My 1st Impressions Of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
today is my first full day exploring Jeddah, Saudi Arabia this is the second biggest city of the country and after visiting Riyadh and Medina already I'm now also very excited to see this city which I heard is actually the best city to visit in Saudi Arabia it is also known as the gateway to Mecca as the nearest airport to the holy city of Islam is here in Jeddah in this video we will visit the iconic Old Town of Jeddah thank you so much see a local market meet local people yeah nice hello nice the is nice and end the day at the world's largest water fountain so is jeda worth visiting and is it maybe even better than weird join me and let's find out all right and here I am in the old town of jeda and yeah unfortunately I'm starting the day with a not so good experience because my taxi driver was driving in circles a few times and when I asked him about that like hey why are you driving in circles instead of going to where I want to go he said oh the roads are blocked there typical Taxi Driver excuse so I have to say after spending a few weeks here already in Saudi Arabia this was the first time I had a not so good experience in a taxi but anyway I don't want to let this ruin my day I'm very excited to explore around now and yeah this is already the old town area I think I still have to walk a little bit but I wanted to be dropped off here so he can't drive around in circuits any longer okay and look at this this gate already looks pretty historical and old I'm not sure if this is in original condition not sure I can't really judge that but uh it looks like a typical old city gate so I guess we're entering the Oldtown area right here yeah we're going to see a way more impressive gate later the mecca gate more information about that place later on first I'm actually trying to find the market there's a souk around here one of the most historical sus in Saudi Arabia and do you know what I always notice when I'm in the Arabic countries I haven't been to that many Arabic countries yet but I always seem to love gold I see so many gold shops in Arabic countries like also here in Saudi Arabia in Rad or in Medina I saw so many of them it feels like almost every street corner there's a shop selling gold and I remember it was for example the same when I was in Muscat Oman so for some reason Arabic countries seem to really like gold oh and we even have a historical site here I just read on a sign this used to be a warehouse hundreds and hundreds of years ago that is actually quite impressive I used to be really into history when I was younger and back then historical sites like this used to really fascinate me and today I still find it interesting to see them here we have a sign explaining it this is Al sha and yeah this is part of Al balad which is the old town where we are at the moment so this is the old town area which we are going to explore today and we are here now at Al Shona which is this historical site and yeah during most of the 20th century ad it served as a private Merchant Warehouse wow this road actually looks very fascinating I wonder if I can go inside hello can I go hereos it's closed it looks so beautiful I would like to see it ah yeah this road here looks very historical and fascinating these buildings must be hundreds of years old repairing you know the this building are they reping fall down yeah ah something fell down yeah yeah it's going to fell down okay okay from the rain you know and but it looks so beautiful it looks very old do you know how old these buildings here are 500 500 okay very interesting okay shukan thank you very much yeah so I feel like it's a mix here of new buildings that they made look old you know like on purpose so it fits to the overall look of the old town but some of the buildings here are definitely also original old and that actually is very fascinating if you look at the roads here most of them are very narrow here and then we have plenty of shops and also because it's a touristy place of course all the shop names are not only in Arabic but also in English so this is a toys shop for example but closed at the moment we have lots of phone shops here silver rare oh and check out this little alley here this looks also fascinating imagine how it is to live here I'm not sure if some of these houses are actually inhabited by regular people here of this is all like a shopping area but I always find it very fascinating to walk through alleys where people already used to walk through hundreds or sometimes thousands of years ago there's a special feeling to places like this maybe you know what I mean I also have to mention how clean it is here I see many workers around here constantly cleaning the roads and if you have a look around it looks like perfectly clean here I always like that when cities care about especially famous historic and touristy places like this it always leaves a really good impression of course look at this I've never seen this before scan QR to pay for the parking so if you park your car here then there's no parking ticket machine or something like we have in Germany for example you just come here scan the code and then you pay for your parking here I think that's how it works here at least because this is the parking sign and then scan QR to pay is very interesting this is the first time I see something like this and yeah the city jeda here is often referred to as the Bride of the Red Sea like I said already at the beginning of the video this is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia with close to 4 million people and it also has a large economic role in Saudi Arabia because the largest port of the country is also located here in jeda and yeah jeda is known for