Trip to Taif

Today we had breakfast from McDonalds and ate it in the car on the way to Taif, a town north and east of Jeddah.  Moe's grandfather and his partner own a hotel in Taif where we are staying the night.  Taif is up in the mountains.  We left Jeddah at 104 degrees and when we got to Taif it was 85 degrees.  The drive was really pretty with rocky desert mountains.  And some clouds!  Yesterday it rained in Taif.  The moisture from the Red Sea rises and moves east until it hits the mountains around Taif, and then it rains.  All of the scenery today really reminded us of Phoenix.






We saw our first camels on the way here.  Moe was kind enough to turn the car around and go back on another road to get closer to the camels so that we could get some pictures.  There were probably 12 of them and also a baby which was lying under a tree.  I asked Moe if they have one hump and two hump camels.  They only have one hump camels.  I asked "Why not two hump camels?"  He said, "because 2 hump camels are not indigenous to the Saudi Arabian peninsula."

 

 

Yesterday, Moe had told us that there are also wild monkeys in Taif.  Soon after we saw the camels, Mark saw monkeys.  There was a semi parked at the side of the road.  The monkeys were trying to climb up on the other side of the semi.  I don't know what they were after or if someone was feeding them.    

 

 

 

 

This is King Abdullah.  We see his picture all of the time--in windows, on billboards, on buildings.  You don't go for very long without seeing King Abdullah.  He is in his 90's.

This is Moe's grandfather's hotel.  It is the tallest building in Taif.  The blue circle at the top is a rotating restaurant.  We had lunch there (at 3:30) and the view is gorgeous and always changing. Taif is surrounded by the mountains on all sides, like it is sitting in the bottom of a bowl.  The population is about 500,000 which makes it a little smaller than Louisville, Kentucky.