I had heard the rumors that the Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Sea Park on the Alkhobar waterfront was attracting quite a few people in the early morning hours, but I didn’t quite believe the stories. When I say early, I mean 4 in the morning, and the last time I was outside my house at 4 a.m. I hadn’t actually been to bed yet. Nevertheless, in the interest of the story, I set my alarm and at the appointed hour, crawled out from under my blanket and into the dawn.
Once I stopped staggering down the street and managed to get my body vertical, 4 a.m. wasn’t a half-bad experience. Incredibly, there were other people outside.
I didn’t even have to walk to my rendezvous with the Arabian Gulf. I actually was able to flag a taxi. Please! Don’t start lecturing me on the benefits of an early morning constitutional. My idea of exercise is pushing down repetitively on the television’s remote control buttons.
When I finally arrived at the Corniche, I quickly saw that I was not alone. Tons of trash were waiting there for me and that was a shame. The night before, inconsiderate picnickers had abandoned their leftovers everywhere.
“Keeping the Alkhobar Corniche beautiful depends on the cooperation of the people who use it,” said the first person I met, Nasr Ali Al-Yami, a Saudi living in Alkhobar. “It is a matter of education. The population here has never had such nice facilities and they must be educated in their proper preservation. I believe that a campaign should be done in the schools to encourage the use of trash bins and to emphasize the importance of proper waste disposal. Once the children understand that such actions are a part of being good Muslims and strong citizens, they will spread the message to their parents and others.”
Al-Yami considers his morning jog a “preventive measure” to keep him healthy as he gets older. He comes out every morning at about 5 and spends at least an hour exercising, usually alone.
While I noticed many people walking and jogging alone along the paths at the sea park, these folks weren’t really lonely. According to Ibrahim Bouhazza, a Bahraini living in Alkhobar, many of the same people come out everyday and they look forward to seeing and greeting each other.
“It’s very friendly, with people waving to each other and calling out good morning,” he said. “I’ve been coming out here for about five years. For the last year and a half since the new facilities opened, it has been a really excellent way to start the day.”
Like many I met that morning, Bouhazza was exercising in the morning to burn off some flab and improve his health. While he often comes alone, that morning he had brought his family along and they were doing a little fishing.
One of the most interesting aspects of that morning’s meander was how cheerful and solicitous people were. I saw people of many nationalities waving to each other and calling out a few words as they passed by. Several people mentioned that they hadn’t seen me before and they wondered if I’d be coming out regularly. They encouraged me to overcome my slothful ways and get a daily jump-start on life.
“It is such a beautiful way to start the day,” said Akhtar Ali, a Pakistani living in Alkhobar. “Especially for someone like me who works in an office, getting out in the morning, and walking and breathing the fresh air is perhaps the most enjoyable part of my day. I really have to commend the authorities for creating such excellent facilities for us here. Please send a message to all those who are lying in their beds that they are the losers. It is quite spectacular out here in the early morning hours.”
Even I will admit that the morning at the Corniche had a completely different and perhaps even more enjoyable flavor than the night. As it approached 6 a.m. though, it was getting hot, probably at least 35 decrees C with high humidity, and people were leaving the sea park to go home and get ready for work. Just then, that’s when I came upon the most active and energetic people I’d seen all morning — the Saudi cousins from the Al-Hadad, Al-Kalaf and Al-Shayeb families.
“We try to come here every morning during the summer vacation,” said Abdulmohsen Al-Shayeb. “It’s not too hot. We can run and shout and do what we want. Nobody is sleeping so nobody will tell us to be quiet or to behave. We have a lot of fun and we hate it when the summer is over and we have to go back to school. Then we can’t come here together any more.”
I asked them if it wasn’t too early to be outside, running and shouting. Wasn’t it better to be home, asleep under the air conditioner?
“No!” they all yelled out, laughing. “Sleeping is for old people. We need to have fun!”