its blend of ancient Traditions with modern development excuse me do you speak English I'm looking for the the gate the mecca gate yeah straight so I go around there yes okay shukran thank you very much okay I'm trying to find this famous Mecca gate here and according to Google Maps it's right here but it's not right here so I asked the locals and yeah he said go left and then I think right again so let's see excuse me hello do you know where is this the the gate yeah yeah go over there left only left only left four minutes 4 minutes okay perfect thank you very much again drive you can drive me oh I think he's offering me a right to the gate one minute oh okay okay sh thank you very much oh how friendly is that I'm still struggling to find the gate I know it's somewhere around these alleys here and this friendly gentleman just offered to give me a lift I think let's see if I really understood him correctly yeah this is the gate I'm trying to find the mecca gate a very iconic historical place here are you refill the machines here yes yeah I think they're refilling it with oil or something thing ah what is your name H my name is you are from Saudi no I am from Pakistan from Pakistan yeah oh I go to Pakistan before from what I was in laor and Karachi Pakistan the people very friendly I really love the people in Pakistan America no Alania Germany Germany Germany yeah yeah Pakistani Hospitality also can be found here in Saudi Arabia let's see if we can find the gate with his help so looks like we're going on the main road here yeah this is a road I couldn't even walk I think you work for the jeda city yes jeda City yeah okay okay and there it is that's where I want to go right yeah I will give you some facts about this Nate here it's a very interesting place oh perfect that was a great help sua thank you very much can I give you please please for your hospitality no thank you very much Shuka Pakistani hospitality great thank you very much that was a great experience it just gave me a quick lift to where I wanted to go yeah if you have never been to Pakistan before and the hospitality one of the most hospitable countries I have ever been to feel free to check out my Pakistan serious from a few months ago oh what a lovely gentleman so yeah this right here is the mecca gate it has been built in the 16th century during the Ottoman periods and yeah there's a very significant historical landmark here in jeda originally it used to be part of the jeda city walls and it served as the main entrance for pilgrims traveling to Mecca in case you don't know Mecca the holiest city of Islam is not far away from here only about 7 km and yeah the airport here in jeda is also the nearest airport to Mecca so most people that come to Saudi Arabia to travel to Mecca most of them land here in jeda and in the past people used to walk through this gate and that was the beginning of their sacred journey to Mecca and yeah until today the gate remains a powerful symbol of jeda's role as a key Gateway for pilgrims traveling to Mecca and yeah like I said earlier already in the city center I really like to be at historical places like this like imagine people walked through this gate already hundreds of years ago starting their journey to Mecca a very sacred and holy Journey for them so can you imagine what they must have felt stepping out of the city through the gate and then heading towards Mecca which I'm not 100% sure but I think it is in this direction right here okay and right behind the gate we have a Market Street probably also very historical Old Market here or souk as it is called in the Arabic and yeah the history here in jeda dates back to thousands of years and its Old Town Al balad where we are at the moment is actually also UNESCO world heritage site filled with many ancient traditional buildings traditional sus or markets and historic mosks and what's also very famous here in jeda is the Waterfront which we are going to check out later in the video okay I'm actually quite thirsty I'm looking for a shop selling juices course yeah what I really like here in Saudi Arabia so far that you can usually find fresh made juices everywhere oh I thought I saw the sign from the distance and I thought these are fresh fruits here on the sign but that's not the case actually but let's see I think it should be possible to uh find the Juice Shop somewhere here you know like where I can get like freshly squeezed orange juice something like that so I'm in Saudi Arabia for quite a while already now and do you know what I really like here so far the fact that there are no scammers around here also every taxi is using the meter okay the one taxi experience earlier was a bit but that was the one and only a bit negative experience that I had here so far with taxis there are no touts approaching you when you explore around the city you know in other countries if you would walk around a historic City Center like this a touristy place you would constantly get hassled by people trying to lure you into their shops or trying to sell you fake watches or something like that and that doesn't happen here in Saudi Arabia and I also feel very safe everywhere in Saudi Arabia and that is also a huge Plus for me when I'm visiting a country but staying safe as a traveler is not only about avoiding scammers in the streets it is also about protecting your digital identity I'm not sure if you are aware of this but when I'm for example planning a trip and I book flights or hotels online I have to enter a lot of my personal information on a lot of different websites and did you know that during all that browsing your personal information can be collected and sold by data Brokers and that can lead for example to you getting a lot of annoying spam emails or even spam phone