I am at the airport in Dubai about to board a flight to go to Riyadh Saudi Arabia it's going to be my first time in Saudi Arabia and I will be spending the next few weeks traveling around the country tourists have only been allowed there since 2019 and some people believe that Saudi Arabia is a very strict country and tourists might not feel welcomed but of course I want to see it for myself to see what it's really like the plan for today is to hopefully arrive stressfree then figure out how to get to my hotel and then get some first impressions of Saudi Arab I'm also quite excited to try authentic Arabian food later today I'm sure it's going to be an exciting day so join me and let's go to Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia is not really a popular tourist destination for Western Travelers so it's actually no surprise that I am the only Westerner on this flight and touching the plane for good luck as usual and yeah I feel excited now but to be completely honest I also feel nervous because I'm just not sure what to expect in Saudi Arabia I grew up with reading so many negative news about the country and if you only read negative things about a certain country basically all your life then that makes something with your head unfortunately I have to say but usually I especially like to go to these countries to yeah challenge my mindset challenge my uh beliefs of a country that I have based on what I saw on the media and I'm excited to see what the reality is really like there but yeah I'm not sure how strict it's actually going to be I'm not even 100% sure if I will be allowed to openly film there but yeah we're going to find out later today I guess and yeah the flying time for this flight is about two hours and I have just arrived in Riad Saudi Arabia let's see what the arrival process will be like here and flying over the country was also pretty interesting basically the whole country is just desert that looked really nice actually yeah let's see how quick I can get through immigration I could apply for the Visa already online it was quite an easy process and then I got the Visa approved literally 5 minutes later but it was also quite an expensive Visa I paid $100 for the Visa and yeah when I checked in for the flight earlier today I also learned that I could have also gotten a visa on arrival here and I am in the country and that was literally I think the fastest immigration process I ever had zero rating times and then I just had to show my passport I scanned my passport they took my fingerprints took a photo of me and then I was in the country and in case you're wondering it's actually very common that countries at least in Asia take your fingerprints and the photo of you when you the country I can't think of a country in Asia that doesn't do that so that's nothing unusual and I was actually a bit surprised that almost all of the immigration officers were women I'm not sure why but I was not expecting that to be honest so already the first surprise right up on arrival here and to be honest I'm quite impressed from leaving the plane getting through immigration collecting my suitcase was like less than 10 minutes now and here we are and I see a sign Metro already that's where I'm heading to ah dear passengers using the authorized Transportation available at the airport guarantees you a safet Journey sounds like maybe they also have problems with some non-legit taxis here maybe but I do see taxis green taxis waiting outside already there and here we have welcome to Riad that is actually a nice gate to enter the country oh the first thing I see here is the Tim hton which is a Canadian brand I think and yeah I'm looking for an ATM first and there's one right here okay let's see if I can get cash here so let's see if that works yeah that's always the exciting moment when you enter a new country will I be able to get cash here there were some countries in the past where I had some problems with getting cash check it out they even have a sanitizer here right next to the ATM so you can sanitize your hands here before touching everything or after touching everything transaction cancel due to a technical problem that means I need to find another ATM or we are going to have the same situation as in Pakistan if you remember in Pakistan and Karachi there was only one ATM at the airport and that one was not working so let me have a look if there's another ATM okay second try let's try it again you can even choose here which currency you would like to get I want the local one of course 500 oh and that's the sound I like to hear and here is the cash okay so this is what the cash is looking like we have I think this is the king of Saudi Arabia on the money here and yeah this is 500 which is roughly $33 us and yeah1 equals to about 3.75 Saudi wheels at the moment so I can roughly just divide all the prices by four and then I have the rough amount in USD okay and first time smelling the air here in Saudi Arabia I have to say the temperature actually feels very nice we're having about 15° at the moment which I kind of like to to be honest I'm actually looking for the Metro I know there's a Metro somewhere excuse me do you know where the Metro is metro metro inside oh okay thank you this is also pretty well organized here right so you can just follow the lines here on the floor and they have different taxi Ealing apps here bolt Jenny which I've never heard of before Uber and kareim kareim I also used before in Pakistan so looks like you have several choices here if you want to get an Ealing taxi but I actually want to take the metro and I see a sign Metro right over there so to my knowledge the Metro just opened a few months ago so everything should be very new and hopefully well organized excuse me I'm looking for the Metro upstairs okay thank you oh but also my first impression here of the airport seems to be well