I love this shop window featuring traditional dress for little boys. My favorites are the mustache on the mannequin and the khanjar (curved dagger) in front of the mustachioed figure.
A colorful two tone variety of the traditional men's leather sandals called Madas fills this shoe shop's windows. Their design covers more of the feet than most sandals, providing protection the wearer from the elements. To learn more about Madas, CLICK HERE.
And lastly are more stylish thobes for little boys.
"Round" - To me, this photo reminds me of a spacecraft. Actually there used to be a big fountain in this space at the Mall of Arabia. A few years ago all the fountains were removed.
"R-Rated" - You won't find R Rated movies at the theaters here in Jeddah. Mulan is showing at this state of the art movie theater in the mall. I love going to the movies, one of my favorite things to do.
"Red" - Virgin Records has several locations around Jeddah.
Just a random collection of signs and graphics from a visit to a mall here in Jeddah. Most signs are written in both Arabic and English here.
Mask up!
No Photography!
Escalator warning.
Graphic Tees.
LINKING TO - SIGNS
Products promoting Saudi pride are readily available for purchase in many shops here now. It didn't used to be so easy to find products like these, but with tourism opening up here in Saudi Arabia, souvenirs like these have really taken off.
Graphics of the smiling king, maps of the country and the Saudi flag, the familiar symbolic crossed swords and the palm tree, and the emerald green and white themed colors - all of these can be found on clothing pieces, scarves, coffee mugs, and trinkets.
What a huge change from when I first moved here in 2007 and it was practically impossible to find any kinds of souvenirs in this country. Progress!
Here are some more examples of giant incense burners in a mall here in Jeddah. As you can imagine, the malls smell really good here!
Saudi men have the option of wearing the traditional dress in public or they can choose to wear Western style clothing like jeans and t-shirts. The traditional crisp long white tunic is called a Thobe. It's pretty much like a businessman's white dress shirt, except it goes all the way down to the ankles and it usually has a standup collar. Most often it is made of cotton, but other fabrics are also used.
On their heads, most Saudi men typically wear a plain white scarf called Ghotra or the traditional red and white checkered scarf called Shemagh. Both are a large square of fabric usually with a border around the edges. The large square is folded in half into a triangle shape. The black loop that anchors the Shemagh in place is called Egal.
Sometimes a cloak is worn over the Thobe, often during colder weather or for more formal occasions like weddings. The cloak is called a Bisht and it can be in almost any color and comes in different weights of fabric. Quite often the Bisht has a wide decorative trim in gold or silver along the front opening.
Many menswear shops sell gift boxes of Bisht kits that can also include things like the sword, Oud perfume, prayer beads, or the curved dagger called Khanjar with a belt and holster.
This post offers more pics of Saudi's incense culture. Above is a large sculpture of an incense burner in my city of Jeddah. Jeddah is home to many sculptures of ordinary objects that are turned into gigantic sized works of art. By the way, incense burners here are called Mabkhara, which is what I'm guessing this sculpture is known as.
These shiny green and gold banners were up for the recent Saudi National Day. They caught the sunlight and flashed like crazy in the breeze.
I love the dome and minaret of the mosque below, but unfortunately the empty lot next door is littered with trash - a common thing here in Saudi. Sometimes it feels like the problem is getting better but there are still many pockets around the city of piles of rubble and unsightly garbage like this.
This kid's entertainment area in a mall in Jeddah called Kidzania has a Winter Games theme going on now.
LINKING TO : OUR WORLD TUESDAY
LINKING TO: THROUGH MY LENS
Larger than life doughnuts and lollipops make for adorable window dressing to feature kiddie's clothing at this mall shop in Jeddah.
Walking around the beautiful malls in Saudi Arabia can be very pleasing to the senses, as it is very common practice for businesses to burn incense to attract customers. Incense is a big part of Arab culture. There are many shops that sell "oud," a very well known type of scented wood for burning. Small elaborate burners are found in many shops, and there are even electric burners available too.
Patterns
Ancient Pictograph
Special thanks to Khaled Al-Sheraihi for allowing me to post today's lovely variety of photos from Saudi Arabia. You can follow him on Instagram.
In the area where I live in Jeddah, many days the skies are not very pretty, or even blue. There is so much dust in the air all the time that it often appears beige. In other less populated areas, pretty skies can be seen. Special thanks to Khaled Al-Sheraihi for allowing me to post today's photos from Saudi Arabia. You can follow him on Instagram.
Outside a local mosque in a busy area of town, I noticed this sign telling congregants to leave their shoes outside the mosque before entering for prayers. The cubby holes are for shoes, however during prayer times I have seen the cubby holes empty and the floor below strewn with shoes everywhere. Personally I'd rather place mine in a cubby hole, but that's just me.
The second photo shows a big graphic sign that was up during the Saudi National Day celebrations recently, with images of three generations of Saudi royalty - the first ruler of the country, ibn Saud; ibn Saud's son and the current king, King Salman; and ibn Saud's grandson who is King Salman's son, Mohammed bin Salman, the current Crown Prince and heir apparent.
