I’m back from Umrah in Saudi. The 9.5 days I spent there were fabulous, though the journey to and from was pretty bad.
Actually, ‘horrible’ might be more appropriate: on the way out, I was ‘off-loaded’ from the plane after being told because I only had an Umrah visa, I could only fly to Jeddah, whereas my ticket was for Riyadh. Neither Expedia, nor the travel agent I applied for my visa through — not even the Saudi embassy — objected to my buying the bloody ticket, but that didn’t matter. Oh, and the fact that no one had complained as I checked in, went through passport control, walked about the duty-free area, etc. didn’t comfort them either.
Anyway, coughing up 430 pounds (more than my original round-trip ticket!)and waiting 14 hours for the next flight (!!) seemed to do the trick, and I was soon watching corny Arabic dramas on a filthy, creaking Saudia jet.
On arriving, I breezed through immigrations (the two carry-ons that had been the bane of my existence during the 14 hour wait at LHR were ultimately a good idea), and stepped out to see AACB waiting for me. He frantically waved his arms, but before I could figure out what he was saying I was whisked off by an immigrations guy who must’ve been hiding behind the sliding doors. Turned out they make all pilgrims get their passports photocopied, but I learned later that I should’ve brushed him off and just kept walking. Apparently if you’re sufficiently business-like, they assume you’re not a pilgrim and just let you go!
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