Staying in the KSA – First time on KSA highway

The driver arrived at about 8:30am after two hours waiting. When all of the luggage have been loaded in the van, I got inside and drive me out of the airport. For the first time I got into a left drive car.

It was a surprising moment and I was confounded the way the driver drove. Still at basement parking he speed the van like driving on an open road, taking corner and junction without looking left and right at a considerably high speed for the space. I keep asking myself, is this the way people in Saudi drive but that was an Indian driver.

After paying parking ticket, the driver immediately pressed the accelerator and the speedometer needle in no time reached 140km/hr. I did not bother him. I looked around me, here I could see the scenery which I have never seen in Malaysia. Surrounded with sand of the desert, trees were hardly be seen. The land was flat, no hill or mountain was seen around. Far at the horizon dust floating in the air due to sand storm. I could imagine that this country was dusty. About 20km from the airport we reached the junction that connecting the main highway from Dammam to Jubail. The traffic was heavy. It was a 3 lanes highway, speed limit 120 km/hr. By the way, the speedometer of my van shown 140 km/hr. The road was wide and straight. Driving at that speed did feel much shaking. At that time, we were on the third lane. The driver’s mobile phone rang, he answered and talked for a long time but still maintain at 140 – 150 km/hr and still on the third lane. Suddenly another car coming from behind overtook our van on the ‘fourth’ lane. I was shocked but the driver seems calm and still talking on the phone and the speed still maintain at 140 km/hr. And that was not the last for the day, more cars overtook on the ‘fourth’ lane along the road before we reach the apartment.

I did not have the much opportunity to talk to the driver because most of the time he was on the phone while driving. Arrived at the apartment, waited for another I hours for the Saudi Kayan representative to arrive to open and give the apartment key.

Day one in Saudi gone through a few experience about some habit of people who live in KSA when driving. They could be expert drivers and very alert when driving. Their eyes always focus on the road and mirror although they were on the phone while driving. However, they are less patient in driving, overtaking on inner emergency lane, so I called ‘fourth’ lane and sometimes overtook on right emergency lane, driving like the car has no break. Another thing that I learnt, no get sick of waiting, we have to be patient because the actions especially when dealing with people it would not as fast as expected, at immigration, waiting for taxi or waiting for services.