OUR FIRST TIME IN SAUDI ARABIA SHOCKED US! FIRST DAY IN RIYADH
Saudi Arabia is one of the most talked about countries in the world but how much of what we hear is actually true today we will be starting our journey through Saudi Arabia in the capital city of Riyadh a city that's redefining itself with a futuristic Skyline Cutting Edge architecture and a lifestyle that's rapidly evolving not what I expected today we're going to be redefining all the misconceptions and we're going to give you our first official Impressions there's so much unknown and we're going to show you everything from lifestyle food culture experiences entertainment all in one place starting right now this is Saudi Arabia we are in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia I never thought I'd be saying that and I cannot contain my excitement to finally be here and of course we are starting our journey in the capital city of Riyadh from first glance not what I expected I thought I was going to see sand dunes desert camels and I'm standing in front of some of the most beautifully built buildings I have ever seen the landscape the skyscrapers are absolutely magnificent I did not expect Saudi to look like this and what a perfect start to our journey now when I first thought about coming to Saudi Arabia especially as a foreign woman I didn't really know what to expect to be honest I had a lot of preconceptions I had some misunderstandings I had a lot of questions before I arrived in Saudi Arabia was it safe was it clean what was the culture like what was the food like is it very touristy is it okay for tourists to come general questions that I think lots of people have had when you see media headlines you hear all sorts of things and your mind can go crazy but having landed here in Riyadh and getting a first initial impression I cannot tell you how amazing it feels like right now I'm standing in this district there are tons of families tons of people walking around it's super modern super clean it feels like I've got nothing to be worried about and I'm really sad that the media does that to you you see the headlines you get an instant feeling of fear and I don't really want the media to do that about countries because I feel so excited to visit Saudi Arabia the only way you can have an opinion like that is if you come here and see it for yourself have your own experience so I know that Saudi Arabia has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and looking at all of this I can clearly see it and right now I'm in an area called kafd which is King Abdullah Financial District and it's this beautiful Financial heart of Riyadh and to be honest it's not like any Financial District you've seen before because not that long ago none of this existed what they've done is built an entire Financial District with 95 buildings 61 skyscrapers out of nothing most of these buildings are in fact empty they're not being rented out yet they haven't been bought no companies are in them they are building an entire Financial District before anyone's even here we are surrounded by tons of skyscrapers office blocks buildings the designs are super Sleek they've got glass Towers beautiful geometric designs and the idea is this entire area is going to hold over 1.6 million people that is absolutely insane and it gives you an intro of what it's like here in Saudi insane growth insane development but the people aren't even here yet a lot of the businesses aren't even here yet they are setting up for the future in a way I've never seen before one or two buildings have a brand name on maybe it's a bank or an insurance company but most of them are empty and they've built all of them look at this normally a financial district grows over time but here they thought we're going to build a 100 skyscrapers in one go I would say it's a work in progress but um yeah we're looking at serious architectural futuristic designs can you believe that we've been traveling for the past 5 years and this is country number 20 for us and so many people told us on Instagram like how could you come here before you came to Europe and the thing is this is the place that I've been wanting to visit for a very very long time there's so much unknown and I'm ready to explore I'm ready to just dive in and let's give you a first impressions first few seconds here in Saudi first of all we got palm trees beautiful just to remind us that we actually are in the desert we're in the desert and also look at my clothes it is so cold in the desert and it's kind of cloudy today it's been raining a little bit I'm sure when we started this video and you saw us in a hoodie and a jacket you thought they can't be in Saudi this feels weird for us we're in the middle of the desert and you can feel it's dusty it's dry but it's cold we're really cold right now so Saudi has a winter or Riyadh has a winter if you didn't know yeah so all the buildings are going to be mostly offices and maybe rental units or apartments but there's also coffee shops on this side I see here we have some restaurants there's some Mexican food it is absolutely spotless there's not a speck of litter and I love how this little square is designed it's open air it's beautiful spacious and clean so it's actually getting quite busy behind me there's so many families there's lots of people out and about and today is Friday so there is lots and lots of people because if you didn't know Saudi Arabia has a Friday Saturday weekend so today is technically Saturday is that right yes correct today is Friday so it's Saturday and tomorrow is Saturday so it's Sunday for us for us yes right does so that's why there's lots of people hanging around cool environment here very cool environment but for now we're leaving the financial district and we're going to go to a different side and to do that we're going to take the metro which is brand new here in Riyadh and one thing I've noticed is is the amount of construction everywhere you look you will see cranes building construction actually from here I can see 8 cranes it's absolutely insane they are building on a scale I've never seen before I can't believe how modern this all is I don't think I've seen a district that looks like this before and right over here they are actually building a