Day 273: Ta’if

Jan 1 - Was about a half hour south to the ‘old town’ part of Ta’if. Admittedly I had in my mind something more interesting, but they have done a lot of ‘renovation’ here that just makes it look a bit sterile. Many of the merchants here, was with Jeddah, appear to be South Asian. I see a few people wearing clothing traditional to Pakistan.

Ta’if is known as the ‘summer capital’ of KSA, due to its cooler climate even in the summer. There are mountain resorts in the places we passed by both yesterday and the day prior when we drove up from Jeddah.

Well, they had the letters, so of course we had to do the photo.

The promenade along King Faisal Road, just north of the historical district.

Bab Alrea (the old entrance gate from the west), obviously recently renovated.

The old market district is almost empty today, apparently people have taken off January 1. However, it is not an official holiday in KSA.

My find of the day was this ‘FOUL SEWER’. It has the required city name at the top to fit the ‘manhole cover’ series for the trip.

Not much else to do in the historical district, so get some pharmacy and grocery store shopping done. Its nice to have a car we can just dump stuff in, and not worry so much about space for a few weeks.

Odette was so excited that the mall next door to our hotel has a skating rink. We went there two nights in a row, and she improved a great deal in that short time.

Saudi Arabia