Everyone one queues up, and I use that term very loosely, to get their
boarding passes & check luggage. Then you pass through immigration.
Hopefully you'll get your exit visa stamped and proceed through to security.
Men & women line up in different queues for security. Men have to take off
their belts & shoes. Women just put their carry on bags on the conveyor
belt for x-ray. It's no problem to carry an open bottle of water. Women will
then go into the curtained room where women (non Saudi) security guards will
wave a metal detecting wand over them. The women will then pick up their bags
and wait for the men. The men have to go through a more rigorous screening.
There are no gates listed on the tickets. You have to just listen for
your flight to be called & a gate announced. It will be announced in Arabic
& most of the time in English. The flights to Paris are announced in
Arabic, French & sometimes English.
Your flight will be announced about 20 minutes before departure. Then
you rush to the announced gate to queue up again. Airline employees check
passports & exit visas before they let you go to the actual gate area. If
you don't have the right stamp on your visa, they won't let you through. When
we went to Doha, I was sent back to immigration to get the proper stamp, then
had to rush through security to get back to the gate area.
After you are approved to leave, you go downstairs to the "gate
area". It's actually just a room with no chairs with a door leading
outside where you get on a shuttle bus that will drive across the tarmac around
to where the plane is parked. It's usually a fairly long distance away. You
will have to climb stairs leading to the plane.
When you land at a Middle East airport, you exit down a similar set of
stairs to get on another shuttle bus. If you are arriving in Jeddah, airline
employees will separate passengers who are arriving for Umra (hajj pilgrimage),
or for other reasons. Umra passengers will go to a separate terminal.
After you arrive at your terminal, you will queue up to go through
passport control. There are signs that indicate which lines are for residents,
GCCA residents (maybe it's other initials, but that's close!), and maybe two
other options, none of which sounds like where we need to be. So we just pick
the shortest out of the lines left after we decide which ones don't apply to
us. When we arrive in Jeddah, we don't have to make those choices. An airport
employee will be waiting with an EM (ExxonMobil) sign. They will walk our
passports through control for us, which can be great! The only thing we don't
like is that this person takes our passports & quickly walks away. In other
countries, we stand in line to purchase an entrance visa and to get our
passports stamped. Sometimes I think that's the better way.
The first time someone comes in to Jeddah, they have to get an iris
scan & have their fingerprints taken, as well as a photo. This photo now
becomes your official photo for Saudi Arabia. Which is a shame, because you've
just landed in the middle of the night, after a long flight, your hair is
sticking up & you look like you're ready to fall over & are not at all
happy about anything. At least that's the way my photo looks!
Once you've cleared passport control, you're almost through. You
retrieve your baggage, take a last bathroom break & head for the luggage
scanners. There is no customs as we know it at home. Islam does not allow
countries to charge duties on goods brought in, so no declarations. You only
have to worry about an inspector seeing something in your luggage that looks
suspicious to him. Most of the time, they aren't even looking at the scanners.
I've been told that a bottle of olive oil can really cause problems, because
for some reason they think it's alcohol.
Ok, security check / customs is clear! Now to get your driver &
head out! At Jeddah, we're met by an Arabian Homes driver who holds up a paper
that says NEIMEYER. He will help us to the car with our luggage. In Jordan, we
were met by someone from the travel agency. He walked us through passport
control & all the way to the car that they had arranged for us. In Doha, we
had made arrangements with the hotel to have someone pick us up after we went
through security/customs.
*****
On a side note, men arriving for Umra will be swathed in a special,
long white towel instead of clothing. It somehow wraps around their waist,
diagonally across their back, then diagonally across their chest. They sometimes
will change into this in the restroom at the airport, but sometimes will wait
until they are in the restroom in the plane. Towels seem to be sold in
different lengths & sometimes the men don't quite get the right size. It's
very odd to see portions of a man's bare chest when I've gotten used to seeing
men almost as covered as the women. This garment plays a part in their
pilgramage to Mecca. They have taken off the trappings of the world and all
approach as humble men. Maybe?
EA in KSA
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