Oh, how do I start this? How DO I start this?

After spending nearly 2 months in Pakistan and a couple days in Bahrain, I was ready to return home to Calgary. My path home was the following: a flight from Lahore (Pakistan) to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) with an 11-hour stay, then to Frankfurt (Germany) with a several hour stay, and finally Calgary (Canada/home). It was organized and efficient. I would get back home just in time for school, after all, grade 11 was pretty important.

Lahore airport was a struggle. When we arrived, there was absolutely no space to park, every single car was parked in front of the entrance of the airport. Displayed here, on the right, is the exact road where there were so many cars, you physically could not see the road. After struggling to bring 6 luggage bags into the shade of the building in 40-degree weather (Over 100 degrees Fahrenheit), as well as making sure they don’t get stolen, I leaned against one of the pillars, telling myself that Jeddah and Germany were much more organized than this. “It’s only going to get easier from here on.”…Oh boy, was I wrong. Lahore airport was undoubtedly the second-worst and disorganized airport I’ve been to. Unless you’re a foreigner, in which case they’d probably bring you to the front of every line. After security, the rest of the airport was less crowded, which basically meant it was the airport it should have been. The only reason this airport doesn’t have the best ratings is because of the amount of people there, no matter what time it is. That isn’t the airport’s fault to be completely honest, it’s more-so just the lack of organization in Pakistani’s (and I can say that because I am one, and I’m pretty proud of it).

Alright, after boarding the plane and landing in Jeddah, I was certain that everything from now on would be as smooth as velvet. We passed through the doors of the Jeddah International Airport (Not the new one, I think), and after waiting in a line in front of a Saudi Ground Services (SGS) desk, a big man in a blue suit took all our passports and told us to wait (1) in the waiting area until he brought our boarding passes. I don’t know about you, but if someone took my passport and left the vicinity in which I was in, I’d chase after him, no matter who he was. You really don’t realize how valuable the Canadian Passport is until you meet with friends and family who don’t have a Canadian passport and can’t travel to places like Hawaii or Europe or even bordering countries. Anyways, I followed him through this hallway (on the left) and then took another left into a very narrow alley into their office. Once these airport workers saw me, they dropped their Chicken Sandwiches and immediately stood up, yelling at me (in Arabic) to leave. One of them yelled out (in English) that I wasn’t allowed in here. The man who had our passports, once again, a big man with slicked-back black hair told me that I NEED to go back to the waiting area and that I’d receive the boarding passes. “Go wait in the waiting area, please. (2)” I didn’t leave. After an hour or so, I was given back all 3 passports and was told that another SGS man would come and take me to the departing terminal.

Eleven-hour stay. That’s bad enough. The area that I was in had 2 bathrooms, 4 water-fountains placed on either side of the building, and absolutely no place to grab food. Actually, no, there was a place to grab some food; some Al Baik chicken sandwiches, some coffee, some tea…you want to know how I know that? Well travel back 2 hours and when I landed, I felt as though I was going to die, and in no way am I joking or kidding about that. When we were landing at Jeddah, the altitude change made my head and ears hurt so badly that I literally felt that they were going to burst open and start bleeding. Imagine The Rock grabbing your head and squeezing it as hard as he possibly could, that’s basically how I was feeling. I could barely walk when we landed and I immediately asked one of the workers there for some help. They took me past the security ‘borders’ and towards their emergency room in which they checked my blood pressure and heart rate (pulse). Next, they gave me free medicine (which I am extremely thankful for). Once they told me when to take the two medicines and what each one was for, they walked me back to the sector where I was to be waiting. On the walk back, I tried looking around, even though I could barely walk, but I remember seeing coffee and tea stations and several bags of Al Baik (A sort-of McDonalds fast food restaurant).

The caring, the most grateful, the most generous. The cruellest, the worst, the most arrogant. Both these types of people exist in magnitude in Saudi Arabia, or the Middle East in general, from what I have experienced. I’ll explain why in a moment.

We waited hours more in a small prayer area, a picture will be shown below, and when I thought we were getting a little late, I went back in that small room and asked for when we were going to be taken to the departures terminal. I was told to wait (3) and not to come back in the room, because I was not allowed in there. It had been at least 6 or 7 hours and there was less and less time to reach and board the plane, not to mention get through security. I had been asking the SGS counter every half hour since when there were 5 hours left in boarding.

Wait(4)       Wait(5)              Wait(6)                                        Wait(7)Wait(8)                                   Wait(9) Wait(10)        Wait(11)

Well, now you know how I and countless others missed our flights. We were ALL Canadians, coincidence? During those times, Canada was NOT on good terms with Saudi Arabia, coincidence? In detail, we were taken to the other terminal 60 minutes before take-off, and the screens said that our flight was not yet boarding, but still, the airport workers did not let us go to the boarding area. “It is entirely SGS’s fault” “No doubt about it, the airport workers should have brought you to the terminal quicker” They blamed each other nearly every time they opened their mouths. Also, thinking about it now, they never said sorry or even asked about compensation whatsoever. We went back to the same jail-cell like area and were told to wait (12).

Around 25 people, most of us Pakistani’s, but some of us Egyptian or South Asian. We were innocent, we hadn’t done a single thing against them, but here we were facing the consequences. In total, many families with young children waited for 24, 25, 26 hours. Funny thing is, my sister, my mom, and I were the first ones who arrived at the airport and we were stuck in that section, no, that prison, for 33 hours. Honestly speaking, I’d rather be in a jail in Canada than this airport for nearly a day and a half. Thirty-three hours, no water provided, no hotel, no blanket, no food, nothing.