calls from random companies who got your data online and it can also even lead to identity theft and in order to get rid of this there's a service available from a website called incog once you sign up with them they contact these data Brokers on your behalf and request them to delete your information every data broker is legally required to delete your information if you ask them to but reaching out to all of them on your own is of course very annoying very stressful and it can take a lot of time incog also make sure that your data stays off the market by repeating to remove your information in the future so if you would like your personal data to be removed from these data broadcast feel free to check out incog you can click the link in the description on the comment and if you use my code abroad you will get 60% off the annual plan I think that is a really great offer so if feel free to check it out just click the link down below and use the code abro oh and I think I found the Juice Shop here I definitely see some fresh fruits here hello can I get juice here yeah yeah can I get a orange juice orange juice medium big uh how much is it medium big the the 10 whe 10 whe uh no ice please all right I found a Juice Shop here just by the side of the road and yeah it is pretty hot the sunish shining against my face so why not get a fresh juice here oh we even have a list here small regular and large oh there's a fruit here called males I've never heard about that fruit before even though I've been to the mald before but I never came across a fruit that is called malds but yeah I'm going to get where is it orange I don't even see orange oh this is actually a very interesting menu what is English what is Arabic what is g what is Pampa the girls Einstein although it's written a bit wrong or maybe he came up with some interesting sounding names for it juices but here we have orange juice okay I'm getting the large one and yeah he's freshly squeezing the oranges right there I will tell you in a second why I usually avoid ordering with ice oh that looks really good okay shuk thank you 10 whe for you orange juice for me thank you oh no 10 only eight ah okay okay okay thank you I thought I order with the large one but anyway doesn't matter okay let's give it a try underneath the sun here freshly squeezed orange juice oh you can really taste the difference when you are having a freshly squeezed juice no sugar added compared to like a juice from a bottle or from a can you know and yeah usually I'm ordering without ice because in some countries I can't be really sure how the ice is made so in some countries where the hygiene standards are not the best it's usually good to avoid ice because often the ice is made from tap water but I can actually say I think here in Saudi Arabia you actually don't need to worry about that so far that's my impression here at least the hygiene standards are really high all over the country where I have been to so far and also that show top looks very clean he was wearing gloves when he prepared the juice but it's just my Travelers habit that usually I'm ordering without ice because in many countries you can't really trust ice but yeah this juice was definitely worth the 8 real yeah as I said already in another video the hospitality here is also like really really good like earlier I talked about the hospitality that I encountered in Pakistan and I can say here in Saudi Arabia it's actually very very similar actually I can tell you a story what happened earlier to me today and I can also show it to you on video because filmed it earlier today I was getting a haircut and there was a guy next to me getting a haircut as well and when he was done with his haircut I will show you uh what he did then it's a three you paid for my haircut are you sure no no no I can't let you pay for my haircut did he just pay for my haircut he paid for my haircut yes not for real are you for real so that was really really overwhelming and yeah if you want to see the full video of me getting the haircut I also got a shave that video will be posted on my second Channel kroad I will leave a link to that channel in the description I'm posting some shter videos or also Q&A videos on that channel so feel free to check it out and yet to compare jeda a bit with rard where I have been previously as well here in jeda you have both sides you have the ocean you have beaches and yeah we're going to check out the ocean later in the video but you also have City Center you have modern areas as well I showed you a modern area already in the previous video when I arrived here in jedar and you also have ancient historical Parts like this so I also had really good impressions of RI I'm also sure that one day I'm going to return to RI to explore more but so far I'm also having really good Impressions here in jeda and I also like the mix of modernness city center and I also like the combination that you have here modern areas historical areas and also beach and ocean areas oh and this is also interesting this is a cat feeding station look at that there is cat food coming out of this box feeding the Stray Cats here and you remember throughout my whole videos here in South Arabia I noticed a lot that there are a lot of Street cats in Riad in Medina and also here in Jedi and look at it they're even feeding the straight cats here that is actually quite cool very interesting I never saw such a station before in a different country oh I'm sorry I didn't want to disturb your meal feel free to enjoy oh very interesting I actually saw a few of these boxes before but I didn't notice that it is a cat feeding station very interesting oh look at this alley here even with the lights on there that looks beautiful you know what I always like when I'm in