I’m no expert photographer. I only take snaps using my phone. But what am I going to do with all the content I’ve taken so far? Post them here!

Recently, I had an opportunity to visit Jeddah for work. The trip was smacked right in the middle of a working week. Hence, I had no time to go around during the weekend. Don’t get me wrong. I am still grateful for having the privilege of traveling. So I cannot and I will not complain.

But I realised that while I enjoying traveling alone for pleasure, traveling with friends for work, I am not looking forward to traveling alone for work again, especially when there is little chance for exploration and leisure.

Back to the city in focus – Jeddah is the second largest city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. If my geography and listening skills aren’t failing me, it’s also conveniently located between Mecca and Medina, the two most holy cities for the Islamic religion. And the city is located on the coast of the Red Sea. So just for how central and strategic its position is on the map, Jeddah has a lot going for it.

There is an old town and the Jeddah Wall which are apparently must-visits for tourists. But I will not post that here as I’ve not been to these places.

Here are five pictures I took while visiting Jeddah:

My colleague who drove me back to my hotel informed me that the Red Sea is right beside my hotel. Not only was my mind blown that I took such an opportunity for granted. But that turned my mood around and made all the exhaustion from work pay off.

As with an iPhone, they never do justice to a sunset. The sun looked much bigger in real life!

The first time I had dates, the fruit, was in 2022. And for me, that is the kind of fruit that gets better the more I get accustomed with it. The same goes for Arabic coffee. The display is elaborate and the experience is just as exquisite as the decoration.

Back when I was in university, I hated Middle Eastern food. And now, I cannot have enough of it. The red tawook is one of the thousand kebabs I had during my month long stay in the Gulf. This wasn’t the best. But I gobbled a lot of them without taking photos. So this will have to do.

Cats are everywhere in Jeddah. But I felt bad for this one as he/she seemed malnourished. Despite the abundance of food that’ll get it fed on the streets, at least based on what I saw on that day, this one isn’t getting his/her fair share of nutrition. I don’t know if I should have done anything differently.

I love taking pictures of flags. And the Saudi Arabian one has a different character from others where there are simply random stripes of colours. But given how busy my days turned out, the only opportunity I had to take a snap of one was in the passenger seat on an underpass we were quickly passing through.

All photos were taken on January 2023.