Part 2: Journey to 10 cities in Saudi Arabia

We moved to the Masjid Haram to perform our Umurah. Afterwards, we proceed to see the entire masjid again.

It looked even more magnificent compared to the previous image I had in my head.   I appreciate the workers in the Masjid so much, they're  virtually every minute.  I wondered how many hours hours they work. A part of me felt like taking the mop and assisting them So, I quietly prayed to Allah to reward them abundantly.

By this time we went to the restaurant to buy food for breakfast. Oh! I forgot to let you know that we eventually found the hotel we were looking for last night. Seriously, it was like three (3) minutes walk from the new hotel.
You know why it was difficult to locate it in the first place?
The hotel was located before a long tunnel and its stands alone.

However, we moved to this hotel. We left the car in their care and checked into the hotel. 

We tried moving round the city, go to shopping malls and visits places then moved back to the masjid for our obligatory prayers. Up till this time the car was still there.

The check out is usually 2pm but we arranged to check out before then to start moving as early as possible to the next city Jeddah.
On getting to the receptionist to drop the key to our room and collect the car key. He started speaking parables, it was like a motion movie!
What season should I call this?
I think season one, episode 1!

He said: 'wain sayaraa? (Meaning: where is the car? )

It was a silly question. 

He could not find the car again and the car key is with him!

At this point, We began to fear how to locate police office and started thinking of constructive arabic sentences to speak to the police, who are likely not understand English since the lingual franker is Arabic. We surely believe that the car has been towed off because here, in Saudi Arabia theft is a big deal so nobody can steal a car just like that.

Besides, the long and short of his explanation was that he handed the key over to his colleague's on duty and the man left his duty post to the toilet and discovered the car wasn't there anymore. He then said;  'Look this is common here, may be the police have tolled it, take your car key and go to police office to claim your car?'

This statement look like season 2 of the man's movie!

We were so resonated with his manner of presentation!
As in, we just in one voice asked him: Whose fault? Who will pay the fine?.........?????Can you guess what he said????

'What can I do? 

Rent a taxi to police office, pay the fine and carry your car?' 

He is not even saying; ma alysh ( meaning: sorry)

We just calm down, suppressed our anger and asked him to notify his manager that we want to see him or any other matured  person in charge of the hotel. Now, he knew we were angry. At this junction, I will love to tell you that always be calm and be conscious when you are angry, don't talk or handle things with your state of emotion.

We sat down and make conclusion on seeing the manager at all cost without being violent because two wrongs can never make a right. He was careless and we have to be careful.

Finally, the manager came and we got talking with him, then he agreed to take us in his jeep to the police to clear the car.
At the end we became good friends with the manager and he cleared the car without paying a dime to the police. I believe he used his connections. 

The manager, collected our contacts, gave us his personal contact too and ask us to just send him a text whenever we are coming to Mecca again that we shouldn't bother booking online, he will surely arrange for our stay. 

Astonishingly, he speaks very good English, mature and utmost humble. While departing he gave us assorted pack of biscuits, chocolates, sweets and said sorry for the inconveniences.

What a lovely goodbye to a new friend. We entered the car to Commerce yet a new journey.

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Journey to ten different cities in Saudi Arabia.

Continuing its tour of Saudi Arabia, having visited major cities like Dammam, Riyadh, Dharan. Khobar, and Jubail, Travel Army continued its exploration by visiting ten more cities in Saudi Arabia. Although the destination was Mecca and Medinah, there was transit through Taif, Jeddah, Al-Butain, Al-Khaamis, Al-Majmaah, Al- Qasim, Buraydah and Al- Duwadimi.

It was an interesting family road trip that started on a very cold day.

We set off in the morning at 9a.m., filled the car's fuel tank with just 25 SAR that's like $7.
You do not have to spend much money to have an enthralling vacation. You can make a road trip to cities within the kingdom with little expenses.

Driving on a smooth/free road across vast expanse of desert was captivating. The road signs and the GPS came in very useful. The fascinating cities and people of Saudi Arabia have been intriguing travelers with their peaceful road and delightful landscape. There are police checkpoints at the entrance of most towns. While every town looked similar in outlook, each had its unique and landmark features.
The long stretch of open road provided the first scare of the journey as the fuel indicator pointed empty with no petrol station in sight. All excitement turned to apprehension as I prayed for a filling station.

10 mins later, what appeared like a filling station appeared ahead, it was the opposite of the flashy filling stations typical of Saudi with drive-ins, stores, rest room, mosques, car service all in one. It happened to be a saving grace from an awkward and mortifying situation in the heart of the desert as we were not to come across another one for the next 3 hour drive.

I was just imagine what would have happened if the fuel tank got totally empty. Questions filled my head, like; Are we going to sleep in the desert? or leave the car on the highway? I've come to term this scenario, 'Favor in the Arabian Desert'.

We came across Taif, a city of hills and mountains with winding roads meandering through the rocks. The rest of the journey up to Mecca was effortless, uneventful and fluid. Here we were to experience the next little challenge - locating our hotel, which we had already reserved online.

If you are familiar with Mecca, you will agree that it is a city largely structured around mountains, especially the Haram area where the holy site is located. Houses and hotels are built on the edges of hills and rocks are blasted to create roads through them. We drove on slopes, ascending and descending from one street to the other. The mountains had scrambled GPS signals which was taking us around in circles and against traffic. Driving within this hour was more tedious than the whole journey itself. Giving up the search, we walked into one of the closer hotel. and just lodged there.

The Mecca police have a duty to ensure free flow of traffic in order to prevent congestion, so parking our car was difficult. Cars parked lamely on the roads are promptly towed away. It takes 50 SAR to recover towed vehicles.









I love the hotel apartment, everything was neat and beautiful. We took a short nap before going to the Haram.


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