolate has a chewy nutty texture almost like a pancake drizzled in white chocolate with nuts on top it's really nice and the presentation is amazing if you try this ah it's good there's actually less sugar in there it's not particularly sweet but there's the taste of has like that blackness to it this particular coffee and a little bit milky as you saw that so I really love actually I'm gonna put and show you this look at that just golden and shiny beautiful I'm going to end the video there after finishing my dinner in that hijazi restaurant hijazi named after the Hejaz which is the mountainous region of coastline runs parallel to the Red Sea here in Saudi Arabia I've got a lot more vlogs coming from Saudi Arabia of course and hopefully my cold will pass in the next few days that's probably why my voice sounded a bit funny in this video and next one will be a full city tour of Jeddah including the old city which is particularly fascinating can't wait to get Oliver out so stay tuned for all of that and follow my Instagram Jason melon travel which I'll leave below if you want to see my posts and stories from the country until next time peace [Music]

Channel: JASON BILLAM TRAVEL

Views: 374,616

Rating: 4.8842444 out of 5

Keywords: saudi arabia, saudi, saudiarabia, arabic saudi, jeddah, ksa, kingdom of saudi arabia, first impressions of saudi arabia, saudi arabia tourist, tourist saudi arabia, jeddah saudi arabia, saudi arabia jeddah, saudi arabia food, saudi arabia vlog, saudi arabia travel, a day in saudi arabia, saudi arabian, arabian, saudi arabian people, inside saudi arabia, arabic, jeddah city, jeddah tourist, saudi arabia reaction, saudi arabia trip, travel saudi arabia, saudi food, السعودية

Id: SKjninLAmAc

Length: 14min 38sec (878 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 13 2020