new countries just walk into some side alleys I don't really recommend to do that in every country depends how safe the country is but here in Saudia I feel very safe so no worries to just walk into some random side alleys and then sometimes you're ending up in very interesting areas hello Salam hello oh what is this tea tea tea you want to give me a tea oh thank you very much oh he's just offering me a tea here it's a mint tea oh very hot actually very hot I'm from from Germany and you sa y Yemen oh Yemen okay okay how is Yemen is it beautiful country beautiful beautiful beautiful maybe one day I should visit Yemen as well it's uh right next to Saudi Arabia on the southern border m oh I love the minty minty taste to it there are only two leaves of mint here but they taste very strong actually giving the whole tea a very minty flavor which is really cool oh very delicious how to say delicious in Arabic I learned this before but I forgot it already nice nice the tea is nice that's how you pronounce it that means the tea tastes delicious German brother you you have a brother in Germany okay which city I think Medina means City Medina means city right if you saw my video from Medina I think the Arabic word for city is also Medina oh where in the world you just walk by a shop and suddenly you get invited for tea that is a the great Hospitality here oh what what are you selling here makeup makeup for girls Foundation ey Shadow blusher look at that he's not even giving me the tea to sell me something because this is literally a shop for girls I'm not the Target customer group for this shop so he was just being friendly offering me a tea without like trying to sell me something afterwards you know that is great Okay I uh how much tea no are you sure thank you very much I really appreciate that thank you for the hospitality thank you very much okay enjoy your day thank you very much byebye what friendly people here once again this is overwhelming I said something similar in my Medina video already or I talked about this before in my Medina video that whenever I'm visiting a majority Muslim countries the hospitality in these countries is always outstanding in the rest unfortunately many people have a very negative mindset or negative opinions about Islam and the Muslim culture because it's so badly portrayed in our Western media unfortunately but then when you're visiting these countries for your own and you see the reality it's it's almost mindblowing like the generosity of the people here the hospitality of the people and yeah this is not the first time I experience Hospitality like this in Saudi Arabia or in the Muslim country great I can really recommend maybe I'm going to make a separate video talking about that on my second Channel if you're coming from a West from a western country from a western Society Muslim countries hello Alum hello how are you I'm very good I'm just trying the tea here it's very delicious tea are you you're from jeda yeah yes it's a beautiful city today is my first day exploring the city yeah and I'm from Germany yes and I really like the city so far and the people are so kind and friendly here really great how are you I'm very good welcome to Saia thank you so much where are you from I'm from Germany almania almania almania to thank you very much from Yemen from Yemen yes oh over there is another guy from Yemen okay thank you very much yeah I can definitely say that if a Muslim traveler let's say a a young man from Saudi Arabia travels to my country Germany and I'm really ashamed to say that he would not be welcomed like I am welcomed here it almost makes me emotional that it is like that you know yeah okay yeah go visit Muslim countries if you have the chance to highly recommend it and to everyone from these Muslim countries if you're traveling to Germany if I am meeting you there you can be sure that I would welcome you the same way the same way that I get treated here I would welcome not only Muslim visitors but visitors from all over the world in my country Germany as well but unfortunately I can't say the same uh about many of my fellow Germans and I am ashamed to say that to be honest oh look at that we have an Indonesian restaurant diini Ada Bako that means there's Bako available here Bako meatballs in Bahasa Indonesia and I think also Bahasa malayo helloa daddy Indonesia Indonesia oh okay okay nice to meet you yeah I need to improve my Bahasa Indonesia learning a little bit here and there Sal oh that means welcome in Bahasa I have the impression I think this is an Indonesian toour group here shout out to Indonesia I really like Indonesia and Indonesian people I'm not sure if I really recognize it 100% correctly but I think all of the people here are from Indonesia or maybe also from Malaysia Indonesians and Malaysians are very similar I also really like Malaysia so also shout out to Malaysia interesting and look at that we also have a jollybee here shout out to the Philippines also one of my favorite countries in the world to everyone watching from Philippines you can also find jollybee here in case you don't know the Philippines and jollybee this is like the McDonald's from Philippines jollybee you can get burgers there you can get spaghetti there french fries all these type of things and all the people that are here from different countries like Indonesia for example they are of course all here to travel to Mecca and maybe also to Medina because we are Muslims from all over the world travel to Saudi Arabia to visit Mecca the holiest city in Islam and also Medina the second holiest city in Islam and yeah if you watch my previous videos we visited Medina in one of the previous episodes and I am back at this gate where we started to explore earlier and yeah now it's almost