Young Saudis are having fun. Now they want tourists to join them

(CNN) – I have been visiting Saudi Arabia for almost two decades and during that time I have experienced some incredible things.

I have climbed the Scarlet Ste Bho and the amazingly beautiful mountains of the South. I scuba dived into the Red Sea coral reefs off the west coast of Saudi Arabia. I have driven a rally car over the northern hills. I have visited the ancient wells. Spend a cold winter night in the desert with red hot fire extinguishers buried in the sand. And I walked barefoot on a summer evening love affair on the east coast of the state.

I have flown flimsy microlights, soaring high on rich farmland. I’ve ridden on strategic combat helicopter missions, skimmed the desert floor and done hard banking around the sand dunes.

Yet none of this has affected me as much as the moment I felt the Saudi transformation.

It is no exaggeration to say that the recent social upheaval in the country has been profound and rapid.

In 2018, I was in downtown Riyadh, chatting to people at an empty outdoor cafe nearby in the early evening.

Religious police, at one point with widespread fear and reverence, came by car, stopped by the side of the road and began telling people to go to prayer.

First, this will allow people to obey their orders and respond immediately.

At this point, no one moved.

At the same moment I was connected to the months I was experiencing with the Saudis when the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, stripped the guardians of this morality of their power.

It was a sense of lightness, freedom of choice.

‘More fun’

That was two years ago. These days religious police are mostly assigned to desk duties. Decades of oppressive mental pressure to follow the strictest measures of Islam have been removed.

And today, independence is flourishing, though, controlled by the invisible lines of most Gulf states: rejoice, rejoice but do not go beyond leadership.

The outdoor caf સાથે with new festive-looking pavements is obscure with men and women for entertainment, to meet, to shop, to chat, to relax.

Maunira al-Kuwait, a 20-year-old fashion designer wearing a traditional black abaya, used to tell me what this meant for her.

She says, “We have more fun now. Going out for movies, going out for restaurant rentals and meeting friends,” she says, her eyes shining on the veiled veil covering her face.

Nearby, dressed without a fashionable headscarf (neglected enough to pull it off the street a few years ago), is Tutu, a kindergarten teacher of the year. She told me she loved the spirit of “freedom” and “more power”.

“Like our lives now, the Saudis have completely changed,” he says. “Indeed, all the decisions taken by Mohammed bin Salman. Now all the Saudis are happy with all these changes.”

I was covering the G-20 Summit of Global Economic Powers at this time. The hosts of the November 21-22 meeting were the hosts – a huge responsibility and challenge.

After he wrapped up, I saw Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jada praising his youth team. “The wealth of the nation,” he later concluded.

Its office fees in Riyadh’s new Digital City District – a futuristic complex of buildings lined with cascading water fountains and open, airy pedestrian spaces – look more like Dubai, more than Russia’s dusty Riyadh.

Don’t turn back

The change here is abundant. Women work with men in office fees, which was illegal some years ago.

Talia, 27, is one of them.

Raised in Riyadh by his single mom, he graduated from both London and Beirut universities before reforming before returning in 2017. “It was like weekly, almost daily, with new announcements coming in the news and it was very exciting,” he told me.

Since then she has worked with women CEOs and sees no limits to what women can achieve.

“We have a young Crown Prince and the country is young – like 70% of the population is under the age of 30 – so I felt we were being reformed by us, so we had no way to get there. Back.”

One of the main reasons for the social upheaval in Saudi Arabia is the decision of the MBS to challenge the clerics who gave birth to Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and the orthodox P.O.

The father of MBS, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud is a new way of long and vague leadership reaching out to his growing older sons from the country’s founder, King Abdulaziz bin Abdulhaman Al Saud.

It took Abdulaziz 30 years to conquer four geographical regions of the country to establish the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on September 23 – Asir in the south, Al-Ahsa in the east, Hijaz in the west, and Najd in the center. 1932.

He has taken MBS for less than five years to shake up the state in a way that his predecessors did not dare, with arresting and detaining more than 200 princes and businessmen accused of corruption.

His vision of transformation in Saudi Arabia by 2030 calls for the economy and empowerment of a diverse youth class.

Tough taskmaster

Ministers have described him as a tough taskmaster who will listen to the decision, but will not tolerate disagreement, or fail to make a decision.

Masmak Castle in the old quarter of Riyadh, where Abdulaziz launched a campaign to establish a state under his control in 1902, is supported by metal spears through ancient wooden gates, a testament to his historic achievements.

The vision of MBS is no less strong. Human rights activists have been jailed, brutally murdered by dissidents including journalist Jamal Khashoghi, yet MBS has such support for the work he has done that the youth is still fine with it.

But al-Ajwi adds: “The government has already told them what it has to say and that was a clear answer for us from the people of Saudi Arabia. So it was the fault of a few people. It is for us.”

From Masmak Fort, the busy six-lane highway now runs to the Digital City and a financial district where new eye-catching buildings appear all the time. When I first arrived in the state in 2003, Riyadh had only two towers. Now there are dozens.

Still, leave the city and, in the rugged desert of the surrounding Nejad region, you can still find the Saudi Arabia of the past.

The white royal camets are nestled on old farms. Intense amounts of color are added to the beautiful juicy meadows. On rocky outcrops, the ancient natural water tank required for pastoral generations is still in use.

I am lucky to see all this thanks for all my job, but it will be easy for everyone.

Last year, as part of his vision to diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-based economy by 2030, MBSA announced the opening of the state’s doors to tourism.

Unexpectedly, this year saw a significant boom.

When the state closed its borders due to the Kovid-19 epidemic, the Saudis went on vacation in their backyards. The regions of the country are so diverse and the country is so large that the locals feel that they are a long way from home.

Ancient Wonder

Away from Nejd, along the coast is the Hijaz, home to the holy sites of Islam in Mecca and Madinah, which were already ubiquitous and lighter due to the influx of pilgrims over the centuries.

Here, the windows of the upper floors of the old houses enter the street, which let the cooling sea wind from the rooms and inner courtyards into the ship, refreshing and cooling.

Sitting inside one of these humble buildings is a treat I will never forget, an opportunity to take care of the outside and relax from troubles.

To the south, the peaks of Mount Asir receive snow in winter, giving them an alpine feel. In the summer they still offer some relief from the scorching desert.

In the east where the pan-flat desert meets the Persian Gulf, the date gardens stretch above the more valuable items, the oil of the state.

But the best treatment to attract tourists is the one I have yet to see – Hegra.

The site, sometimes called Mada’in Salih or Al-Ijar in the western Hijaz region, was settled in the first century CE by the Nabataeans, who carved great buildings in the rocks and text on the left. It is a place to meet Petra in neighboring Jordan, which was also built by the Nabataeans.

While Petra draws thousands upon thousands of tourists a year, Hegra is still not full.

That could all change soon.

And if the promises of the MBS last longer than the mirage of the shining desert, as the young people of the state eagerly believe, the world is worth exploring.