"… relaxing a little… in the background is the view of the zizag road goin’ up the steep slope of Al Hada mountain… the cable station in this area is one of the tourist attraction in Taif. Taif is the summer capital of Saudi Arabia…"
when i first came to KSA, i was quite adamant, a bit cynical, a bit scared, a bit eager, and a little bit pessimistic. stories i heard about this and that… scared me somehow. But the promise of a beautiful and able life for my family dismissed all negative thoughts about proceeding to the kingdom. it was around third week June 2000 when i arrived here, so, a little much longer xmas would be dawning …
most of you who haven’t set foot in this country would be wondering what kind of climate does Saudi Arabia has. like me, i was imagining a very hot, frigging hot place… almost as if the whole of KSA is a dessert, like the biggest one we know — SAHARA.
well, let me say all of those thoughts were wrong. but maybe, in some places it would be frigging hot, but not the whole of Saudi. when i arrived here, it was evening. we set foot in Jeddah airport — the hot air caressed my cold face as we were walking down the tarmac and into the bus that would take us to arrival area. it was a bit humid like the weather we have in manila. Jeddah’s climate is much like our metro… the only difference is that Manila would give you the sweat that is so greasy. it was already about past midnight when we started our ascent to the mountains of Al Hada. the travel by coaster took us about two hours with a speed of about 120kmh or so. as we were traversing the zigzag road going up the steep mountain slope of al hada — pretty much like Baguio, the driver shut off the aircon to eliminate the drag that the motor gets as we usually do when we drive upslope… i opened the window, surprisingly the hot air i felt in Jeddah vanished. now i was feeling the cozy and gentle caress of cold air down my spine. it was as if we were transported into another place far away from Saudi Arabia. this is pretty much the weather we have in Taif — just like Baguio.
Taif like any other elevated place in KSA have cold all year round weather. imagine this, how do you like to play outdoors with minimal sweat??? well, you’ll get it here. i play tennis sometimes, and when i get sweating all over and the moment i stop playing the cold air around would seep in and dry me out. Now that december is fast coming, the weather in Taif is getting much colder. it is especially cold during december … starting this month, the air in the morning is colder that it is imperative that you should wear something thicker to keep your body warm. and what about when winter comes, swosh!!!, you should wear gloves too coz it is doubly colder than usual that you’ll get your hands with coldbites, if you know what i mean.
the feeling of homesickness is overwhelming when you get to celebrate xmas alone. i have about five xmas here in Taif. just imagine how lonesome i become … i can’t help but shed tears as i keep myself locked in my room awaiting the most needed call and greetings from the two luvs of my life, and from my brothers, sisters, and parents too. now that xmas is around the corner, i am again being enveloped by this feeling of sickness, wishing against hope that i could go home and be with my wife and kid to celebrate xmas and new year. a call is freakingly important to survive the occasion … albeit, calls coming in and out of the kingdom is painstakingly difficult because of the clogged circuits of the Sauditel… i wonder when it’s gonna change…
to wrap up, here’s another wonderment — do you imagine halestorm in Saudi Arabia?? well, during winter rains come and sometimes halestorm. i was amazed when i first experienced it. snowballs like the size of "jolens" though rather much smaller would surprise you when you hear them drop on top of thecars, walls and the rooftops. it’s funny that when halestorm stops, you’ll find dents in the cars, special
ly the new ones…
(in the background is the "Le Meridien Hotel, Al Hada-Taif)
so, that’s about it!!!
til next time….
