In the last post I promised to write something about my desert trip, the fact is I didn’t write directly after arriving but one of my best friends, Elizabeth Williams, encouraged me to write and here some of what I have seen;
Four days ago, I had a new experience, I traveled by car from Qatar , where I work, to my home Jordan through Saudi Arabia, the road was 2,000 km of desert.
I loved this adventure because it means something to me; it was the first time to cross all this way and being alone in the desert gives something inside yourself.
I started the way from Doha at 1 pm driving one hour to the Saudi border and after crossing the check point the real trip started, in the Saudi desert you do not see any thing except sand, camels crossing the Hiway and trucks do not know stopping.
The road inside Saudi Arabia took more than 20 hours of driving including many stops for gas, taking a nap and praying.
Every 300 hundred km you find a city, most people in these cities are not Saudis, they are from Asian poor countries like Pakistan, India and Philippines. They are working in oil industry.
The paradox is that along this way you do not meet a local person except the border people and the police check points on the hiway every 100 km after the terrorist threat in the kingdom, they stop every one cross the road asking for IDs.
Whenever you meet a person working in Gas stations or using the road you meet a new culture different from you and you learn a new thing from its people.
The best moment in this way was when you are driving alone 160 km per hour at midnight and you decided to stop the car and look around in the desert; nothing but stars in heaven…. This moment you can call it" listening to the silence"
I can say now I am proud of everything in this way except one thing; I broke the speed limits which is 120 km per hour.
I hope this gives all of you specially Elizabeth something about the way.
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