Saudi Arabia, officially known as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is located on the western part of Asia. It is the 5th largest country in Asia and is 2nd largest Arabian country. Capital: Riyadh Currency: Saudi Riyal Language spoken: Arabic, EnglishCities covered: Al-Qunfudhah, Jeddah, Yanbu, Al-Umluj, Tabuk, Al-Ula This road trip was from the south to north of Saudi Arabia. My family and I started on our longest road trip in Saudi Arabia to date on the first of January, 2021 at around 5am. We traveled from Jizan to Tabuk (1,678 km). We stopped at various different destinations. First, we went from Jizan to Jeddah, which is approximately 713 km. In between, we took short break at Al-Qunfudhah. When we reached Al-Qunfudhah, it was clear my sister and I had been sleeping the whole while. Yup, the whole while. Although Al-Qunfudhah is a big city, we went to a small beach and park. After eating lunch, we played for what seemed like an hour in the playground. Oh, no, not 3 and a half hours more! We left Al-Qunfudhah around 1.00 pm and reached Jeddah late in the evening and I slept like a log. We stayed at Platinum Suites, a 3-star hotel. It has 10 floors and one room costs SR.350, which comes with a breakfast buffet. We ate our dinner at “The Village,” an Indian restaurant which serves mouthwatering traditional Indian cuisine. After our meal, we went back to our hotel and watched the movie Avengers: Infinity War. The next morning, we got up early, went for brunch at “Chennai Darbar,” a south Indian restaurant, and started for Yanbu. Yanbu, here I come! While traveling to Yanbu we saw some mesmerizing views. After a 3-hour ride, we reached our hotel in Yanbu, “IBIS.” Ibis is a 3-star hotel and has small rooms that are well maintained as well as hygienic. One room at “IBIS” costs around SR. 355. This price is without breakfast buffet, if one needs breakfast then they need to pay extra. This hotel is fun for children, with a swimming pool and a Cafeteria where you can eat muffins, ice-cream, cakes and more! After resting an hour, we went to Yanbu lake park. This park is full of man-made lakes with lots of fishes, and if you’re lucky you’ll see some birds in the park too! It was so picturesque! Next, we went to young China beach. And don’t ask me why it’s called that! I have no idea why they named it that. We played at the beach till our hearts were contented and finally went to have dinner at “Aryaas,” a south Indian restaurant full of delicacies from all over India. Mmmmmm… The following morning, our next destination was Al-Umluj, also known as “Maldives of Saudi Arabia”. It is indeed a hidden paradise. It was a 2-hour ride from Yanbu, and when we reached it all paid off. Al-Umluj’s coast was surrounded by boats and if you buy a ticket they take you for a boat ride. We appreciated every site of this place, as it was a well maintained picturesque beach. Our boat driver was polite, friendly, and on top of that, he could speak English. He even allowed me to drive the boat for awhile–it was remarkable! In the middle of the sea, there is a small island full of birds. Our group stayed here for half an hour. The water here was crystal clear, with white sand at the bottom. Our boat left this island and our driver took us to the most remarkable place, where we saw dolphins playing in water. Oh, what a sight!!! The sea is all different colours–it depends on the depth of the water. Another amazing part of this ride was taking a dive in the middle of the Red Sea, where the water was shallow. Also, there were corals of all different hues and islands full of greenery. Every spot in this place is magnificent! After such an amazing experience, we came back to Yanbu and had an amazing pizza party! The pizza tasted scrumptious!! The next day we headed to Tabuk, the north-western province of Saudi Arabia. My ears got blocked on the way there, so remember to chew gum while traveling! It took us almost 7 hours (644km) to reach Tabuk. Let me advise you here to have a heavy breakfast in the early morning (6am); and to buy packed food items from the closest grocery store (we had breakfast at Aryaas). We searched a few hours for a hotel and finally settled in “Grand Millennium,” a 5-star hotel. Although it was expensive, the rooms were as big as an apartment. And guess what? The spa was for free! (only if you stay in a room) The package was awesome!! The following morning, we went to Astra Farms. This farm grows various types of plants and shows that plants (flower and fruits) can grow anywhere, even in deserts. Since its establishment in 1979, Astra Farms has been the Kingdom’s leader in the production of fruits and flowers. Their way to grow plants is unique, easy and environmentally friendly. A must visit spot for plant lovers, but be sure to book it beforehand!! Finally, our last stop of the day was Tabuk castle… One of the historic site and is famous for stories of wanderers traveling to Mecca from different parts of the Gulf nation. This Castle also beautifully preserves the utensils and essentials of the ancient travelers. We had our lunch at “Curry Palace” (a great place for Indian food) and left for our hotel. After resting, my sister and I got a tour of the hotel’s architectural significance. The sofas in the hotel all have different prints. This is because the theme of the hotel is a railway station, and the prints represent different cultures. For example, the leopard print represents Africa. And the rings in the between the sofas are made by the metal parts of the train. Here
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Weekly Creativity #149: Draw Your Dream Home
Draw your dream home! Thanks to Stone Soup ’20—21 Intern Emily Fleck for this week’s prompt!
