While men and women are still expected to dress modestly - and, as I discovered, still mostly do - foreign women are no longer required to wear the hijab or the traditional abaya, the (historically black) floor-length long-sleeved robe worn atop clothing. The most conservative apparel mandates for women have been lifted as well. With the explicit aim of broadening tourism, the country now allows live music concerts, unchaperoned women in public, and women drivers.

I soon learned that with the launch and successful implementation of Vision 2030, Saudi ArabiaвЂ™s multipronged initiative to wean the country off its reliance on fossil fuels and diversify its economy, Saudi Arabia has been undergoing rapid social change. I also wondered what it would be like traveling in Saudi Arabia as a woman. Would I require a male chaperone to move about? What would I need to wear? And most urgently, could I be sure to bring him back some Arabian oils? My husband was intrigued and mildly concerned. After several years of pandemic-dictated sameness, the prospect of journeying into a landscape and culture so different from my own felt compelling - essential, even. When offered the opportunity to travel to Saudi Arabia, I leapt at the chance. Then the wind picks up and I wonder just how long the grains of sand that are swirling at my feet have been doing that dance. It is unlike anywhere I have been before. Some combination of the surrounding mountains and the dampening effect of the desert sand creates an unnerving stillness. Stepping outside onto the Bedouin lounge, my personal outdoor patio, the first thing I notice is the quiet. The hotel room I am staying in is a cabana, built in the desert canyons of the Ashar Valley. While not actually another planet, AlUla, an area in the northwest Medina region of Saudi Arabia, some 7,000 miles from my home in Tennessee, is the most otherworldly landscape IвЂ™ve experienced. I WONDER HOW many days it might take for me to get used to opening my eyes and gazing upward at sandstone cliffs towering above, the bases of which start 60 feet from my bed.

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