organized no chaos here so I think the airport here is pretty nice there's a friendly atmosphere here I would call it and here we have a sign for the metro and here's another gate they seem to really like Gates here welcome do I see it in German somewhere on there no I can't clim to find German but we have salamat dang Bahasa welcome which is Dutch I think ban Vu France but no German on the sign that makes me sad ah I think the metro station is another building over there so I'm passing the bridge here now from the airport terminal over to the Metro terminal oh looks like there's also a huge mosque right next to the airport oh I feel very excited now to be honest I always love this feeling of arriving in a new country for the first time that is probably my favorite feeling when traveling and I'm really looking forward to spend the next few weeks traveling around this country oh wow look at the station it actually looks brand new hello I can buy tickets here yeah you oh okay so I need to buy a card and then I can use it later again yeah I would like to do that can put it to English here buy a new cart okay oh with five real I can drive for 2 hours everywhere oh that's very interesting you don't pay by station you just pay by time okay thank you very much for your help and wow look at the station that looks really welld designed and modern so we're are starting at the first station at the airport and we're going here now which seems to be the final station of this line and then I have to switch to the Blue Line let's see how long the total journey is until I arrive at my hotel which is quite in the city center to be honest I see not a single person here wearing just a t-shirt so now I'm a bit unsure if that's because everyone here feels a bit cold or if maybe wearing a t-shirt is a bit inappropriate I'm not really sure about that now to be honest because yeah I heard that the country is very strict also when it comes to clothings I heard for example that you should not wear short pants here I'm also wearing long pants right now but maybe I'm also completely wrong with that if anyone of you watching this is from Saudi Arabia please let me and the others know in the comments that would be great and here is the train and I'm reading first class here I'm not sure if that's everywhere let me just get inside here excuse me can I just sit anywhere anywhere anywhere so also it says first class here that's why I'm was confused I can use it okay that's good okay looks like uh I have a free choice of seats but that looks actually pretty beautiful here I have to say it's also nice temperature in here now I have to say so we are started here at the airport which you can see on the map is quite outside of the city and this is the city center area where I'm heading to and I think the first station should be around here all right and that was the first train right that was about half an hour and now I have to change to another train here as you can see it's gotten quite busy here the closer we got to the city center the more people got into the train of course okay we have a signed their yellow line purple line where's the Blue Line excuse me how do I get to the Blue Line Blue Line yeah up on the other side St see so straight and then up there okay thank you very much to be honest I'm also getting quite hungry and I'm really looking forward to a proper Saudi Arabian meal later today which is going to be my first time trying Arabian food but first let me get to my hotel and then we find some food and there are so many people here to help yes looking for the Blue Line blue blue line Blue Line south or uh South I think South yeah upstairs upstairs here okay thank you very much actually I also heard that many of the workers here in Saudi Arabia are foreigners especially from Pakistan India and the Philippines so whenever I'm speaking to someone working here now I'm always thinking is he a local or she or if she or he is from abroad so far I couldn't really judge it and here we can have a look at all the lines by the way so as far as I know all these lines only opened a few months ago and we just took the yellow line from the airport we are now here kfd and I'm taking the Blue Line south but actually there are quite a lot of lines stretching all over the city so I think the city is already quite connected with the Metro I'm actually a bit surprised that the Metro here only opened a few months ago I would have expected that such a huge City like Riad has a metro line already for many years and by the way there are 7 million people living here and that I have to say my first impression here of the people uh quite nice I have a overall friendly first impression here it's a very friendly atmosphere if that makes sense and yeah maybe you noticed that at the airport I was not trying to get a local SIM card you know that's usually one of the first things you do when you arrive in a new country because yeah you want to get connected to the internet and you probably notice when you're arriving in a new country you just want to get out of the airport as fast as possible get to your hotel then it can be quite annoying to start searching for a SIM card but to be honest I didn't even saw a shop there selling SIM cards but yeah luckily that's not a problem for me because I started to use eims a while ago and using eims is really a game changer for everyone who likes to travel and if you don't know what an eim is it's basically a digital SIM card that you can install to your phone even before you start the journey so I already downloaded and installed my my eim yesterday and then I was able to connect to the internet right away right after I landed so literally while I was still sitting in the plane I was already able to access the internet and I'm getting my eims from a company called Holly and what I really like about Holly is that it's not only easy and