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The story begins in the middle of a desert....
The plane touched down in Jeddah, a city on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, an expansive city on the Red Sea. Me and the other female recruiters in our tour group had just had a frenzy of quickly dressing in our abayas before the plane taxied to the gate and wrapping our head scarfs around our shoulders, ready to pull it over our heads at a moment's notice. In Saudi Arabia, women must wear the abaya, which is a long black robe with long sleeves. Some are like a cloak, which you can just fasten over your clothes, others (like mine) are a full-cover abaya, which you pull over your head like a dress. It is also required for females to cover their heads with a scarf. Basically, this means being covered from head to toe in black cloth -- in 102 degree heat. We didn't fully embrace the reality of that until later that evening.
The word "expansive" was the first thing that came to mind when we drove from the airport to our hotel in Jeddah. It reminded me a lot of Dallas, Texas. "Everything's bigger in Texas....and Jeddah." Every car dealership and lighting store between the airport and the hotel was the size of a triple-story Costco.
We arrived at the hotel somewhat late and decided to meet around 10:45 PM to find something to eat. All I knew was that someone said something about "really good chicken." So, the adventure begins. Me and two other females from our tour group had
to be in full garb, since we were venturing out onto the street (see photo). We thought being fully covered would divert some of the stares we get as foreigners; however, it didn't really seem to work that well on this evening. The 3 of us women, along with 3 other males, decided we'd like to find a place that supposedly serves incredible chicken. Apparently, this chicken has been eaten by the likes of a Mr. Anthony Bourdain. I found out about 30 minutes into our walk along a very busy street, that this elusive chicken place is called Al Baik. We also found out, about the same time, that this particular Al Baik was virtually impossible to get to. Although we could see the restaurant on the other side of the street, the road leading to it was diverted about a mile out of the way. Our adventure was quickly taking a turn for the worst.After some quick thinking, one of the males decided to hail some cabs. We jumped in and drove the 2 miles down and back in order to get to the Al Baik which was right across the street. After pulling up to the restaurant, our stomachs growling and mouths salivating with the thought of spice-injected deep fried chicken, we stopped just short of the front door. One of our male friends broke the bad news to us that the restaurant, unfortunately, did not have a family section. This meant that basically the restaurant was for males only. Although we technically could have eaten in the restaurant, the stares would have probably bored holes in our heads. And we already felt them, simply by standing outside of the restaurant trying to figure out what to do next.
So, we came up with a plan that the women, escorted by a male, would head back to the hotel, while the other males would get the chicken to go. We would meet back at the hotel and enjoy this infamous chicken together.
I must admit that the story ended well. My evening ended after being fully satisfied by a couple of incredible pieces of spicy Al Baik chicken, french fries and garlic dipping sauce....all from the comfort of my spacious hotel suite (I had been upgraded to a suite, since they were out of non-smoking rooms), which I graciously shared with my colleagues. We feasted on our chicken together in the hotel room, enjoying every last morsel.
And this was just my first evening in Saudi Arabia.....
