1. Re: Road trip to Abha in Asir mountains:Sep 05, 2010, 12:06 AM

HI , FULLERROOT

The coastal road is the perfect choice to travel from jeddah to the south of the kingdom .

I advice you start from jeddah to alleeth city , there is double road and the distance is only 190 km , then the way from alleeth city to almozilif city , there is double road and the distance is 110 km , then the road from almozilif city to almokhwah city , there is one road not double road but it isgood road , and the distance is 55 km , then the road from akmokhwah to mahail asir city is one road not double road , and the distance is 183 km , then the road from mahil asir city to abha city , there is good road and the distance is 80 km .

advise you, travel from Jeddah to Abha, the coastal road in the early hours of the morning starts at 4 am in the morning , so you will arrive at 10 am until savet of the swarming .

note : be aware of the stray animals .

finally , i hope happy trip for you .

BEST WISHES

NAIF

Eid Trip: Exploring AbhaWE were unsure until the last minute if we would leave on our hesitantly planned trip. I had delayed prayingIstikharah till the night before. And Istikharah was all I needed to brush uncertainties aside and leave with full trust in Allah on one of the most fascinating trips I’ve had in my life. [As usual, I've saved the best photos and stories for the last :)]

My saga is no secret. Every time I skeptically step out of my perceived comfort zone, I am reminded that it is Allah who is the King of all kings, the Owner of the heavens and earth. He alone is sufficient for His slaves. And what He decrees is undoubtedly the best for us.

The flight from Jeddah to Abha was a cakewalk for my brother and me. But who knew about the long trip that lay ahead?

It was the 29th of Ramadan 1432H. We took the last rent-a-car available at the airport, a small 2011 model Toyota Yaris. “Sorry no more cars,” the person next to us was told.

“Alhamdulillah!” we exhaled. 

The weather was lovely and the landscape gorgeous. We made our way into the city and started looking for a place to stay. There were several furnished apartments, but my brother was insistent on a particular ‘Burj Abha’ that his Saudi friend had recommended. After two hours of tiringsearch, we finally found the place.

We didn’t take it though, as it was unreasonably expensive. We settled on an apartment opposite Burj Abha on top of the fabulous Qasr Medyaf restaurant. The apartment was OK, so we thought. We rested a little and then came down to Medyaf for Iftar. The Shawaya and soups we had were perhaps among the best we’ve tasted in Saudi.

We were walking back to the hotel after Salah when my brother felt our parked car’s engine was on. "It must be the car next to it," I said.

But no! It was ours. My smart brother had the left the key inside, the car on and the doors locked :-)

‘Groan!’ my brother grumbled. ‘Now. what?’

It was Ramadan and shops don't open until after Maghrib. We tried calling the rent-a-car company. No one answered. Here we were in a new city exhausted after losing our way on unfamiliar roads, and now with no mode of transport to top it all!

Taxis, by the way, don’t exist in Abha. All you’ve got are ‘private taxis’. You stand on the road and a private car willing to give you a ride will pick you up: SR2 for every passenger.

However, the beautiful people of Abha told us the way out. ‘Make your way to a key shop nearby and they’ll open the car for you.’ [But searching for a shop in an unknown location was not the most appealing thing to us at the time.]

We waited for Isha. It was announced during this time that it would be Eid the next day!

How do we make our way to the key shop was our dilemma, considering that it was the night of Eid and shops might just remain closed? Moreover, there just wasn’t any ‘taxi’ in sight. We headed to the nearby masjid for Isha with hopes of some divine help. Stopping and praying in the masjid has always helped us in so many ways. We found an old Saudi who dropped us off in his beat-up Land Cruiser at the key shop, which we found closed, to our dismay. We walked around for a while and found the only other one, open! Alhamdulillah! May God bless the Malayalees. They work even when the whole world is on vacation.

