When the gorgeous sun started to disappear below the horizon, I finally got out of the busy border area and enjoyed my first steps in the Saudi territory. Suddenly, the policeman from the last checkpoint called me back and told me to go to the office of the Director of Immigration. At that place, I was welcomed with dates and delicious Arabic coffee. The employees promised me to find a driver or a bus going to Dammam or Bahrain for me because I told them that I was heading to Bahrain where I had arranged a Couchsurfing host. They let me stay in the office alone with the constantly playing relaxing Arabic music, many documents and a modern camera system, and I enjoyed watching it more than TV. Once upon a while, someone came to refill my cup of coffee.
In the end, it took them more than 2 hours, but the mission was completed successfully. The lucky guy, who won this perfect-match competition and was honoured to get into the presence of a white girl without burka, got the responsibility to take the best care of her. He was believed to be reliable and safe enough, and had great English-speaking skills because of having cooperated with the U.S. Army. We left the border at 8pm, and started a four-hour-long journey towards Dammam.
The driver was very interesting and he even bought me some sandwiches. It was my first encounter with someone with his kind of mentality. He had two wives, a bunch of children, and showed me some family photos. In one of them, there were three kids – two girls and one boy. He showed it to me and proudly said: “This is my son from my second wife,” not mentioning the girls at all. His first marriage was an arranged one, and he also married the second wife because she was more beautiful than the first one. He also added: “It’s good that my wives don’t talk to each other. But boys talk… that’s the most important.”
We arrived close to the ca 25-km long bridge connecting Dammam and Bahrain at 00:15am, and then, I had to cross it to get to the Arabic Las Vegas.
If you want to read the full version of this story and are interested in finding out what happens next, CLICK HERE 😉
