Galatians 1:17 - Arabian vacation?

"...nor did I go up to Jerusalem toward the apostles before me, but rather I went unto Arabia, and again I returned unto Damascus.’

-Some very interesting, specific life data Paul gives us here in these next few verses.  Keep in mind the context, about how the message he teaches (which in fact he taught these Galatians), did not originate from man, but rather came from the Lord Himself.  So he first tells us that after his eye-opening encounter with Christ at Damascus, he did not consult with any flesh and blood person (previous verse).  He had no contact whatsoever with any of the apostles in Jerusalem, nor anyone else there, for that matter.  As we will see, the church in Jerusalem was somewhat corrupted with so-called Judaizers, those who would have been inclined to insist that these young Gentile believers in Galatia needed to become circumcised and follow the Mosaic law in order to be acceptable to God.  This in fact came to a head in Acts 15.

-But in other words, those who were leading the church at the time of Paul’s conversion contributed not one thing to his understanding of the Gospel.  And while one might assume that this would NOT be something in Paul’s favor, it simply serves to reinforce his point that the content of his message did not come from man at all, not even from the ones you might have expected would have taught him at least something about Christ.  But no, he did not go "up" to Jerusalem at all initially (even tho in the northern hemisphere we would say that it was "down south" to go to Jerusalem from Damascus, folks always talked about ‘going up’ to Jerusalem - the holy city was situated about 2500 feet above sea level on Mount Zion – higher ground than all that surrounded it).  No, he went away to Arabia, for a time.  This trip is not mentioned in the Acts narrative for some reason - only that he was in Damascus for many days following his conversion.  Paul doesn’t tell us anywhere why exactly he went to Arabia, nor do we know for sure how long he was there, or even a precise location.  The boundaries of that region were a bit fuzzy, but generally it was the region east of the Jordan River and on into the Arabian peninsula (what is now Saudi Arabia).  Some say Paul went there to preach, since we do read in Acts that he began to do just that immediately after his conversion (Acts 9.20).  Others believe Paul may have gone there simply for spiritual formation.  We do know that after his conversion he had at least one additional supernatural experience of revelation (2Corinthians 12.4-7).  Paul surely did have a clear distinct sense of having been taught spiritual truth straight from the Lord Himself (cf 1Corinthians 2.12-13).  Regardless of what actually happened in Arabia, we know that he was there for a time after his conversion, then returned to Damascus, where he stayed for many days, until that time when Jews in Damascus determined to kill him (Acts 9.23).  Let’s keep reading...