Day 2: Eid | Day 3: Falling ill

‘But the shopkeeper said the Salah was at 7:30 AM,’ I fumed. We were up for Fajr, it’s just that we didn’t know that the Eid prayer would be over by 6 AM all over Abha. There’s not a place where it’s done late for latecomers like us. We prayed in our apartment and headed out for some breakfast. It was weird celebrating Eid without family.

We had the most awesome kibda (liver) and adas (lentil/dal) for breakfast in what-seemed-like-a Yemeni restaurant.  

Meanwhile, our aunt and uncle arrived from Al-Khobar and to my chagrin, I caught my aunt’s flu. By nighttime, I had had enough of Abha. The cold climate wasn’t helping me and I longed the warmth of Jeddah. Our apartment had almost no ventilation and was disappointing to the core. I’d told my brother the previous night that we would have to move out before our aunt and uncle came but we only shifted when we saw that our apartment was making us worse.

The new apartment (in the same hotel) was much better. It was humungous compared to the first one, with lots of fresh air and sunlight and a spacious balcony.

We didn’t do much except go to a private hospital for my aunt to treat her flu and severe throat infection.

Incidentally, the hospital we went to was perhaps the first working segregated hospital I have seen. Female doctors saw women patients in a screened area in the ER. A signboard in the hospital proudly declared that Islamic values and laws guided the hospital’s ethics.

Day 4: The Wonderful Turnaround

My aunt and I were hardly in shape to go out even on Day 4, Sept. 1, Thursday. It was almost noon and my brother was getting a little disappointed. ‘My holiday is ruined,’ he must have thought. But holidaying was hardly on my mind. I longed for Jeddah! I kept pestering my brother to book my return ticket. I prayed Istikharah and made up my mind to leave that night.

Then it was almost like a miracle that we felt a little better and went out just before noon.

We headed towards Al-Soodah (Al-Sawdah), the highest point of KSA. Abha is about 2,000 meters above the sea level. According to Wikipedia, Al-Soodah is about 2,500 meters high. But our iPhone app displayed 2,900 meters at the peak!

The fresh air energized us. We stopped on the way to buy hot ginger gahwah that restored some life to our sore throats.

From beautiful Soodah, we headed toward Rijaal Al-Ma’a, a historic town and museum at the foothill, which has ancient buildings going back 600 years! The road from Al-Soodah spirals down with sharp hairpin bends. Driving down and back up is an experience worth writing about in itself. It started raining half way down. Beautiful streams of rainwater flowed between the mountains and on the sides.

Rijaal Al-Ma'a

 

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ONE of the noticeable features of our entire trip was the well-maintained roads and highways. Abha’s roads are waybetter than what we have in Jeddah despite the frequent rains the region experiences.

Moreover, the people of Abha are extremely kind, courteous and helpful. It didn’t matter if the person we asked directions from was someone rich in a brand new SUV or someone in an ‘85 model Cressida. The response was same. They would ask us to follow them and drop us near, if not at, our destination.

This was no stray coincidence. We didn't meet a single person who was in a hurry or in bad mood. Every person stopped to greet, smile, make lots of du’a, and say kind words before giving directions. Subhan Allah! It forced us to be kind ourselves. The benefit of being a Third Culture Kid and speaking many languages is that you get to experience different cultures from close.

Islam is perhaps better practiced in that small town than in bigger cities like Jeddah. We didn't see a single woman who wasn’t properly covered with proper hijab [apart from the tourists]. The abayas they wore met the conditions of hijab and jilbab. This was the rule rather than the exception, unlike what we see in big cities like Jeddah, where it’s more of an exception to see someone properly adhering to the hijab that Allah has mandated. Maids too could hardly be seen – I assume very few Saudi families hire maids there.

The character of the people made me stop and wonder about the town’s wonderful women who certainly must be playing an important role in nurturing such a praiseworthy society.

