We get a lot of questions in our Magnus & Fin’s HeadOffice bot about the actual first trek we took. Here are some of the raw impressions, which were written on the go, with a B-Gan transmitter and a Toughbook.. and not a small amount of trepidation…

While David Lean’s movie Lawrence of Arabia may have over-dramatized here and there, the one place that was just right, or even understated was the epic landscape. The vast deserts of Saudi, the moonscapes of Wadi Rumm, the shocking clarity of the Gulf Waters and the fertile Jordan and Syrian valleys are stunning. People and their aspirations were somehow returned to their small scale against these backdrops.

April 11th, 2006 (Wejh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) Freeze baby! Saudi Five-o! And so began our warm welcome to the quiet town of Wejh, about 800k south of the border at Haql. Actually, we were marked when we entered town on a private car marked Jeddah. A boy whistled and smiled, shouting taxi as we went by. But that was 20 minutes ago, and we had marked it at the time as just a little boy practicing his English. It may have been more, given what was about to unfold. Our official business in Wejh was to take a few photos of the old port town that was marked by Lawrence on his trip. Indeed, along the cornice we were able to locate more than a few storage houses and living quarters that fit the bill. It was dark, the light was poor, but I was determined to get at least one shot of what I fancied to be a building Lawrence may have seen during his stay here. I padded softly down a dark and dusty street, searching for enough light to get at least one shot. I got only this… Suddenly there was plenty of light, thanks to the headlights of a large car moving quickly my way. Any hope that he was in a hurry for evening prayer was soon dashed as the car came to a dusty halt near me, positioned to give my body the effect of the classic high-beam interrogation. “Why are you in Saudi?”,” Why do you take pictures?”, “Where are your papers?” Gee, which one do you want me to answer first? I decided that walking toward Mohammed (our ride) was a good idea at this point, and Dan-o followed on foot. We made the car as Mohammed was getting out, and I positioned myself on the other side while Tad stood off a bit. Mo diffused the situation with five minutes of impassioned explanation, which must have seemed fast talking even for one fluent in Arabic. I being less than that, was just glad to see the sign “over, done, leave” from Mo. And that was that, at least for then. We pulled into a diner on the way out of town, ordered some mezze, fish and rice and sat down for a brief respite and a de-brief. We slouched over our tea and tried to look as non-descript as possible for two beefy Americans could. We had company in no time. Seems Dan-o from downtown had been in touch with HQ, and now we had Thamer and his two crew chiefs at our table asking if it we would mind a little grilling while our fish fried in back. It got serious quickly: “where did you cross the border…, what do you do for a living…, who are you visiting and where are you staying”. Tad’s expression here was just at the uh-oh stage. I was snapping a last shot and palming the mini camera while emptying the SD card just in case. I reasoned this crazy and prudent given the charge of photo taking. Mo was a cool operator throughout, basically explaining the circumstances and stressing the fact we were Americans and friendly. That melted them, and there were suddenly apologies all around. Thamer even paid for dinner out of his own pocket. It’s fairly easy to imagine the many possibilities for mis-understanding and culture gaps between our country and theirs. I don’t actually know the penalty for taking photos of old buildings at night, but given the fact I have still ten fingers to write this, it’s fair to say I was given a free pass this time. Ins’allah..