For this leg of the trip, Ivan and I met up with Thomas and his wife Vanessa who were also travelling around Saudi, testing out their public means of transport. We met up in Abha and spent three days travelling together. Our first outing was the Rijal Almaa Heritage Village located about an hour of a scenic route uphill from Abha. The road is alright, unlike the madness that is the mountain segment of the road from Jeddah to Abha, where I genuinely feared for my life for some really crazy overtaking.

Rijal Alma Village is a peculiar village with rich history spanning over 900 years - at one time or another, the local inhabitants helped to protect Medina and to fight off Ottoman invasions. It consists of about 60 multiple-storey houses made of local stone, clay, and wood, with additional watchtowers built on the surrounding hillside. 

The route to the village is signposted well from the main road, there are a few parking spaces on the street next to the large courtyard, but no dedicated parking from what I could remember (spaces available on the street where the entrance is). Entering through the large circular square, we passed along the large sign with the name of the village, then up the stairs towards the entrance. The entry is 20 riyals (5 euros) per person and it includes entry to the museum located on the other side of the village. The streets along the village vary, some are more narrow than others, with paved and rough paths, even some chicken roaming around. It's a nice mix of refurbished and still let-down buildings and provides for some nice exploring.

The museum has some curious artifacts (including some really decrepit and unfortunate taxidermy) as well as lovely interior paintings of vivid colours and tribal symbols. There's a large gift shop by the exit, obviously prepared for much more tourists than the four of us (and one lone gentleman). A poster on one of the walls promoted Heritage Inn located in a house 200 years old with view on the village (ifathy_tourguide on Instagram as a contact - if anyone's interested).

I found the mix of refurbished and decrepit really interesting and enjoyed both views on the coloured windowpanes as well as landscapes that opened to us once we climbd further up the village (as the state of the footpaths would allow us). It's a charming village and in my opinion, more ready to welcome tourists than Thee Ain.