Day 5: Green mountain and off to Jizan

The perfect ‘yesterday’ and my improved health induced me to put off my plans of traveling back to Jeddah. After Friday prayers, we visited the Green Mountain (Jabel Al-Akhdar) and then left for Jizan in the evening.

The Green Mountain Gallery

At the foot of the mountain is a traditional shop that shoppers will adore.

Off on our way to Jizan

JIZAN is a three-hour drive from Abha. Our destination was Farasan (Fursan) Islands. We had heard quite a lot about it and Saudi Arabia has been promoting it as a tourist destination as well. I remember reading about exotic snorkeling and scuba diving spots there. We reached at night, checked into ahotel and enquired about the ferry that would take us to Farasan Island (the main island in the Fursan group of islands).

The weather was hot and windy.

The government-run ferry leaves every day at 8 AM and 3 PM. The ride is free. You can even take your car there (for free). You need to queue at least at 6 AM to be able to get a ticket. The Ministry of Transport authorities take your iqama details and give you a ticket. You then board the ship from the Jizan port where there are multiple security checks by navy and jawazat officers.

We boarded the ferry and by 8 AM we were off to Farasan Island. [My thumping heart witnessed yet another sign of Allah’s Might – occasions when you just cannot stop making du’a. Subhan Allah!]

An hour later we arrived and found ourselves sorely missing Abha’s pleasant weather. There’s not much to see in the deserted, undeveloped coast if you are already used to the Bride of the Red Sea.

Our experience in Farasan Island can be summed up in one word: Torture.

Exploring the island under the hot sun that virtually boiled our brains was not a soothing outing at all. We finally made our way to a decent resort: Coral International. That’s perhaps the place you would directly want to go to if you decide on visiting this island. Near the resort, there are boats you can hire and visit the smaller islands or take off to a spot for snorkeling or scuba diving. But make sure you do it in the evening (and not in the hot sun), so your experience would be different than ours.

After lunch at the resort, we headed back to the port: The ferry taking us back to Jizan was at 3 PM. It was all perfectly planned: we'd reach Jizan by 4-4:30 PM and then leave for Abha by 5:30 PM. Reach Abha at night and then catch the flight back to Jeddah on 4th morning.

Only, it didn’t work.

A long queue of cars greeted us when we reached the port. Thank God we didn’t get our car, we thought. Cars needed advance reservation to find a place on the ship. I went and spoke to the soldier at the gate of the port.

‘The ship may or may not go,’ the soldier told me. ‘If it does I’ll call you.’

What?!

We had a family and we wanted a place to sit. ‘Wait outside (in the hot sun) and I’ll call when it’s time,’ was the reply. We were at least 45 minutes early.

We spread towels in the shade of a truck and sat down. There was nowhere else you could go; no restaurant or hotel nearby.

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What we initially thought was a (bad) joke was actually true. The ship would not go because it was too windy that afternoon. Oh God! We started praying and praying. We enquired about private vessels. They too wouldn’t leave. We were told they might leave at night if the weather settled down.

After a tiring wait, it was confirmed that ships for that day were cancelled. Now we were stuck on the island for a night.

Our mobile phone batteries were dead. We had no clothes and we took up the first furnished apartment that we came across.

It was a dreadful experience. Allah was teaching us a lesson for sure. Despite the plans  man makes for his comfort, if Allah wants him to go through difficulty, He can and He will, and there’s nothing stopping Him.

To Who belongs the dominion of the heavens and earth? Who is the All-Powerful, the All-Mighty? In front of Who is every creation humbled into submission?

ALLAH.

We made lots and lots of du’a in humility for a safe return to our abodes. Who knew what the next day had in store, except Allah!

Day 6: Back to Jizan, Abha, and Jeddah

Jizan-Abha Highway

We left after Fajr. The weather was not windy Alhamdulillah. We waited outside and in no time the gates were open for us to go in. It was truly a blessing! Our prayers were answered.

