Saturday, January 31st.
I went down for breakfast at 7 and ate with Robin, Chris and Lynn, who are all Americans. All the people in the group were leaving at various times. I had a chance to say goodbye to most but spent a couple of hours in the restaurant talking to the Australian women, Margie and Wendy, Brad from Vancouver and lastly Darren from Tasmania. It is always bittersweet when tours end because we are like ships in the desert and most of us will probably never meet up again. We shared a great tour and made temporary connections that enhanced the experience. Many of the group are continuing on in the Arabs States with different companies and starting in different places. Surprisingly the group never organized a group goodbye/thank you to Yannis, I’m amazed. I spent the last few hours typing and reflecting before I went to the lobby to catch my ride to the airport. Yannis came down to see me off. As we were waiting for the airport pickup we had a nice chat. I said I was surprised that we didn’t have a goodbye/thank you for him. I told him we were all grateful for his patience, his gentle relaxed manner and the extra activities he added to our itinerary. I also said that his love for Saudi Arabia came through loud and clear to all of us and he helped us understand this country and its culture in a much more intensive way than we would have otherwise. He is only 29 and managing 15 senior, experienced travelers can be a challenge at the best of times but he handled all of the issues that came up amongst the group. Kudos to him, job well done.
When I first planned this trip and knew I’d have a week between the two tours. I was a bit unsure if I should stay a couple of days in Saudi after the tour, so I decided to spend the whole week in Doha, Qatar where I will meet the next group. And now that I have been in country for two weeks I feel very comfortable and could have stayed, but there is not that much to do here in Jeddah, so I am not unhappy to be moving on.
I arrived at the airport with plenty of time, so I checked in, dropped my bag and went down to arrivals to see the aquarium there. It’s a large circular tank with lots of fish and some sharks, really quite amazing. Then I went through security and found out my flight was delayed for two hours. The flight was only two hours, so I arrived in Doha at 10 pm and took a cab to the huge four tower Ezdan Hotel Residence (3000 rooms) that I booked from home for $70US per night. Settled in and went to bed.
Joe, thank you so much for this wonderful sojourn through your eyes! I really want to go as planned next January! On to other saga…
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