monorail to take you through this financial district it's not ready yet but that shows that they're expecting millions of people to be here that will build a monorail before the people are even here over here I can see their Aramco building and a Aramco is the biggest company here in Saudi I think it's third or fourth biggest company in the entire world which is helping fund a lot of what we're seeing over here mabuhay this is a gold building in front of us so you're probably thinking wow what is that magnificent art Museum behind you no that is not an art museum that is the Metro station and it is brand new and when I say brand new I mean it's only been open for 2 or 3 months and it is absolutely spectacular it actually resembles the waves in the sand or motions through the sand of the desert and I love that it's got little holes and when the sun is shining it can actually reflect into the metro station so let's go try out the brand new driverless Metro I'm so excited also the station is absolutely monstrous look at it in comparison to the size of these people and it goes all the way down there probably a few hundred metres I think the entrance is just around here oo wo wow wow this is amazing it's like we're going through a tunnel here walking into this Metro station is like walking into a sci-fi movie it is super modern it's all curved and bright and beautiful and when you think of a Subway or a metro station you're always thinking it's dark and gloomy and dirty but this is definitely not that cuz it feels like an art Museum it's nothing like I've ever seen before like I in Avatar or Star Wars or this is definitely a Star Wars movie is this like coruscant or something and apparently this is the largest metro Network here in the Middle East apparently it's going to have 85 stations and six lines so look everywhere is curved and I can see here's a potential train platform and then there's more platforms up there so it might be three or four levels in here and it's also to just make traffic so much more better ease congestion make it more convenient for locals and for travelers like us so before we take the train we need to get a ticket but here how it works is first you get a metro card so you buy the card and then you have it forever and then you come to this very fancy machine which is touchscreen and you top it up I'm going to go English first and then to top it up you just put your card against the scanner and then it's is I have five Saudi rial loaded on the card and then you can just top up I'll add another five to show you how it works and then you can use cash or bank card so if I go bank card I take our card and just put it against the same scanner there you go just like that to load that five back on I just put this back here load it that is probably the most efficient and modern ticketing system I've ever got because normally when you get to a metro station like you look through all the stations and it's super confusing and you don't know where you're going and you have to choose the right station here you just load on and if you want and live here you could just load on maybe 200 so easy okay let me load yours my girl okay here we go scan here I think that's the most modern entrance we've ever had and look at this this is how is this a metro station this is the most beautiful Metro station we've ever been I think this is going to become a tourist attraction in its own and they probably know that so this is actually the main terminal you could call it and then on each side there are escalators going up and down so that's the yellow line on that side and then we have the orange and purple line on that side which I like because then you got this big open space and then you just make your way to each side and walk through this sort of main Atrium to find your platform very open air easy because of the curvature of all the buildings and white color it feels like everything's flowing which is what you need in a metro station okay so this is our platform so you can see we came from all the way down there up here and look how clean and modern it is you can see we're taking the Blue Line hello I love that this is all black it feels like super super Sleek super Sleek modern oh here comes the train here it is wow thank you thank you people are so lovely so you can see there's a family sign here oh so cool hello the next station is this is one of the first trains I've ever been on where they have different sections so they have a single section they have first class and then they have a family section so if you have kids or if you have your husband with you then you can be in the family section which is pretty cool or if you're by yourself then you can be in the single section we can see the kafd sky line from here which is absolutely magnificent this train is so modern and quiet this is obviously the blue line that we're taking going in this direction and then here you can see this is a crossover with the red line and now it's changing to Arabic so this is all electronic which Most Metro stations don't have they also have the time and the date on the end and look how beautiful it is from the outside we got all the palm trees we got a bit of the desert and then there you can see the financial district in the background look how tall those buildings are I'm really really glad to see everyone taking the metro because apparently the traffic in Riyadh is just crazy so hopefully this reduces some of that here it says family class so there won't be any single men like one man by himself you're not allowed to be in here so luckily I'm with you that is a huge perk honestly as a Solo Traveler I highly I highly appreciate that and as a female that's really good and I can see that they've got lots of modern seating as well so the seating all the woman can sit as well really cool it's like really spacious and there's two seats on one side and then singular seats on the other side and it's not like back against the window which I've never seen before very cool the next station is King Fahad District by far one of the most modern train experiences I've ever had and this section here is first class which will be even quieter so there's a train coming on the opposite platform and here you can see where it says