I took my seat inside the ship with a faith stronger than before. I couldn’t stop saying La ilaha illAllah and thinking about how Great Allah was and how Merciful He was to His slaves. Things could have gone worse, but He made them better. Allahu Akbar!

We arrived in Jizan around 8 AM. We went straight to the hotel, freshened up and off we were on our way to Abha. My uncle made arrangements for traveling the same day and despite the holiday season, we managed to get tickets,Alhamdulillah.

We all had separate tickets, though. My aunt and uncle flew in the afternoon, mine was at 8 PM and my brother got a seat in the 10 PM flight.

We reached Abha at 12:30 PM and within an hour, my uncle and aunt were off to the airport. It is impossible to explain the relief we felt at reaching Abha. My uncle was full of unexplainable emotions as his adventure came to an end.

But all was not over for us.

On our way back, we remembered we hadn’t seen this place called Al-Habbalah – a village in between some mountains that was inhabited till the 1970s and was now reachable only by cable cars.

Though we sorely wanted to go back to the hotel and take some rest before leaving Abha, we made a split-second decision for a quick peek at what this spot might have. I hadn’t expected it to be any different than what we’d already seen in Rijaal Al-Ma’a. But boy, I was wrong!

The 40-minute drive, though long, was awesome. The landscape was B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. Yes, that beautiful. You can stop and camp anywhere on the way. It was picturesque and scenic, masha Allah. I didn’t take pictures as I was saving the battery for Al-Habbalah village.

We arrived at Al-Habbalah, took the cable car (this one’s way better than the one at Al-Soodah by the way), and explored the little village, which has now been turned into a tourist spot.

Al-Habbalah Village

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We didn’t spend much time there, as we had to return and make arrangements for our flights back to Jeddah. Yet, the little we saw in Abha gave us the impression that this tourist city has much more waiting to be explored and devoured.

The best part, we heard, is the road to Abha, which we unfortunately missed out on. Next time we hope we’ll make it by road and stop by the fifty gardens that fall on the way to the mountaintop, Insha Allah.

A Park for Asir

Written and photographed by Aileen Vincent-Barwood

About now, in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Agriculture and Water is opening the kingdom's first national park: a $14-million, 1,000-square-mile natural preserve sweeping down from 'Asir's 9,000-foot peaks and the cool green amphitheater of Abha to the sun-baked plains of the Red Sea littoral with its incomparable coral reefs (See page 6) and splendid sand beaches.

When finished, U.S. park people say, the 'Asir National Park may rival the great national parks of the world in size and beauty—as well as in ecological importance and archeological interest. The deserts of the Empty Quarter aside, it is one of the last unspoiled wilderness areas in the kingdom.

In the uplands, for example, after the winter and spring rains, you can see wild flowers carpeting the valley floor and apricot orchards filled with blossoms; higher still the park is a place where red foxes, hyraxes, wolves and baboons roam among the rocky hillsides — and where, it is thought, a few leopards still dwell It is a place of hawks and kestrels, crows and ravens; the abode of over 300 species of birds: the gray hornbill, the Abyssinian masked weaver, the pygmy sunbird, the bee-eater, and a variety of Arabian songbirds. It is also one of the last refuges of the endangered vulture called the lammergeier.

There are forests here too — juniper forests stretching across the black flanks of Jabal al-Sudah like a monarch's cloak, rippling and sighing in the perpetual wind that blows up here, their sharp aromatic smell scenting the air, their dark green foliage shading the sun-dazzled land.

Under these trees, some of them 120 years old, men once raised their tents, gathered firewood, grazed their animals and hunted game. But then, with the introduction of trucks and modern firearms and with overgrazing by ever-larger herds, this changed. In a few short years, they began, unwittingly, to destroy their awn environment. The wildlife declined, the trees were decimated, the grassy slopes were denuded and the soil eroded.