simple to install but I also really like that they have many options for unlimited data plans so for example I'm having an unlimited data plan for my whole time in Saudi Arabia now so I don't have to worry about how much data I've used already poly has over 200 destinations available world right and if you want to check out hly as well there's a link in the description on the pin comment and if you use that link you can even get an exclusive discount and you can also get that discount by using the code can abroad when you purchase the Holly eim on their app or on their website just make sure that your phone actually does support eims but most phones nowadays do okay I just noticed there's a sign family here can I go in here or no family that's family I go over there okay single class single class ah ah here single oh thank you okay thank you very much so they have the class here for families and for single Travelers and let me just double check that my station is here station in Arabic now STC that's where I want to go so I think 1 2 3 four stations oh wow look at the building here that looks quite cool all right and here I am and that was a total jour only time of 15 minutes now in this train so together with the first one about 45 minutes to be honest I would have expected that there will be one class in the train just for females so we have the single class we have the family class but I don't see a class just for women I already have the feeling that some of the thoughts that I had about this country might not be really true so now I feel even more excited to explore this country in the next few weeks by the way if you're new here feel free to subscribe to the channel to follow the journey but yeah you can that the favorite clothing color here is definitely black so I feel like I am standing out a lot now with the right t-shirt and the lady I spoke to when I bought the ticket said that I can keep the card and then recharge it later to be honest I really like this system actually that you're not paying by stations you're paying by time so I can use this card now to go anywhere in the city for 2 hours and I even see my hotel already on the sign here sherian Hotel I know I was hoping a little bit for some uh food stalls here like some snakes that I can buy because I'm really hungry but looks like uh food stalls or any shops inside the metro station uh it's not a thing here oh looks like they have these E Scooters here as well probably you can scan an app yeah I see a QR code here you scan it and then you can cruise around the city with these but yeah the streets here looking clean the traffic so far what I've seen looks organized no crazy honking going on good first impressions here excuse me where's the entrance to the the Shan over there right yes okay thank you very much oh and what I'm seeing right now have a look at that do you see the building in the background over there that is probably the most famous building here in the country the Kingdom tower I think is it called very iconic building that you have probably seen before on photos oh I always love these moments when you are seeing famous buildings for the first time wow definitely going up there in one of the next videos and yeah hotel prices here in rard seem to be a bit higher compared to other countries in Asia so I'm paying about $200 here per night in the Sheran hotel now let's find out what that gets us yeah the Sheran Hotel belongs to the Marriot brand a hotel brand I really like to be honest and wow that is a great entrance hall here we have pictures of the king up there I think I would like to check in I have a reservation for Ken okay I checked into my hotel but before I'm going to show you my room I'm actually really hungry so I want to grab food first and also collect some First Impressions and then afterwards I'm going to show you my room okay so I can also use the Uber app for example but I want to see if I can maybe just hail down the taxi here I saw some green taxis driving around here before so let's see hello is it easy to get a taxi here can I get a taxi here yeah I just do like this yeah okay and uh let's rate here a taxi Drives By it's a color green the green color that's the taxi right green green color okay thank you so much done okay let's see if a green car is driving by that I can flag down I think there's also a park over there that I'm curious to check out maybe we are doing that later when I return oh there's a there's a green car coming you yeah yeah sure sure you you were here first yeah he's waiting for a taxi too I think so I don't want to steal his spot no oh hello can you drive me to a restaurant yeah you don't want no okay looks like I'm not stealing his car then ah hello good afternoon I want to go a rest Al Romania Romania yeah this one okay and yeah we're losing the meter yeah meter right yes yes okay my first time in Saudi Arabia I just arrived here Egyptian you're from Egypt oh okay also nice country I'm not really sure what you mean I don't speak Arabic unfortunately no Arabic no Arabic no I'm from Germany almania almania almania that's how you say Germany in Arabic almania I learned that Mercedes Mercedes yeah you know Mercedes cars yeah very popular all around the world but in Saudi every taxi use the meter always meter yes no meter no money no meter no money oh okay okay that sounds good that's very tourist friendly you don't need to worry when you get into a taxi if the taxi driver is using the meter or not some countries around the world are a bit different let's say it like that and then you have to worry if uh you're going to get a fair price or not so let's see how much I have to pay for yeah about 10 minutes in a taxi here how many years are you in Saudi already 14 14 years yes oh long time already 14 oh and is it good here do you like it taxi good good taxi good good business uh yeah get show show okay okay