It was a 5.00am start to the day because my driver assured me traffic would start to build up from 7.00am onwards. He collected me from my hotel at 6.00am, which happened to be the time the restaurant opened for breakfast, so it was a hungry start to the day. The roads were relatively empty and we started to converse using his limited English and my almost non existent Arabic. Following a question about his family I was informed he had six daughters and three sons. My comment/query about not owning a TV appeared to be lost in the translation! 
He then produced his smartphone to show me the main screen wallpaper was a montage of small happy faces. His grandchildren from the three married daughters. Hell, by the time the remaining six start begetting he won’t have a football team…. He’ll have his own league! The birth rate here is very high and with a modern and well funded free universal health system the infant mortality rate is obviously significantly lower than pre WW2. Saudi Arabia is going to be very crowded in a few years from now.
The road out along the Saudi – Bahrain Causeway is starting to become very familiar.
Do you like the monument out in the water with the molten metal being poured into a mould
The border control station was very quiet with only two Customs booth manned. My driver obviously has a great personality because he chatted and joked with all the border staff. His friendly and affable approach appeared to work because we were quickly through both Customs and Immigration.
Customs on the Saudi side
Just like my last trip, we didn’t enter Bahrain, instead doing a hard left turn and cutting through a narrow alleyway to arrive at the Immigration booth for entry into Saudi Arabia. Once again the formalities were quickly dealt with and my passport was then returned to me. I quickly flicked through the pages and noticed there were no new stamps? Upon asking my driver why, I was told “No need….. All scanned!” So they are electronically scanning and updating my six month visa (I hope). Why hadn’t someone told me this on my earlier trip. Now all I have to do is remember to do it all again around the 20th of March.
We were back at the hotel by 7.00am so breakfast was back on the agenda. My driver even arranged for a late room checkout (6.00pm). That was great news because my flight back to Riyadh was at 11.45pm and I didn’t fancy waiting in the airport for 12 hours. The only problem was I’d woken with a touch of “Delhi Belly” and a head cold. On reflection, I think the former was acquired when I ate three small raw tomatoes as part of my lunch in the hotel restaurant the previous day. It’s the first time since my arrival that I’ve eaten anything raw and unpeeled. The head cold was kindly given to me by my driver! If you have a loose bowel problem the best thing to do is to keep eating and push it through the system. Breakfast and lunch was a trial and the porcelain got a hammering during the afternoon. Fortunately things started to improve by my check-out time so it wasn’t an issue for the flight back to Riyadh. However the head cold left me with a very runny nose, headache and a cough. By the time I reached the airport I’d used all my tissues. Using my initiative I wandered across the the “Fatburger” fast food outlet and ordered a hamburger for dinner. Whilst his back was turned I took a handful of the paper serviettes and carefully rationed them for the duration of the trip home.
My seat allocation was in row 30 and I was anticipating being down the rear of the aircraft. However to my surprise row 30 was the first row in Economy and only six rows from the front of the aircraft (a Boeing 737). This time the flight was with Saudia Airlines and one got the impression it was a little less ‘budget’. Fortunately there was no meal and the Saudi sitting next to me wasn’t huge. Actually he had to put up with me noisily coughing and constantly blowing my nose. I guess he woke up the following morning with a sore throat!
By the time we reached Riyadh at 1.00am I was feeling slightly tired. With my luck my hold luggage didn’t appear on the carousel. Probably because I had checked in so early! There I was, the sole person standing by the carousel which had stopped turning. Then it started…. but no luggage appeared. Then it stopped…….. 10 minutes later it started again and my luggage finally appeared.
The domestic terminal was actually quite busy, so obviously there is no night curfew on flights in Riyadh. There was a row of vacant taxi’s with Omar Sharif’s father at the front. He was wearing an old Tshirt with part of last week’s kerbab down the front. But I was beyond caring. I jumped into the his cab only to find the “Meter not working!” according to Omar’s father. We negotiated a price. Frankly I didn’t haggle hard because I just wanted to go to bed. However I asked him if he knew where the compound was and was told “Yes!”. So I then made him show me where it was on Google Maps. Confident that he roughly knew the way, I let him drive me back to the compound. There were some seriously bored looking security people at the entrance to the compound. Probably not surprising as it was 2.30am! I was in bed by 3am but them my internal alarm clock kicked in at 6.30am (Bugger!)
For a change next time I might take the train from Riyadh to Dammam!
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