From Toronto to Riyahd, Saudi Arabia

Saturday, January 17 to Sunday, January 18th.

The new adventure begins! I boarded my Etihad flight (they’re based in Abu Dhabi in the UAE). The flight was 13 hrs and fairly comfortable and uneventful except for a couple of screaming babies. Unbelievable how loud and long they can scream. I arrived in Abu Dhabi and transferred to my connecting flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We flew across part of the Arabian Gulf and then across the arid desert that was very bright and white and looked like we were flying over Greenland. The flight was a little less than 2 hours. I was checked through immigration by a friendly woman wearing a full burkha who finger printed me and took my photo and didn’t need to see my visa that I had printed, I guess it’s in the system. 

I found the driver that Explore had booked for me and we left the airport. It took longer to drive from the airport to the hotel (in the downtown area) than the last flight. The drive was about 40 kms and it took two and a half hours, no exaggeration! I really felt for the driver who was from Bangladesh. He has a wife and eight year old son who live in Bangladesh. He has been in Saudi for seventeen years trying to make a living to support his family. He had two small mobile shops in the bazaars here, but lost them during COVID and then the Saudi laws changed and foreigners cannot own mobile shops apparently. So he drives for a transport company that shuttles people from wherever to wherever. He works six days a week gets paid by the distance not the time, so he got screwed picking me up. He lives in a boarding apartment provided by the company and his friends are all the other drivers who are also from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and other places. He has not been home to see his son and wife for two years. And here’s me, happily retired and enjoying the life of Riley touring around the Arab countries. It makes you realize just how fortunate we are.

How was the city other than the traffic you ask? What were my first impressions? Well it was a very nondescript patch work of beige to brown coloured building with small windows, i guess to cut down on the sun and heat that can enter. I didn’t see buildings over about five floors and it was hard to tell wha they were and which were homes for people. There was very little greenery and the shrubbery that I did see was mostly dry and lifeless looking. There were some groves of planted palms but nothing else that height. The roads themselves were well made and maintained but there seemed to be a lot of chaos in intersections and precious few lights. There were many roads that just merged with each other. The drivers are fairly aggressive trying to navigate the mess with liberal use of horns and the lines on the road are merely guidelines that were frequently ignored to make another lane where one shouldn’t be. All in all a very interesting drive into this immense city but not particularly scenic. I'm sure things will improve.

I am checked in to the Glory Inn and awaiting my room mate, who is either in the air or the traffic, poor guy. Tomorrow we meet our Explore tour guide Yannis and have a city tour. So, here we go!