family and then here it says single so if you're lone and single you'll obviously enter into this side but if you're with your family children or with your wife you can then enter through there one thing that's interesting no one's here we found a few of the stations to be relatively quiet a lot of the stations that we go to in Southeast Asia we've been in China Japan South Korea even in Thailand there's always lots of people waiting on the platform but here it's completely quiet one thing that's really interesting is this is a driverless train no one's driving this train and right now r actually has the longest driverless train in the entire world they haven't even got all six lines ready yet very impressive these subway stations are so clean and there's no stalls or anyone selling anything or like music or litter it's absolutely spotless look at this that's a good point it's completely minimalist there's not anything on the wall there's not anything on this glass here we've now come out the station and we've come here specifically to look at one of the most unique buildings in the entire world such a standout structure here in Riyadh which is Kingdom Tower and looking at it it's absolutely epic how it juts out the sky compared to all the other buildings around it and it almost looks fake because it is so gigantic and so futuristic it looks like it's straight out of a sci-fi movie like this giant alien spaceship has landed in the desert of Riyadh it's one of the tallest buildings here in Riyadh at about 302 M high but it's the third tallest building in the world with a hole in because you can see it's got this giant almost parabolic hole right in the middle and in fact there's a sky bridge at the top that you can go all the way up to and view the city but as you can see it's freezing cold and in fact it's raining right now so we thought we're not going to go up because it's so cloudy and foggy we're not going to see much of the city but this is what typical streets look like here in Riyadh very very clean on this side we've got a big pedestrian walk I would say this is a very Car City because everybody drives cars you can see Shev is walking and only one other person is walking and then on this side there's absolutely nobody so if you come to Riyadh you definitely need a car because everything is seriously spaced out a few people reached out to me and said you're going to Saudi Arabia are you going to be okay is it safe for foreigners is it safe in general and as a woman especially I feel incredibly safe I can walk around by myself nobody stays plus the dress code is very relaxed as you can see I'm not wearing an Abaya I'm not wearing a hijab that's covering my hair or face and there is no legal requirement to cover if you don't want to and everywhere we've gone even looking out the train there is construction everywhere so they're obviously building something massive here there's a giant skyscraper being built in the background and I've just seen this sign here which has Vision 2030 and in fact that Saudi Arabia's goal is by 2030 they want to transform this entire country not only the city into a new futuristic and modern world and I assume that's to get lots of people to travel here investors to come here and we can see it happening hello I almost feel like I'm here too early like if we came in maybe 2 or 3 or 4 years I think this place is going to be electric it's going to blow up and I think people from all around the world are going to come here and visit here another thing that people said is are women allowed to work do they have rights are they free can they drive can they live their lives freely and those perceptions are actually really outdated of course women can work they can drive they can own businesses they can live their lives freely and we have seen that here in Saudi we've seen them in the cafes with their friends socializing of course living their life as they want to I am so grateful to be here in Saudi Arabia and experience what it's like firsthand for myself instead of just believing all the headlines and that is exactly why we are here today to discover everything firsthand and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised and I'm really impressed so since we're in a new country the number one question we always get asked is what insurance do you use as we said we've been traveling for 5 years in over 20 countries it's difficult to find an insurance provider that covers you for all of these different countries and when the pandemic hit in 2020 I was looking for an insurance provider to cover us and that's when I came across SafetyWing who we would like to thank for partnering with us on this video now SafetyWing is a completely online Global health and travel insurance for digital Nomads or remote workers like us who are traveling to different places now the reason I chose safety wing for these 5 years is the ease of use all you have to do is an online subscription so you sign up either at home or you can sign up when you're already abroad for insurance for as long as you want to because you can sign up for a year just for a month and once you're signed up you're immediately covered doesn't matter where you are in over 180 countries we like to use safety Wing's Nomad insurance which covers you for an array of different situations like if you have a motorcycle accident if you need surgeries if you need medications or if you have a travel delay a stolen passport or even lost luggage so for us traveling around the world that's exactly what we need and because everything is online it's so easy to file a claim you can go into safety Wing system and file a claim in just a few minutes and there's a 24hour support if you need it and that's what I really like easy to use no fuss so if we want to extend a policy or buy a new policy or tell safety Wing that we're going to several countries we can do that all online I can do it on the go and if you want you can add a family member or a friend to your policies so for example I've got Shev as a partner on my personal plan so I know that we are both covering so it doesn't matter if we're climbing the Great Wall of China motorbiking through Northern Vietnam or traveling here through Saudi Arabia our insurance stays the same we