February 14/14
The Journey
Not since my October 2013 two week adventure to Abuja, Nigeria am I on the move again to start what is now my fourth international work assignment overseas. This time I find myself smack down in the middle of the middle country in the voliltile Middle East: Riyahd, Saudi Arabia. It is a three month extendable assignmnet. According to Wikipedia a city of approximately 5 million souls. This is a modern petro-fueled city with good infrastructure and services. More on this city of contrasts in my next posting.
My journey begins early on February 12 at my home airport - Winnipeg (YWG). Unfortunately (and fortunately) it follows immediately after a wonderful week in Mexico. In fact my turnaround was only 12 hours from when I arrived back from Mexico to when I board yet another series of aircraft to take me to the other side of the world. From Winnipeg to Toronto where I meet my first international connection. I had an extended layover in Toronto which allowed me to visit with my Aunt and Uncle who live downtown. From there back to the airport to wait for my flight to Frankfurt, Germany. There are a few options available from Toronto: there is a direct Saudi Airline to Riyahd (RUH) or you can catch Turkish Air, Egypt Air or in my case Luftansa to their respective hubs of Istanbul, Cairo or Frankfurt. Now I'm not a big boozer but I'm sorry, I tried my best to avoid this direct fight because I'm fortunate enough to fly business class and I like champagne and Saudi Airlines is dry airline. Besides as a big fan of commercial aviation I like the idea of checking out other foriegn airports, and while never really seeing the city I can still say I was in Istanbul for example. Ironically as with Nigeria I found myself back at Frankfurt - where I felt strangely enough not like a stranger. Here is an overview of my journey, which took approximately 30 hours door to door.
Here are some impressions and the time line of my journey to my new temporary new life.
The journey starts with getting to the Winnipeg airport for my 07:45 flight to Toronto. After arriving home from Mexico at 18:00 I was back in a cab to the airport at 06:10 the next morning. From there a quick hop to Toronto (2.5hrs) where I had a long layover and a nice visit. I got the full deal in terms of transportation in Toronto getting downtown: the choice is cab/limo - about $60, airport express - $28, or transit - $2.70. As I determined the airport express wasn't close to my Aunt's place I decided on transit: an express bus to the subway, two subways, street car and I ended up right where I needed to be at the corner of St Clair and Avenue Rd.
From there my Aunt/Unlce were kind enough to arrange a limo back for me to the airport and then a few hours before the 7.5 hour flight to Frankfurt. I had a three hour delay in Frankfurt before the final flight (5.5hrs) to Riyahd. While I'm a big aviation fan after some 30 hours in or waiting for planes I was desperate to be done. Luftansa wasn't making any money on that last flight to Riyahd - of the 20 or so business class seats it was myselt and three others.
After all that I arrive safely, though tired, at 11 pm local time (9 hrs ahead of home in Winnipeg). Airport is a very nice, modern facility. Thankfully MHI contracts with a guy to aid in clearing customs who was waiting for me shortly after I exited the plane. My first and new best friend in Saudi: as we got close to the customs line I was taken aback in that there were 6 'booths' and 25 or 30 people deep. I was thinking that after all that flying I have to stand in line for 2 hours in an unfamiliar environment? Please kill me now! That is where my new best friend (Aboo) came to the rescue: around the crowd - interrupts the next guys waiting to see the agent and plops down my passport to process - after a finger print scan I was done. Much to the dismay (and I'm sure anger) of those others who were forced to wait in the que. Aboo it seems new every agent and made a point of stopping and interrupting each agent for a quick handshake and chat (despite the heavy work load waiting for them). After grabbing my luggage (all intact), through another security scan I was out where Dan our project manager was patiently waiting for me.
First impressions: people park anywhere and everywhere in the airport parkade as spots are few - even Dan has accostomed himself to this as he had parked on a concrete area, over the curb that was there to mark one lane from the other. Once out of the airport I quickly realized this is a modern metropolis - with nice freeways/roads and infrastructure. Like any big American city with the exception of all the traffic signs and store frontage in Arabic, though alot of stores have some English to get an idea of what type of store it might be. Oddly though, arguably the biggest American "Icons" had no English - but why bother when you have the golden arches to attract patrons. While I have not been yet I am told that while you can't get pork anywhere in the country you can still get bacon on your burger - albeit turkey bacon.
