A Mid-Summer Journey, Al Haql – Day 3

It’s now the third day and our first destination was the coastal city of Al Haql. We woke up early at 9 am for the hotel breakfast and I had some cereal, eggs and coffee. Weird breakfast, I know. We packed our bags, checked out of the hotel and said bye to the lovely and welcoming city of Tabuk.

An unexpected encounter at Al Haql

On our way to Al Haql, we got to see some very gorgeous reddish wind-sculpted mountains which looked a lot similar to the mountains in Al Ula. The ride to Al Haql was of a mere 2 and a half hours. As soon as we entered this new city’s border, we were stopped by an old Arab man who asked us if we came there to cross the borders of Jordan and re-enter the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to renew our visit visa and we said YES!

The old man then told us that he was providing a service in which he helps us cross the border and reenter without wasting a lot of time as we would have, if we would have gone without him, for he had connections at the border which would help us complete our objective earlier than we would have assumed.

Crossing Borders

We parked our car at a nearby hotel, picked our documents and left for the Jordan border in his car. The road to the border was unbelievable as we could see the mountains of Egypt on the other side of the coast of Haql clearly as if we were very close to them. We soon reached the Aqaba border between Jordan and Saudi Arabia, went through the process to exit the country and then re entered KSA like we had never even left.

I had hoped we could’ve entered Jordan and toured the nearest city for a while but unfortunately not everything goes as planned. But the Old Arab man made the short trip to the border and back enjoyable. He was nice, kind, funny and told us about himself. He was certainly a very interesting person and had a lot of stories to tell us but time was not an ally in this situation as we had to leave for Umluj, The Maldives of Saudi Arabia.

FOOD; the best therapist you could ask for

Our stomachs were growling so we found a restaurant to fill our selves up and yet again the food was heavenly. We ordered a pizza for me, two burgers for my little brothers and some mixed grill with rice for my parents. The food was tastefully presented and was more than enough to fill our empty sack of a stomach. The food replenished our energy which was depleted by the heat of the coastal city and allowed us to leave for the city where we’d be staying the night, Umluj. The road to Umluj was a quite long as it was 6 hours away from Al Haql.

The 12 Springs of Moses and Madyan

We decided on visiting a historical destination which was on the way to Umluj with a little detour. The ancient site is called “The 12 springs of Moses”, in the valley of Maqna. It is regarded as miracle for such springs to have sprouted in the middle of the desert and provides visitors with a spiritual experience as prophet Musa (AS) stayed here to rest and drink from the springs. We checked the historical site along with the place where prophet Musa (AS) lived for 9 years known as “Madyan” after crossing the red sea until it was time for the sun to set.

Fatigue and food; what could go wrong?

We drove, drove and drove until it was 11pm and our stomachs were rumbling again and later stopped at a town on our way, to have some food, called Al Wajh and ate some Yemeni traditional food, the infamous Goat Mandi. After we finished our food, we started feeling sleepy and still had 2 hours left to reach Umluj. These last 2 hours felt like eternity because we were tired of sitting and the constant speed bumpers which would appear out of nowhere wouldn’t let us take a short nap at all.

The End to a tiring day

We finally reached Umluj after what felt like eternity, found our hotel, checked in our room, unloaded our bags and thanked god that we were finally here. I took a quick hot shower and jumped on the bed to then sleep like I was the one who drove the car for soooo long