highly recommend safety wing and we're going to continue to use it on the rest of our travels if you want to give it a try just click the link in the description below and I've just noticed that there's a bus station right outside the metro station besides taking the bus and making it very easily accessible to get around the city they've also got an air conditioned waiting room oh there's a button over here wow you can actually buy your Metro ticket in here and it's so warm in here and I assume during the summer months they've got the air conditioners in here to make it nice and cool while you're waiting for the bus very clever I like that so here is a bus waiting to pick people up and here they have all of the different bus stations very easily accessible hello Salam alaykum how are you doing H good and you where are you from I'm from Kenya from Kenya I'm from South Africa oh wonderful oh nice to meet you Johannesburg or? Johannesburg yes wonder wonder thank you have a good day welcome brother so that guy if you didn't hear was from Kenya which is very close to South Africa where we're from so there are many expats from all around the world that actually coming to Saudi to work here and this is what it's like outside the train station there's all of the palm trees which is really cool reminds you that you're in the middle of the desert right now and then there's a giant skyscraper in the background but also a brand new one just being built as I said when you look around the city there's always construction and it's not small projects like a little house or something it's always giant skyscrapers or big areas that they're building the sun is just gone down and you can see behind me we are in one of the most beautiful and Majestic places unfortunately the audio for this part is not going to be so good because they confiscated our microphones our tripod and the camera so if you're coming at this place please don't bring in just bring your phone cuz they will take everything we have just arrived at Boulevard World which is pretty much like an amusement park or a theme park where they have loads of rides food and all kinds of stuff that we're going to go explore right now they basically recreated replicas of iconic countries iconic landmarks and we're going to actually experience lots of different countries in one place from the food architectural Marvels this is so so exciting to see what entertainment and what people do on the weekends here in Saudi Arabia this is so cool they've got all the camels with the Saudi flags on and all the buildings look like castles but they're typical Arabian Saudi Arabian buildings so I just want to get stuck in let's go and see what Boulevard world is all about and as you can see lots of people are coming here this was the number one thing that was suggested to us when we came to so first things first is we actually had to book our tickets on an app called webook and they use webook for practically everything every event it was super easy we just booked online in about 5 seconds and it cost us 70 rial per person on the weekend it's obviously much cheaper on the weekday and obviously less busy so I highly recommend that as we said very very strict security I mean really strict our tiny little DJI microphone and our tiny the cheapest tripod in the world was confiscated we even went to tiananmen square with our microphone so do not bring any tripods any professional cameras just bring your phone as we've arrived there is the biggest screen I've ever seen in my life going all the way down this street there's music playing and it's upside down I've never seen a screen over you and obviously in the summer months is so hot that this will be covering you the entire away whoa this is insane we've just arrived we've only just arrived as we've continued to walk we've realized we're now in Paris there you can see de everything is now in French there's a boutique over there and look at all the buildings I really feel like we're in Paris Parisian buildings I Can See For I can see coffee and treats crepes I feel like I'm in Paris instantly to paris even the music is French we've just transported in Saudi what no ways we're not in Saudi we're in Paris it's the Eiffel Tower what that's insane it's not even like a small replica and all the buildings there's the Arc de Triomphe another massive screen the biggest screen I've ever seen you can't see on camera but it's 3D as well we've only just arrived we've been here for 2 minutes I see they have a croissant bar and all the restaurants around are all French selling French snacks treats desserts toast it's french toast wow walking under the Eiffel Tower walking under the Eiffel Tower today who knew oh look what here I am under the Eiffel Tower in the desert in the desert and it's freezing cold what a combo to be honest there just absolute scenes here we've got people selling balloons there's all sorts of things to look at and take a picture we're now in Turkey I can see there there's a sign that says turkey this is the grand Bazar in Istanbul and it's absolutely mad there's just activities I don't even know where to look like sensory overload but we're only in one country we've still got so many left to discover they're selling Turkish ice cream there's a Turkish Bazar Turkish food sweets unbelievable let's just keep exploring let's go oh what is this guy selling tea hello look at these guys selling ice cream okay so we're leaving turkey now and this is welcome with a big blue star so I'm assuming this is the United States the first thing I see giant Pepsi and a fries bar it's going to be the US America gas station Pepsi gas station so cool typical american and that is red white and blue oh my goodness a saloon car and I can hear Beyonce is that Beyonce here's the Las Vegas sign really cool so first things first is we've noticed all the brands Burger King Cinnabon Texas Chicken Dunkin Donuts and that's just what I can see right around me so this is definitely America but there's tons of entertainment there's a Motel Cafe you can play games win all sorts of plushy prizes this is so cool get it again get it get it guy Get It guy I know where we're going we're going to Japan come on come on the game are so tempting I know where we're going