Anyways, when we all missed out flights, we got mad, for real, and we began to start a mini-protest. Nearly 12 hours into the ‘stay,’ we stood in front of the SGS counter (to the right) where they directed and told everyone arriving in Jeddah (In this airport) where to go and what to do. Due to 25 people insisting not to be moved until they were helped, managers and terminal ‘officers’ were called to the scene and they ‘promised’ us that they would do the most that they could to get us on to another flight. The terminal officer then came to us, acting all professional, and at this moment it seemed to me that after nearly 13 hours, we would finally get out of this place. We weren’t even half-way done. I won’t name this officer, but there is video proof of his coworkers saying that all he does is lie and that it’s better if you just buy another flight and get out of here (If you ask me to see the video, I’ll show you)

One of the two men who informed me of what I have stated above is a type of the two people I was talking about before. The utmost generous and caring. This man, very well dressed, worked there and my sister and I came to him after I received the medicine in order to ask for coffee and some food. He was a worker at the airport, and I could tell he wasn’t just an average worker, probably a co-manager. He immediately called on another man who worked in the airport and handed him a couple of bills. He told us to relax and that food is on the way. My sister and I looked at each other. A couple minutes passed and we saw the man who was sent, walking back towards us with coffee and 2 full bags of Al Baik. He paid for all of it and asked us if we wanted more.

These are the type of people that make me love Saudi Arabia, unfortunately, there are people on the opposite side of the spectrum as well. Let me return to where I was in the story. When we were recommended to buy our own flights, this exact same man asked us where we were going. “Frankfurt, Germany, then Calgary, in Canada.” The other man then asked how we were going to pay and whether or not we were planning to do so. Without any hesitation, hear me out now, without ANY hesitation whatsoever, the (first) man told us that he’d pay for the flights. https://www.google.com/flights?q=flights&safe=strict&rlz=1C5CHFA_enCA880CA880&sxsrf=ACYBGNSqvtX4Kbljqc0QeJpsmbWt0fAzFA:1577944062274&source=lnms&impression_in_search=true&mode_promoted=true&tbm=flm&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjPqbram-TmAhUULX0KHfQVC_0Q_AUoAXoECBEQAw#flt=JED.YYC.2020-01-17*YYC.JED.2020-01-21;c:CAD;e:1;sd:1;t:f

Here is the link to the flight prices, updated. During that time, it was well over 1500 dollars, more like $2000. Also, there were three of us.

 

After countless hours of waiting and calling family in Canada to help us find a way out of this locked jail cell, a friend of my father’s came to where we were held up (illegally), with the help of another airport worker and gave us the two following things:

1. Multiple, huge bags of Al Baik, with drinks and water bottles (These were sincerely appreciated since we were not given ANY food from the airport, by the way, it had been nearly or exactly 24 hours).
2. 500 Riyal (Nearly 200 dollars). We never used these, since we were helped by some extremely generous airport workers, and we gave the money back to his son a couple days before I began writing this piece.

Many Pakistani workers were working at the airport and since, ya know, we had that Pakistani connection, he let us call my father in Canada who reached our travel agent. This is how we purchased new tickets to Calgary, now via Vancouver. Maybe these group of workers were the sole reason we got out of Jeddah. God bless them.

This did not happen immediately though, we waited several more hours. we then saw the people who had their (work) shifts when we landed, again because it had definitely now been 24 hours. They were surprised when they saw us and that’s when I asked him if we were the first group of people to whom this had happened to. He replied: “No, actually the same thing happened a few weeks ago…Also Canadians…”

After a total of 33 hours, we saw people from within our group buy new tickets just to get out. After all, university classes and jobs were beginning. More than a third of the people bought their tickets and took the bus out of there. Lucky, I thought. Multiple times, no, dozens of times I thought of just walking out of the terminal and reaching the departure terminal by foot. Honestly, I could’ve done it, but I wouldn’t make it back here, or at least not back alive.

Anger, frustration, and hopelessness were the only emotions I felt throughout those 33 hours.

We got out of there, finally. Even after struggling at the other terminal because they took an unreasonably long time (nearly an hour and a half) printing out boarding passes and allowing us to get to the airport gates (A picture of the departure or second terminal is shown below, taken off of Google Reviews). But still, we got out.

After landing in Germany, we got a free hotel and a stay for nearly a day. The difference was vast. We then travelled all across Frankfurt, from Romerburg to Main tower to central Frankfurt, where there was an amazing cultural festival. We came back to the airport and Lufthansa airlines…come on! They took over 2 hours to board all the passengers and due to this, we missed the next flight to Calgary…as if it couldn’t get any worse! Anyways, the man sitting next to me in the plane was hilarious and extremely interesting, so during those 2 hours, I told him everything you have just read.

A little bit about this man to whom I am very grateful because he took away all the stress of what just happened in Jeddah:

• A man from Gambia, probably 1.5 times as wide as me and like a handful of inches taller.
• Two wives, one illegal, which the American authorities do not know of.
• A huge man, overall. I had to hold in my urge to go to the bathroom for at least 4 hours because I didn’t want to wake him up to go to the bathroom, also, I couldn’t slip past him since his legs occupied every square centimeter of legroom.
• Lived in Western America, can’t remember exactly where.

After landing in Vancouver, we were given two tickets to Calgary for safe measure if we missed the first one. Jeddah! Please learn something about compensation!

We caught the first flight to Calgary since we were given boarding passes to two flights, and then, finally, we arrived, Calgary at last! I never thought I’d be satisfied with coming back to Calgary after travelling in Asia and Europe, but here I was, more than satisfied.