The park, fortunately, will reverse this trend. Though most of the park will remain a wilderness, park authorities have already created 225 family camping sites—withtablesand grills and piped water — parking and toilet facilities, nature trails and lookouts, concession stands and information booths, play areas and hiking paths. One example is al-Dalaghan, an oasis of green surrounded by rocky outcroppings. It has ponds and running water and though blacktop roads wind throughout they take maximum advantage of the terrain; rocks and trees, for example, provide natural privacy for overnight camp sites.

Indeed, all the campsites, buildings and trails make the most of natural features. Parking areas and buildings use existing slopes and grades, nature paths use old trails, trees are preserved, boulders left in place, and all signs and maps, while clearly visible, are unobtrusive. The administration and

visitors' center, for example, halfway between al-Qura'ah in the south and al-Sudah in the north, is perched like an eagle's eyrie on the edge of the escarpment. Part showcase and part museum, it has seven exhibit rooms which begin at the entrance lobby and ascend a ramp to the top level, unfolding enroute a $1.5-million visual presentation of the park's habitats, and climaxing in an outlook over a vast panorama of majestic peaks marching away in ranks to the Red Sea, 45 miles away, and Wadi Dila, some 3,000 feet below.

From this eyrie, visitors can see, snaking down the side of the escarpment in a series of hair-raising switchbacks, the new road to the coast and, on a clear day, the sparkling waters of the Red Sea, where two other centers will be built: one at al-Shuqayq on the beach nearfizan, the other amid the date palms, fields of corn and thatched huts of the Tihama.

The park, essentially, was the idea of King Khalid, who ordered close supervision of hunting and the preservation of flora and fauna throughout the kingdom. Assisting were Prince Sultan ibn Abd al-'Aziz, who set up a commission to carry out the plan, Prince Khalid ibn Faisal ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, Prince Faisal ibn Bandar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, the amir and deputy amir of Asir province, and 'Abd al-Karim al-Kuwaiti from the Ministry of Agriculture and Water.

The design of the park, part of a project set up by the U.S.—Saudi Arabian Joint Economic Commission, was provided by the Colorado-based firm of Wirth-Berger, whose on-site landscape architect Ken Magdziuk spent all of 1979 overseeing construction of facilities. The park is being managed, moreover, by eight U.S. National Park Service rangers and administrators, all dedicated to the motto of U. S. parks — "Take only pictures, leave only footprints"— and the park superintendent is Mohammad Khan, an amiable Pakistani-American and long-time National Park Service administrator. These men, having launched and guided the project, were still, on the eve of its completion, keeping a close eye on its progress. Prince Khalid, for example, who heads the only provincial government with its own development department, intends to see that wise planning directs all future development. To this end, he has backed a committee formed to draw up a national parks policy.

Such a policy will be vital, because tourism from within the kingdom is definitely coming to 'Asir Province. Even now Saudis and expatriates are flocking to the cool highlands to escape the city heat, and Saudia, the national airline, is running four flights a day from Riyadh to Abha, and four from Jiddah. Some Saudi Arabs are building homes on Abha Lake; Prince Khalid is planning a holiday village adjacent to the park site on Jabal al-Sudah with tennis courts, swimming pools, a golf course and villas for rent; and two more hotels are scheduled. Without protection, the beauty of Asir could easily be spoiled, particularly when the park is officially open and visitors begin to arrive in large numbers.

That's not far off. Visitors have already begun to come. One family, for example, recently drove seven hours from Najran to camp for three days in

the shade of some gnarled cedar trees, and another drove down from Abhajust to spend the day. A portent of the future, they spread their rugs in the shade and made tea as the children, wide-eyed, stared entranced at the scene around them: a sea of mountain pinnacles, valleys blue with distance, a hawk plummeting down in pursuit of a crow and, in the clear air, kestrels hovering in the wind...

Aileen Vincent-Barwood, who now lives in Saudi Arabia, is a former editor of the St. Lawrence Plaindealer, and a free-lance correspondent for the CBC. She has also contributed articles and fiction to U.S. magazines.

