These were the people who greeted us upon our arrival at a museum in Al-Namas. The men did a dance and then – much to everybody’s surprise – fired off their rifles, with blanks, of course, but wow, was that loud in close quarters!

The museum was quite interesting, and after the meal they had brought in for us we were treated to a performance, and then amazingly enough, became part of the performance ourselves. It was truly a marvelous evening – the best I’ve spent in this country -- and one I’ll never forget.

We also were reported on in the local and national news! This is the second time a tour I’ve been on has made to the paper – I guess since foreign tourism is nonexistent here (except for religious tourism), foreigners coming to visit are something to report on. I’ll post a scan of the article later but for now here it is online (minus a picture of Tim that appeared in the print version):

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20140601207010 -- I should point out since I've gotten several comments on it: The article says the area had "100 foreign tourists," not 100 tourists (it's a huge draw for Saudi and Gulf visitors). We must have been 20 percent of that number for the year!