I have written a volume of words already on taxi-related capers from my time out here in the Gulf region, but the first trip in Saudi Arabia was different gravy entirely. It occurred some time ago now, Q4 last year, but will live long in the memory, filed under the section entitled “nearly kicking it”.
After landing in Riyadh we experienced a longer-than-necessary delay in the locally ordered cab arriving to pick us up and transport us to our series of meetings in the centre, but that’s not an unusual experience for the region.
Slightly disconcertingly there were no seatbelts in the back of the car. Actually, that’s not quite accurate as there were seatbelts, it’s just that they were underneath some sort of non-negotiable, comprehensive cover over the back seat itself. Handy.
The driver, a local in his 20s, was an eager enough fellow and soon had the world-weary motor up to 140kph, which to be frank was considerably slower than most of the cars around us. As usual it was a scene of lane hot potato as everyone sped back and forth across the lanes looking for the smallest gaps to move ahead of their rivals!
But before anyone could relax Speedy G had his mobile out, held proudly in the air, shouting “Hello. welcome to Saudi Arabia!” And he was shouting it.
So far, so weird, but before anyone could interpret what was happening, he was off online posting his freshly filmed video of these lost innocents to his Instagram account! No word of a lie. Whilst doing 140kph. My colleague, in the passenger seat, immediately rebuked him when it became clear what was unfolding and relayed in no uncertain terms that we did not expect him to be filming a social media diary as he sped along a six lane motorway one-handed.
Chastened, Speedy put the mobile away and focussed on the road, but all around there was near-carnage always a baw hair away. The lane flitting was chaotic and numerous times I saw cars zipping in behind us, looking for all the world like a collision would occur, but somehow squeezing in. No indication involved of course….we are talking archetypal Middle East driving here. During the 40 minute journey I would estimate there were 3 occasions where I thought “this time….” but the thud and screeching of a multi vehicle pile-up never came. The sheer volume and proximity of cars would have meant any RTA would have involved a significant number of cars.
Anyway, ultimately the journey was an experience. Not necessarily one I would want to repeat, but at this stage of proceedings it still remains the most Rome-esque automobile experience I’ve had.
More to follow I’m sure…..
Sent from my iPhone