Crazy flight to Jeddah

A new experience

We left Bahrain with heavy hearts. We really fell on love with the place. It was easy to get around and we met some wonderful people. Now to experience the local airline Gulf Air flying us to Saudi Arabia. Their slogan is “Most improved airline”. Can’t wait to see what that means….

Well what an experience! It was like something out of a Monty Python sketch. We boarded the plane fine and were seated right next to the business class section. Then it all got very weird. There were a lot of pilgrims wearing white sheets and sandals (actually some were bare foot). While we were waiting for takeoff one of the pilgrims and his wife duck into the business class section and the man proceeds to strip off and get naked, apart from a loin cloth, to put a clean sheet on. Meanwhile his compatriots are arguing and shouting at the air hostess because they want different seats. The poor air hostesses are attempting to sort them out, whilst another air steward is trying to get the naked guy and his wife out of business class, dressed and to their seats! All the while the captain is telling us to sit back and relax just before takeoff! Chaos! Eventually, the pilgrims sit down and the plane actually takes off. Michelle and I have three pilgrims sitting behind us, one of whom is hoicking up all the time and another is taking his clothes off! The third is rearranging the seating plan again. THIS IS MENTAL! Welcome to Jeddah, everyone and Elvis has definitely left the building.

Jeddah airport is very modern and very big. There was an F1 stand at arrivals which we approached, however they were only there to meet and greet F1 personnel, but they took pity on us and kindly fast tracked us to the dedicated passport control for F1 staff (as long as we said we were F1 employees, if anyone asked) otherwise we would have been behind about 300 people. Passport control was a new experience, we had to be finger printed as well as show our visa and passport, to a professionally grumpy guy. Then another, much happier guy checked that the passports had actually been stamped by the previous grumpy guy! It was. Guy 2 apologised for taking so long (he hadn’t) and we were through!

After collecting our bags we went through to the airport proper! It was big, busy and bustling. There was a five storey aquarium, complete with sharks! Amazing. We gawked for a while then tried to get an Uber to our hotel, but ended up in a taxi due to two cancelled ubers and communication problems!

We were a little apprehensive upon arrival at the hotel. The location seemed a mystery to the taxi driver, and we were driving into an area that looked like Beirut; lots of rubbish everywhere, big skips with mangy cats all over the place, lots of vacant plots with more cats and rubbish! WHAT HAVE WE DONE! We finally got to the hotel. We went in and registered and were shown the room. The website advertised the room as being 18 square meters, which is small. When we went into the room , it was the size of Kansas. What a pleasant surprise. The room was clean and tidy but has a thick 1970’s carpet. We are wearing jandals all the time!

Hopefully, Jeddah will be as much fun as Bahrain.