sunset time so I want to head to the ocean front and there we can see the world's tallest water fountain and get an impression of the ocean from there which I heard is also super beautiful but yeah can I recommend visiting jeda so far absolutely my first impressions here are awesome a very interesting mix of modern city and historical City very friendly and welcoming people here so I'm having really really good first impressions here but yeah let's head over to the ocean front it looks already beautiful with the the sun over there okay what was your name again no okay nice to meet you thank you Mr thank you for watching the videos thank you okay have a good evening nice to meet you okay byebye all right and here we are at the final location of today that taxi driver was super friendly he said that he watches my videos and he said also welcome to Saudi Arabia and he explained me so many things that was really nice and now we are here first of all I think it's going to be a phenomenal Sunset it looks already super super beautiful and yet the reason why we are here is to watch the world's tallest water fountain which you can see somewhere here I'm not sure where exactly it is maybe it's on the water there and I can't see it now because the the sun is like covering it you know so I think the fountain will start to uh play like a water show right at sunset time which is in 15 minutes and yeah look at the beautiful ocean front here seems to be a really well-maintained place for families very similar to the ocean front we have seen in the previous video when I arrived here jedar a little Park area here where you can sit have a picnic with your family and then enjoy this beautiful sunset view right here excuse me the the fountain is here right yes so it will start maybe at 6:00 p.m. after Sunset oh yeah yeah yeah yeah okay so the fountain will start to uh play the show after the sun has set that means in about 10 minutes we have sun set so we wait to see the sun set first and then the water will rise and wow look at that I think I can get slushies here hello can I get a slushy here oh yeah how much this one six six real okay what flavors do you have here if the only one color here is this strawberry I strawberry you only have this one flavor okay one flavor you don't have another flavor no no okay then one strawberry please yes okay okay there's no other option then of course I have to go with this one but actually strawberry is not a bad option I think let's see hello hello can I take a video how you pull it up oh you wants to take a video I just want to see the machine how how you used the machine oh he even filming for me thank you so much where are you from Yen from Yemen and you we are from Pakistan from Pakistan oh I've been to Pakistan before oh very nice Kar I was in Karachi and La yeah from karach you're from karach oh very nice city okay six whe my is I'm from Germany Germany Germany yeah yeah but I I travel to different countries so I also go to Pakistan before yeah okay Shuka in Pakistan and in Yemen you say shukran shanuka okay and D in Germany what do you hold you dka D dka so Pakistan shukria Yemen shukran Germany Danka okay thank you and thank you in English oh you know what I really like about Saudi Arabia you're always meeting people from so many different countries I met people here from Pakistan from Yemen from the Philippines from Indonesia from Malaysia from India many many people from all over the world seem to gather together here in Saudi Arabia and yeah I'm having this ice cold slushy here now and then we are having the sunset in the background that is a beautiful view so let's give it a try actually it's not that much like a slushy usually a slushy has a very thick consistency and this one is almost just like a juice with a very strong strawberry flavor but yeah this is not real strawberry I would prefer a proper real strawberry juice but uh this one will do it as well I think the Highlight here is uh enjoying this drink now with this Sunset View here in jeda and wow look at that the fountain just started to blow the water in the air and that looks actually very cool now because we still have the sun in the background behind the water oh wow and look how huge the water is being blown into the air that looks actually very beautiful oh especially with the sun behind it that is a phenomenal view here I don't really know why but I was expecting that there will be like music being played during the fountain show and maybe also like a light show but seems like it's really just the water being blown into the air but yeah it looks really really beautiful with the sunset behind it and it seems to be yeah a very popular tourist attraction here because you can see the amount of people standing here now to watch that yeah the water fountain here is actually the world's tallest water fountain with a total height of 260 M and it is one of the most iconic landmarks here to visit in jeda it has has been built in 1985 and was a gift from King F and the fountain actually uses seawater from the ocean and yeah unfortunately today is actually my last day in Saudi Arabia I'm leaving the country again tomorrow I had a really really great time here Saudi Arabia has been a really interesting destination to travel to and I hope that throughout my Saudi Arabia series you also got to know the country better so I really hope you enjoyed the series and I'm sure I'm going to visit Saudi Arabia again in the future because there are more corners of the country that I would like to and if you haven't seen my previous video in which I took a high-speed train from Medina to get to Jedi then feel free to check out the video right here stay healthy stay positive and then see you on the next episode ciao guys
2025-03-08 14:53