My School, a short story by Feifei Wan, 9
Feifei Wan, 9, Portland, OR My School Feifei Wan, 9 Even though the pandemic is still here, it doesn’t stop me from going to my school every day. This Sunday, just like any other day, my mom and I decided to ride our bikes. While we were passing by a small pond near the school driveway, we saw a toad! The trick to spot a toad is to make sure the sun is out. It was a warm and sunny day. The toad whom I call Mr. Grogg was just like an old friend waiting for us to visit on the bank. Not far away from the pond, surprisingly, the cherry blossoms had bloomed a lot over the past week. Because the flowers were too beautiful to ignore, we took a lot of pictures. My favorite picture was the one where my mom and I did the photobomb. Even though my mom was in the background, I could still see her big smile. Our next stop was the grass field. There were a bunch of little daisies sparkling in the sun. I wish we could have taken more photos with the beautiful flowers, but I didn’t forget that our original plan was to get some exercise and enjoy the sun. So here we go! Our bike rides, one lap, two laps, three laps…… I felt so happy that spring was here! It was Monday, but not a normal Monday. My school was open for K-2 for the first day of hybrid learning! It was so exciting since we have been studying on a computer for a whole year. Even though I am a 3rd grader, I was so happy for the lower grades that I decided to walk to school during my lunch break. Guess what I saw? A busy school with parents picking up their kids. Teachers were giving directions to the kids to find their parents. Kids were running up to the parents and kept talking. Some people were taking pictures of their kids in front of the entrance to memorize this special day. And there was the bright yellow school bus picking up kids to go home. I felt happy and sad at the same time. I was happy because, finally, the kids were going back to their classrooms to meet friends and teachers. I was sad because I also wanted to be there in a BIG classroom with my backpack on my back. Tuesday was different. We didn’t even go to school because I went to my friend’s backyard to play in a bouncing house. But don’t worry, we caught up on Wednesday. There was no school so we got a good chance to take a window visit. It is so cool that each class has its own entrance. Teachers used chalk art and made cute arrows to guide students to keep their distance while entering the classroom. It was so kind and warm. What impressed me the most was in each classroom there were more desks and chairs than I expected. I thought it might only be a few sets since a lot of kids are still learning online like me, but surprisingly there were more than 10 almost in all the rooms we could see. It looked cool and full of hope. I could imagine myself sitting in the class and doing my math worksheet in the Fall. When we were walking back home, there were just so many plans for school days in my mind, and I wanted to say “Wait for me, my dear school!” Thursday my mom and I didn’t go to school either. We just walked around the neighborhood. It’s like all the even numbered days we don’t walk to school. Tuesday stands for 2 and Thursday stands for 4! So we had to take the school walk no matter what on Friday. It was a beautiful day outside with a few clouds, but mostly a light blue sky. On the sidewalk, I found so many dandelions! My mom told me a saying that if you make a wish and blow your dandelions in one whip, your wish will come true. So I tried my best…whoooooooooosh…all the little feathers flew into the air like little ballerinas dancing in the sky. This was not the only excitement; we met Mr. Grogg and his son in the pond! They were sitting together in the shining bright sun. Wait, was that snow falling? Oh, NO! That was just flower petals blown from cherry blossom trees. Everything is growing in spring. Kids started to come out to play in the school playground. I saw them playing on the basketball court, sliding down from the slides and swinging in the high swings. What a perfect Friday, not to mention my favorite show would be on at night. Yay! Saturday was another perfect day to go on a bike ride. Different from the weekdays, I got to go bike riding with my friends! We first started the ride around the front parking lot of our school. “Click, Click, Clack, Click, Click, Clack…” I could hear my bike chain making sounds while I was pedaling hard. The boys pretended this was a race. They went at a turbo speed to beat us, the girls. But it seemed like we didn’t care at all. While we enjoyed talking about random stuff, we finally crossed the finish line even though it wasn’t a race :). The boys decided to run a few more laps while my friend and I found something more interesting. We went onto the green grass and I watched my friend do a bunch of super gymnastics moves. We even created a cool handstand giggly wiggly dance. Everyone laughed so hard that, basically, all the kids came to join the game. This was the BEST afternoon of all time. Even though it might be a difficult time in the pandemic, if we wear a mask, and keep our distance, it will still feel like how
