Wonders of the unexpected: Pleasant surprises in Azerbaijan & Saudi Arabia

I star­ted trav­el­ling at an early age. 

When I was barely three years old my par­ents took me on my very first trip to the US, Mex­ico, and the Caribbean. 

I have nev­er really stopped trav­el­ling since. 

Dec­ades later I made a pact with a friend to travel to 100 coun­tries; some­thing I was meant to achieve by 2019. 

When COVID happened and travel ground to a halt in March 2020 — only a few months after my dead­line  — I was stuck at 99! 

The inside track

Dr Mario Hardy is the MD of MAP2VENTURES, Gibral­tar, a private fund focused on “impact invest­ment”; and an envoy to the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Glob­al Cen­ter, Saudi Ara­bia. He was formerly CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Asso­ci­ation (PATA).

In March 2022, out of the blue, I was invited to Saudi Ara­bia, a coun­try I had yet to vis­it. And “Boom!” … I had achieved my goal of 100 nations visited. 

In all my travels, the two coun­tries that took me most by sur­prise (in a pos­it­ive way) were Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia. 

They wer­en’t what I was expect­ing at all, and I would go back to both in a heartbeat. 

I hon­estly had no idea what to expect when I trav­elled to Azerbaijan in March 2016, but for some reas­on I did­n’t expect to be wowed. 

But wow! What I found was a remark­ably well-pre­served old town in the cap­it­al Baku, sur­roun­ded by a mix of mod­ern and his­tor­ic­al architecture. 

If ever you go, I would encour­age you to take a walk around the old walled city. 

A good loc­al guide will be able to share with you the his­tory of the city, but also amaz­ing stor­ies about each house. 

Stop and taste some of the fresh bread from street­side baker­ies, take some tea or cof­fee with the loc­als, and hear their life stories. 

The food in Baku is amaz­ing, the people are so wel­com­ing, and there is such a diverse cul­tur­al scene to be enjoyed. 

I did­n’t ven­ture bey­ond the cap­it­al on that trip to Azerbaijan, but I would love to return to explore the rest of the country. 

Saudi Ara­bia was anoth­er fab­ulous sur­prise for me. I vis­ited Riy­adh and Jed­dah, both inter­est­ing cit­ies (although Jed­dah was my favourite). 

In Riy­adh, I vis­ited the UNESCO World Her­it­age site of Dir­iyah Gate, a tra­di­tion­al urb­an com­munity which is being redeveloped using the same mater­i­al as when it was first built cen­tur­ies ago: mud bricks. 

I also vis­ited Boulevard City, a cul­tur­al and enter­tain­ment zone with res­taur­ants, cafes, music con­certs, and cul­tur­al performances. 

I saw young Saudi men and women cos­play­ing; dis­guised as super­her­oes and manga char­ac­ters and all hav­ing great fun. 

Next was the coastal city of Jed­dah with its his­tor­ic houses, and a kilo­metres-long prom­en­ade along the coast where Saudi fam­il­ies enjoy picnicking. 

In both cit­ies, I saw women going about their lives with a level of free­dom I did­n’t expect; a great sense of fash­ion and col­our in the way they dressed, for example. 

I sensed that people gen­er­ally enjoy a good life in Saudi Ara­bia. Eat­ing out with friends and fam­ily is a favour­ite pas­time. There’s a sense of community.

I had open dis­cus­sions with young Saudis about reli­gion, cul­ture, and daily life. It was enrich­ing to learn how much life has changed in the last few years and how fast it con­tin­ues to change … for the better. 

I already have my next trip to Saudi Ara­bia planned for December. 

I can­’t wait to explore oth­er parts of the King­dom, from the ancient to the futur­ist­ic: Al Ula, the city built by the Nabatae­ans more than 2,000 years ago; and the sites of the Neom pro­ject, where a new 170-kilo­metre-long “Line” city is being built in the desert. 

If you have nev­er vis­ited Saudi Ara­bia, or it has been a while since you have, now is a good time to exper­i­ence its transformation. 

While you are in the King­dom be sure to spend time with the loc­als; learn about the Arab­ic cul­ture and life­style over cof­fee and dates. 

Azerbaijan and Saudi Ara­bia were pleas­ant sur­prises for me. I have no doubt that they could be for you too. 

I depar­ted both places with not only the memor­ies of great exper­i­ences but also com­pletely dif­fer­ent opinions. 

That’s why I have always loved travel.

Where is this?

This “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence is rep­res­en­ted by two pins on the “GT” Travel Map. 

For the coordin­ates of the Azerbaijan pin, Dr Hardy nom­in­ated Icher­isheher, the centre of Bak­u’s old city. It’s “the his­tor­ic­al and archi­tec­tur­al pearl of ancient Baku”, accord­ing to this Google web page.

As described in his post, Mario sug­gests walk­ing the old town with a good guide and plenty of breaks to try the loc­al food. 

The map pin for Saudi Ara­bia points to (the King Abdul Aziz Road branch of) Najd Vil­lage Res­taur­ant in Riy­adh. Mario highly recom­mends book­ing din­ner at Najd Vil­lage “for a truly authen­t­ic Saudi cul­tur­al experience”.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Flags by Kauf­dex (CC0) via Pixabay.

Where next?