This article appeared on pages 22-23 of the September/October 1980 print edition of Saudi Aramco World.

Top Ten Things To Do In And Around AbhaMay 8, 2013 • admin • 6 Comments

My article on Destination Riyadh's May travel issue:

Top 10 Things To Do In Abha And Around

Abha region is a very popular holiday destination in thesummer due its beautiful scenery, the famous misty mountain tops and coolingbreezes.  Tourists from all over the GCCflock here to escape the sweltering summer heat. At an elevation of 2200m abovethe Red Sea, the area enjoys pleasant weather year round.  Asir region has plenty of activities to do andit might be a challenge to decide between all of the activities. Here are mytop ten to do list from Abha and around in no particular order:

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1.  Visit the New Abha resort and The Abha Lake Dam. Stroll around the lakeside in the 300,000sqm garden and dine at the luxurious Abha Palace Hotel with fantastic views of the lake andthe city. You can take a scenic cable car ride from the resort to the GreenMountain.

2. Take a thrilling cable car ride down to Habala, the Hanging Village. This ancient village was built halfway down a cliff face and it used to be only accessible by ropes. It’s believedthat the villagers fled the Ottomans here and lived in isolation completelyself-sufficiently until they were rediscovered by a Saudi army helicopter. Thesite is a unique piece of Saudi history but unfortunately it has become quitecommercialized in the last few years but it’s still worth the visit.

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3.. Drive up to the Green Mountain in the middle of Abha city. The “mountain” is actually a hill overlooking the city which is beautifully lit with green lights in the night. There’s arestaurant and café on the top with a nice outdoor terrace enjoying amazingviews of Abha. Try the mint tea and sheesha while enjoying the sunset and thecool breezes on the terrace. On the way up be sure to stop at the excellentsouvenir shop. There’s also a small restaurant decorated like a traditionalAsiri mud house in the basement of the shop.

4. Take a bird watching or tour with the Asir Tourism Board to the various parks inside Asir National Park such as Al Qara'a, Al Souda, Al Wardeh, Dalafan, Al Jarrah, and Al Hassab. Wander around the juniper forests and spot some of the 170 bird species thatmake this region their home.

×  5. Take in the jaw dropping scenery in Soudah and marvel at the highest mountains in Saudi Arabia including the tallest peak, Jebel Soudah rising to 2910m. The mountains are famous for

themist covering the mountain tops which makes the atmosphere almost mystical. It’s always cool and serene up here.  Enjoy a picnic in full privacy with only the wildlife to interrupt the silence.

6. Take the Al Soudah cable car ride down to Rijal Al Ma’a mud brick village. Visit the museum and library and the traditional food restaurant or just take a stroll in the beautiful valley.

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 7. Try some extreme sports in an extremely beautiful environment. Paraglide or mountain bike down the Soudah mountains. A French group organizes these in the summer months in addition torock climbing near Habala.

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   8.  Discover Asir regions traditional architecture by visiting the Shada Palace, Al Milfa Palace and the old mud houses dotted around Abha. Visit the Al Miftaha village turned museumto see how people lived back in the day.

9.  Meet the famous Arabian Baboons that can be spotted beside most of the mountain roads. There’s a population of them near the Soudah cable car ride scavenging food from tourists. Be mindful of children with food in their hands, the baboons might attempt to grab it!

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  10.  Explore the legendary Asiri souqs that have been named after the days they've been held on for centuries; Abha’s Tuesday market (Souq Al Thulatha) and its sister city Khamis Mushayt’s thursday Market ( Souq al Khamis). The Tuesday market has a separate women’s souq run by all female vendors and the Thursday Market boasts some of the best gold and silver Bedouin jewelry in the region. Other finds are white or gold honey, colorful straw baskets and hats, traditional embroidered women’s dresses, Jambiyah (daggers), frankincense and ‘shab’ a white powder used by locals as a natural deodorant and antiseptic.