next okay goodbye us look at all the neon lights very Japanese this is literally what all the Japanese stores look like in Japan that is so true like if you've never been to Japan this is exactly what it looks like and that's so cool I think that's exactly why they've done this they've made it so immersive that if you've never been to any of these countries you can actually feel like you visit this is exactly what the streets look like who's that what is that is that a Transformer? okay our next world that we've stumbled into is Mexico so we've got more tacos all the buildings are a little bit different I really like that every country the music is themed so you feel like you're in that place and here they selling like big sombreros and on this side is Chichén Itzá one of the wonders of the world we've been to two in fact the Taj Mahal and we've been to the Great Wall of China we've made videos of both if you want to see them but not Chichén Itzá yet so we might need to go and visit Mexico but this is a good introduction she's eyeing the food there she goes sorry I will never say no to tacos and chips is that a sign we need to go to Mexico I think so we need to go to Mexico okay she spotted something and she's straight in this is a Paella Corner look how big the plates are of Paella wow it looks amazing so she likes Spanish food out of everywhere in the world thank you okay I saw this and it immediately caught my eye I wish you could smell this through the screen it cost 54 real so it's pretty pricey but I think it's going to be so worth it out of all the foods I saw I was like I want everything but this Over here they have what they're calling the planet cinema and it's this giant sphere that you can go inside and watch movies and it's pretty much got like the Las Vegas sphere on it all different images and Graphics come up really cool so now you can go and watch the Aladdin show inside this and now we're entering Africa that's where we're from so in the Africa Zone they have lots of souvenirs I think we actually call these curios yes which is we have these all over everywhere everywhere you can all I actually have one of these in my house but a giant one and we get all of these different animals and obviously like the buffalo we have this is like our entire house yeah this is like being in our house to be honest we have all of these kind of things I don't think we need to say where we're going next they have built entire pyramids in the middle of this Boulevard world I'm blown away oh and not only one I count one two is a third one on this side and they're absolutely massive the attention to detail on all of these pillars over here they have like ancient text as well all from Egypt and obviously the size of these pyramids look at this look at it in comparison to this guy here just how big it is and they've made one two and then a third one on this side so behind me is Italy that we've just walk through with pizzerias and it really felt like we were in Florence it felt like we were in Venice and it's a weird feeling to actually be transported to all these different countries I have to keep reminding myself I'm in Saudi Arabia and this is maybe only 10 or 15 minutes outside the city center we didn't have to travel far to get to but the most interesting thing I've noticed is there are very few Western tourists and I'm not sure why because this is one of the most epic places I've been to and a really good tourist attraction if you're coming to Saudi so that shows that not many people are coming here one of the final countries that we're seeing sounds weird to say that is China which we've actually spent 7 weeks in China last year and it was one of the most incredible experiences we made a whole bunch of videos if you want to watch those but to be honest this feels very authentic it feels very lifelike and real in fact the music and the smells coming on this side is a Hot Pot restaurant they've got noodle dishes and each world or each country just feels so realistic and they've rarely made an effort to make it authentic even the food is exactly what it's like in that country let me show you an example I mean this actually looks like it could be in China fried rice noodles and some Chinese dumplings fried shrimp fried chicken actually this looks a lot like Shanghai that vibrant red color is so iconic it honestly feels like I'm in Shanghai right now if you're from Saudi Arabia maybe you haven't traveled or you haven't been to this many countries this really gives you an idea of what it's like for most people they don't get to visit many different countries and this is a way that you get to travel the globe but you still get to stay in your city and obviously everything is still in Arabic I feel like I've done a lap of the world I'm exhausted right opposite Boulevard world is Boulevard city which is pretty much a replica of Time Square and I cannot believe that this is Saudi Arabia because honestly this is the identical replica of Time Square this feels like we're in New York there's a cable car going through there's music there's shopping there's entertainment the whole day I'm like can you believe we are in Riyadh is this what you picture when you picture Saudi Arabia rad we've learned today is a very nighttime City it feels like everything comes alive at nighttime I assume that's because of the weather like in the summer months it's so hot that you have to be here at night and look at all the brands just like it would be in New York we got Samsung Pac-Man for some reason then we've got IHG hotels STC I'm star struck that this is Saudi today has taken us completely by surprise and I'm actually so overwhelmed on our first day here in Saudi Arabia we've had the most unbelievable experience I think this really shows what is like it's developing it's forever evolving and it's blowing us away we feel like the media often shows sand dunes and tradition but I think this is the new Saudi Arabia in the next video we will be seeing a amazing Rockstar here in Riyadh we're going to Jeddah we're going to Medina we're taking a high-speed train if you have any recommendations for us in Saudi please let us know in the comments let us know what you think of Saudi and we'll see you in the next one
2025-03-11 06:00