We arrived back at the compound, my new home for the next few month at 11:30pm after a long day. A quick tour of my 'villa' was impressive 2,300 sq ft of modern space on two floors: with two bedooms and baths up (plus living area) and another 1/2 bath down with modern kitchen (with dishwasher, washer/dryer etc). By contrast my home in Winnipeg is only 800 sq ft so almost three times the size I'm used to! The compound in general (other than the heavily armed entry points) seems like any condo/townhouse development in North America. Finally at 12:30am that night it was time for a welcomed 10 hour snooze to battle the jet lag.
And so the journey in Saudi Arabia begins
For this infidel and his host of sins
The journey starts with getting to the Winnipeg airport for my 07:45 flight to Toronto. After arriving home from Mexico at 18:00 I was back in a cab to the airport at 06:10 the next morning. From there a quick hop to Toronto (2.5hrs) where I had a long layover and a nice visit. I got the full deal in terms of transportation in Toronto getting downtown: the choice is cab/limo - about $60, airport express - $28, or transit - $2.70. As I determined the airport express wasn't close to my Aunt's place I decided on transit: an express bus to the subway, two subways, street car and I ended up right where I needed to be at the corner of St Clair and Avenue Rd.
From there my Aunt/Unlce were kind enough to arrange a limo back for me to the airport and then a few hours before the 7.5 hour flight to Frankfurt. I had a three hour delay in Frankfurt before the final flight (5.5hrs) to Riyahd. While I'm a big aviation fan after some 30 hours in or waiting for planes I was desperate to be done. Luftansa wasn't making any money on that last flight to Riyahd - of the 20 or so business class seats it was myselt and three others.
After all that I arrive safely, though tired, at 11 pm local time (9 hrs ahead of home in Winnipeg). Airport is a very nice, modern facility. Thankfully MHI contracts with a guy to aid in clearing customs who was waiting for me shortly after I exited the plane. My first and new best friend in Saudi: as we got close to the customs line I was taken aback in that there were 6 'booths' and 25 or 30 people deep. I was thinking that after all that flying I have to stand in line for 2 hours in an unfamiliar environment? Please kill me now! That is where my new best friend (Aboo) came to the rescue: around the crowd - interrupts the next guys waiting to see the agent and plops down my passport to process - after a finger print scan I was done. Much to the dismay (and I'm sure anger) of those others who were forced to wait in the que. Aboo it seems new every agent and made a point of stopping and interrupting each agent for a quick handshake and chat (despite the heavy work load waiting for them). After grabbing my luggage (all intact), through another security scan I was out where Dan our project manager was patiently waiting for me.
First impressions: people park anywhere and everywhere in the airport parkade as spots are few - even Dan has accostomed himself to this as he had parked on a concrete area, over the curb that was there to mark one lane from the other. Once out of the airport I quickly realized this is a modern metropolis - with nice freeways/roads and infrastructure. Like any big American city with the exception of all the traffic signs and store frontage in Arabic, though alot of stores have some English to get an idea of what type of store it might be. Oddly though, arguably the biggest American "Icons" had no English - but why bother when you have the golden arches to attract patrons. While I have not been yet I am told that while you can't get pork anywhere in the country you can still get bacon on your burger - albeit turkey bacon.
We arrived back at the compound, my new home for the next few month at 11:30pm after a long day. A quick tour of my 'villa' was impressive 2,300 sq ft of modern space on two floors: with two bedooms and baths up (plus living area) and another 1/2 bath down with modern kitchen (with dishwasher, washer/dryer etc). By contrast my home in Winnipeg is only 800 sq ft so almost three times the size I'm used to! The compound in general (other than the heavily armed entry points) seems like any condo/townhouse development in North America. Finally at 12:30am that night it was time for a welcomed 10 hour snooze to battle the jet lag.
And so the journey in Saudi Arabia begins
For this infidel and his host of sins
No comments:
Post a Comment