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As mentioned in the above little voice blurb, I left the hotel in
Riyadh where I had stayed for two weeks and headed up to King Khalid
Military City par Al-Salam Aircraft Co. "currier service".
What is meant by "currier service" here is that apparently
Al-Salam has hired some sort of goods-delivery group to transport
whatever the company needs to have transported between the compound
up here in Hafar al-Batin and Riyadh some 450km (280mi) to the south.
Although I was told by the company representatives that I'd be
driving up to KKMC (King Khalid Military City) in a car, and not a
truck, I found myself greeted Monday morning by a smiley faced
youngish Saudi man in a small Nissan pickup truck. Now, don't get me
wrong, I'm not opposed to small Nissan pickup trucks, it's just that
I had been warned by my new school supervisor over email that I
shouldn't put anything in my suitcases that might be subject to heat
damage since he had his digital camera damaged last summer when the
thing virtually melted in the 4+ hour trip to the jobsite and then I
was told by the company headquarters that I'd be in a car so I was
under the impression that my items would be stored neatly in the
safety of a trunk. As such, I had packed one of my boxes willy-nilly
with things wrapped in plastic bags hanging out here and there and
didn't take any special precautions to protect my stereo (by adding
extra Styrofoam peanuts perhaps?), not to mention that I hadn't done
anything special to insulate my CDs. So when the guy showed up in a
*truck* I was like, "So much for reliability of the information
given to me by the office guy at Al-Salam in charge of in-country
transportation issues."
Once out at the front of the hotel, the bellhop rolled my three
suitcases, stereo, and willy-nilly packed box out to the road side
and the three of us heaved the items up over the side of the truck
and wedged them into the bed between the sides of the truck and a
large black drum (containing some sort of toxic sludge I assume?)
which was already in back. There were a couple other boxes in the
back in addition to my items so we really had to push and force
everything in.
Once secure, I hopped into the passenger side of the cab of the truck
with my laptop computer in my backpack, placed it between my legs,
and then we were on our way out of the city and up to the desert
oasis I'd call home for the next two years.
Sidenote: people drive on the right side of the road here in Saudi
Arabia, just like North America and continental Europe.
After swinging down the Mecca Highway then hooking a right northward
onto King Fahad Highway and speeding past the newly built high-rises
of downtown, we quickly sped past the Riyadh city limits and were
suddenly out in the middle of nowhere as vast stretches of
nothingness rolled by on all sides.
Highway 65 heading north is a 3-lane roadway in each direction with a
large dirt median bordered by long stretches of seemingly new 4-foot
high wire fencing which I imagine serves to keep flocks of goats,
sheep and camels off the highway. As a matter of fact, at multiple
points along Highway 65 were concrete overpasses with no on or off
ramps leading to the highways itself, but rather simply bridged both
sides of the desert and were labeled in Arabic and English "Camel
Crossing"!!! I thought the entire concept was totally cool and
I tried snapping a picture of the camel crossing sign but each time I
tried, it turned out I was too slow in pressing the shutter button on
my camera so all I got was blurred desert landscape. :(
I did manage to take quite a few pictures out of the truck window
though and I'm surprised that so many of them turned out despite the
faster-than-light rate of speed my youngish Saudi driver was traveling.
Since Saudis can be so camera shy sometimes (read, camera-phobic) I
made sure to ask Nasser if it would be OK for me to snap a couple
shots to which he quickly replied, "Maafee Mooshkeela!" (No
problem!) So down went the window and out went my camera and
wind-buffeted face.
Outside the window all I could see was endless miles and miles of
dry, barren desert in all directions. Occasionally I would see a
ridge or hill off in the distance, or a couple sun baked and parched
hills rising slightly around the landscape, but not a whole lot other
than that. There were infrequent rows of shiny new metal power towers
draped in innumerable wires running parallel to the highway for long
stretches, then they'd disappear into some unseen direction. After a
while of driving I would suddenly notice tiny green scrub bushes
covering the dusty landscape like an exploding population of rabbits.
My thoughts would then turn to the subterranean water ways which must
have been under these bushes somewhere and I'd think about how much
it rained out here and how long the roots of these bushes must be to
access what little moisture existed out here, and I wondered if there
was some weird rain pattern out here that would allow certain areas
of the desert to be covered in scrub bush and forbid other areas from
any growth whatsoever. Was it the earth and dirt itself? Maybe it's
softer in some areas and harder in others?
Whatever the case, the thought kept me occupied for quite some time.
After about two hours of driving with Nasser and listening to several
of his old, worn Arabic music cassette tapes at high volume as to
mask the bing-bong alarm that sounds in all cars in Saudi Arabia that
exceed 120km/h (75mph) we exited the main highway and headed out in a
new direction on a new roadway. I was somewhat happier to be on this
smaller road that I could see leading into a small town since it
meant that Nasser would have to remove his foot just slightly from
the gas pedal and bring our speed down from 105mph (170km/h) to
something much more reasonable like 80mph through town.
You know, I'm starting to get the feeling that Saudis don't think
they're driving safely until they actually hear that bing-bong from
the car which is supposed to inform them to slow down a bit. Maybe
they think that if you hit something at 110mph that you're more
likely to destroy it instead of it being able to destroy you?
I never know what these Saudis are thinking when they're driving to
tell you the truth, or even if they are thinking!
The transition from camel transport to wheeled vehicles here has been
rather sketchy to say the least... |
25
April 2002
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