I just noticed it's explained here on the window that the journey is free if the meter is not operated and we also have the prices here per kilometer the night rate and the day rate so seems like the taxis here are really highly regulated so yeah my first impressions here based on what I can see from the window out of my car now it looks like a very modern and clean City reminds me a bit about Muscat in Oman where I have been about 2 months ago and also so far all the buildings I can see here are in this like brownish sand color design which looks very typical Arabian style to me and what I also notice here is that many of the shops we are driving by also have English names so there's always the Arabic name and underneath in smaller letters there's often also an English name so that is very convenient from a tourist point of view and I think we have arrived I think the restaurant is over there Roman Romania yeah and yeah that was about 10 minutes and the price is 25 25 wheel for 10 minutes on the taxi just give me a 20 change just 20 is okay okay tip for you thank you very much you byee nice to meet you nice to me take care okay have a good day thank you so much all right and that was my first taxi ride and we at Saudi Arabia and yeah now let's try Saudi Arabian food for the first time this is the AL Romania restaurant which has been recommended to me hello hello hello I'm from Germany oh welcome welcome to sa are you from sa yes oh I want to eat some food here is this a good place yes best place best place yes okay my first time trying Arabian food really you will enjoy it I hope so this in YouTube I make a YouTube videos yeah really can we have your channel sure sure and Tik Tok as well Tik Tok or YouTube better it's called can abroach subscribe my friend my first subscribers in Saudi Arabia oh that was a loud yeah I just arrived here my first day you will enjoy in I hope so okay nice to meet you guys nice to meet you okay bye-bye bye-bye oh that was a friendly welome here to the restaurant um families and dine in so I think you can get it for takeaway but I want to eat here oh we have lots of fruits here that looks delicious already W I'm definitely going to try a fresh fruit shck then okay need to figure out the system here it looks like if you want to order for takeaway you say downstairs if you want to dine in you go upstairs and there's an area for families over there this is seems like they're really separating families and the single areas same as we saw before in the Metro I would like to have the smallest portion okay do you bring it or do I have to pick it up you bring it okay okay thank you okay looks like they're bringing it to R table I wasn't sure if I maybe have to pick it up how much did I pay now I gave him 120 and I got four change that means I paid 2016 whe oh and what's actually really interesting I don't want to film inside because there are people in there but you see these little boxes here and inside there's no table but people are sitting on the floor to eat the food so I guess that's probably the traditional way of eating looks like I'm getting plastic uh cover for the table and this is the first dish this is a yish okay this is what I order with on the side a water and this is the main dish okay I think I'm starting to understand why the price was pretty high but it says M Meat rice for one person let's see what under the cover are you kidding me this is for one person this looks like it's going to feed a whole family do I eat with a hands you eat with the hands right hands yeah yeah you have gloves okay yeah just wanted to make sure that uh you really eat with a hands here and I'm not looking like a stupid tourist all right so I'm not sure where to start let's start with the the juice pomegranate juice oh yeah immediately when I walked in and I saw the selection of fresh fruits down there I knew I had to get a juice here freshly squeezed pomegranate juice very good then I'm having this dish on the side which I will come to at the end first uh let's talk about this huge plate in front of me now with lamp meat so this is called Mandy and I think Mandy style means that the meat is baked a lemon on the side so usually when there's a lemon on the side you're supposed to squeeze it over and then let's try with the the rice we have yellow rice here oh the rice is very very flavorful tastes very different compared to regular r Rice I'm actually not sure what this is it looks like a mango but I'm not really sure if there would be mango in here let me try it tastes like a potato could be a potato I don't think it's potato but it tastes similar like potato if you know what it is let me know in the comments but yeah then of course I'm really looking forward to the meat I'm a huge meat La so this is lamp meat let's try that oh it's melting in my mouth it's very soft I don't really need to chew it oh wow this is actually delicious my first inversion when I saw the meal I thought this is made going to be a bit dry because there's no sauce or anything no gravy but no the the meat itself is so juicy that I'm really not missing a sauce or gravy now and also the rice itself is just really flavorful so the combination of the rice and the meat in my mouth oh it's just perfect and then for some reason there are also a little bit of spaghetti noodles on the side it's just like a like a tiny portion on top of the rice and the rice also contains these which I'm not sure what it is looks a bit like a nut yeah could be a nut I think it's a nut and then I'm also having this which is called yadesh which is made from crushed meat that is slow cooked with sometimes meat or chicken yogurt and spices and it has a creamy porridge light consistency so I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a main dish or just something on the side maybe it's also Sweet let's give it a try no definitely not sweet it reminds me