Please forgive me for such a long hiatus in posting on this blog. I was posting daily on my main blog during Ramadhaan and my father was here visiting for a couple of months. These are just a few photos of Yanbu, the beach with consistently breezy weather and beautiful clear waters of the Red Sea.
As my father so aptly noted, it is a beautiful and safe place for families. While it isn't a restricted area, and non-Muslims may go there, we have never witnessed any women on the beach without abaya and hijab/shayla/khimaar, and most also wear niqaab, mashaa'Allah. There are masaajid every 200 meters along the beach and a strip of play areas just behind them every 50 meters or so. Just behind them, there is a walkway and road, and another strip of grassy areas for picnicking and more little playground areas. This goes on for quite a long stretch and can accommodate literally thousands of families. There are horse and carriage rides to be hired out, pony rides, beach buggy rentals, and ice cream, coffee, and snack trucks patrolling the beach from around Asr prayer onwards.
This trip we drove right along the beach, past this most developed part, to areas where there was more private and quiet beachfront with deeper water more suited to swimming. There were also stretches of beach where it was rocky and unsuitable for swimming, where there were gazebos built for picnickers. The masaajid and bathrooms are far more spaced out in these less developed areas, but they are very beautiful mashaa'Allah. Following the road and beach along for several kilometers, takes you right up to the resorts...hotels with private beachfront and various other facilities for families.
Yet another blessed and beautiful benefit of living in Madinah...having access just a couple of hours down the road to such a lovely place to relax and enjoy the beach, something we have to avoid in Western and non-Muslim countries due to the nudity and unsuitable environment for children and Muslim families. Al hamdu l'Illahi Rabbil aal Ameen!
assalamualaikum wa rahmatulahi wa barakatu
ReplyDeletemasha'Allah Madinah is my dream place to make hijrah to! you are so blessed to be living there!
Salam,
ReplyDeleteLiving in Madinah is my dream, anyone who lives there is a very lucky person. May ALLAH bless your family always.
i so want to go there inshaAllah..jeddahs beaches that ive seen is spoilt with so much rubbish on the sand! and glass pieces!
ReplyDeleteDon't fool yourself, Sweetlikechocolate, it is strewn with rubbish at Yanbu as well, especially the very developed area I photographed, which is so heavily used. When we go, we take plastic bags and a hand brush to clean up the gazebo and surrounding area before we occupy it. We also don't let the children run around barefoot, but keep them and ourselves in Crocs...or some kind of beach shoes.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the fact that there are kilometers of beach that isn't as developed, means that it also isn't as littered. We stopped to look out at the sea further down and there was little to nothing spoiling the area, mashaa'Allah. Certainly, now we know of the lovely, clean, unpopulated stretches of beach, we plan to set up somewhere cleaner in future inshaa'Allah.
One thing I must note though, we saw too many uncovered females in Jeddah and it was much more commercialized. So many expatriates there and so much consumerism really taint the whole beach and corniche experience there. That is a main difference in Yanbu, wa al hamdul'Illah.
Nice to hear from you; I pray you are doing well! Barak Allahu feeki.
Assalamu alaikom, Alhamdulillah I am also an American Muslim living in Madinah. Contact me if you would like: maryam.islahi@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteAsSalaamualaikum warahmatullaah . Jazaakillaahu khairaa for this info. I had been wondering if there are things to do for kids in madinah . Yanbu sounds lovely! Are there places for children to learn to swim in madinah? Do they have pools and qualified instructors?
ReplyDeleteWa alaykum us salaam wa RahmatUllah wa Barakatuh. Wa iyaaki.
DeletePlease understand that Yanbu is a 2.5 hour drive from Madinah. It is within the Madinah Province, but nowhere near the Haram Area.
As for places for children to learn to swim, there are no such places or instructors here. There are no public pools or even private lessons that I know of. You can rent an istaraha with a pool to swim privately, though.
The only activities I am aware of for children within the Haram area are martial arts for boys and horse riding for boys and young girls below a certain age...that age would be no more than perhaps 9 or 10.
This is not indicative of all of Saudi Arabia, as I know many girls who learned to swim and enjoyed good recreation activities in Jeddah, where there is a large expatriate community and far more facilities.