a bit about porridges you can find in Southeast Asia kongi for example similar consistency but different taste I would describe the taste as typical Middle Eastern taste they put these typical Middle Eastern spices inside I think I have to say it's quite delicious but it's also super super filling so I'm not sure if that was the right thing to order on the side next to this huge dish already but I can imagine this is great as a breakfast as well if you're watching this and you are from Saudi Arabia let me know what time of the day you usually eat this all right I'm feeling very very full now in case you're wondering I was not able to finish all the rice but that was a really good first meal here in Saudi Arabia I'm actually curious how much you pay here for a liter of gasoline because yeah Saudi Arabia is a very rich country with oil so I would guess that the prices of gasoline here are very very low but I can't really see a price there if I come across another gas station I will let you know but I will be curious to know the prices here and yeah because I'm feeling very full now I'm going on a little walk now you know to uh Walk It Out and at the same time I like to have a walk when I'm somewhere new so that I can get first impressions of the city and yeah I can can share with you what I'm seeing right now so it looks like we have a highway up there and then underneath here is the the city road and yeah have a look everything looks very clean so far I haven't seen a single piece of trash somewhere looks very nice here is hello hello oh what are you having here oh you have a fire you have a light oh dangerous man hello hello iy am sorry sorry no problem no don't worry thank you shukran thank you very much okay have a good afternoon bye-bye okay I took an Uber right back so taking Uber is also no problem here but it was almost double the price compared to the taxi earlier all right so I'm in this beautiful park now right next to my hotel and I want to share something with you so earlier today I posted a story on my Instagram account saying that I am going to Saudi Arabia and I asked my followers to uh share what they know or think of Saudi Arabia and I got plenty of answers here and I have to say most of them were positive many people for example mentioned Islam that they know that Saudi Arabia is basically the birth place of Islam Mecca is there and to be honest when I'm thinking about Saudi Arabia there are two things that are coming to my mind right away and that is oil and Islam because yeah Islam originated here we have Mecca here which is the holiest city in Islam and this is also a very oil rich country Saudi Arabia exports a lot of oil so most of the the comments that I got from my followers on Instagram we positive but I want to mention the negative comments now because these are the types of comments that I want to challenge throughout my series of videos here in Saudi Arabia for example one comment ask woman can't drive is it okay to film those public places or did I need permission they don't respect human rights it's a country be careful around them some of them are a bit racist one guy ask is it safe there for Western people no rights for women somebody asks if it's a friendly country so as you can see some people have quite negative thoughts about Saudi Arabia and I can't judge any of these opinions or thoughts right now I can just share with you what are my first impressions after literally just entering the country and yeah my Impressions here are that it seems to be a very modern city so far I saw plenty of women already even many women working for example most of the immigration officers early we women and I also saw women here not coverage like some women are not even very a hijab they are not cover it at all so far I didn't have the impression that I'm not allowed to film somewhere so I don't really have the feeling so far that this is a strict country that you only see men on the streets not at all so yeah I'm trying to uh challenge the negative thoughts that some of my followers on Instagram have about Saudi Arabia so I'm very excited now to spend the next weeks traveling around this country and yeah to be honest this would not be the first time that I am in a country of which most people have negative opinions about and then I am going there there for myself and I see that the reality is a bit different so I would be more than happy to also be positively surprised here in Saudi Arabia and yeah if you are not following me on Instagram yet feel free to also follow me there I'm also called kabro on Instagram but yeah let's head over to my hotel and I'll show you my room so I got upgraded to a room on the sixth floor which seems to be the highest floor there's even a club Lounge here where you can get snacks all day okay my first time in a hotel room in s Arabia this is what you can get here for $200 a night the bed is very comfortable feel like heaven and then also a big desk area a seating area and overall quite a spacious room this is the bathroom here a big sink area a bathtub the toilet right here and then we have a little chargeable mini bar we can get some snaks here and what's interesting there's even German beer here Holsten from Hamburg but yeah since this as far as I know is a dry country this beer has 0.0% so overall this is not a bad room not at all quite the opposite I really like it to be honest especially The View that I'm having here right to the most famous building of the city so like I said I'm very excited and very happy to be here feel free to subscribe to the channel to don't miss out on the next videos from Saudi Arabia and if you haven't seen my previous video in which I traveled from Germany to Dubai including saying goodbye to my family then feel free to check out the video right here stay healthy stay positive and then see you in the next episode ciao guys
2025-02-01 18:29