A Real Royal Visit!

by Brian Stirling Sunday, May 01, 2016 0 comments

You may have heard that Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 90th birthday recently as it garnered quite a

bit of attention in the news and on Facebook. Do you know what else got a lot of attention on Facebook recently? The Queen of Mitchell Street's inaugural visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! Now, King Salman wasn't available (I can only presume) but there was a certain prince (disguised as a pauper) assigned to entertain her. And how was she entertained you might ask? Well, interestingly it all started with a ceremonial welcome at King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) where a grand total of "nobody" showed up! Not even me! Seriously! But I'll get to that in a bit.

Last December when we decided that I would return for the first half of this year we agreed to get together one way or another at least every 6 weeks. More than that would be too long apart and not what we want in our lives. So, because it's such a unique opportunity we thought the first trip should be for her to come see where I live and work in Riyadh. The Kindom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) doesn't issue tourist visas unless you're a Muslim making a

pilgrimage to Mecca so being able to enter as the spouse of someone on a business visa truly is a unique experience. Plus, you automatically get a super cool looking passport stamp!

I was so impressed with my business class treatment on the way over last year I wanted Paula to get the same experience. MHI booked the flight for us on Saudia Airlines and we were all set for her to come April 5th! Having made the trip myself previously and being a little "meticulous" with my travel plans I prepared a two page travel guide that explained every single step of the 20 hour journey! She found it quite useful so it was well worth the effort on my part. You start out by getting more than double the luggage allowance (which was quite handy for my little bargain hunter's trip home!) followed by access to free drinks, snacks, and comfy chairs in the airline lounges while you wait for your flight. Once on the plane it's "can I get you this Miss?" and "can I get you that Miss?" the whole way. And if you recall from my first post the fully reclining (yeah, as in FLAT!) leather seats on the

overseas portion are pretty sweet!

So, she's on her way and because I'm "that guy" I'd been tracking her flight via the internet ever since she left Winnipeg so I knew exactly where she was every minute of the journey. The Toronto-Riyadh flight has a brief stopover in Jeddah and we checked in via text when she got there with the Saudi cell phone MHI provided her during her visit. All good so far.

Now, before I get to the next part let me tell you about my day at that point. I'd been back in KSA about 50 days then with every one of them comfortably, and predictably, seated at my desk at Saudi Electricity Company head office. But this day? The one day my wife arrives for her first visit in a new a foreign land? Yeah, that day (the 1 in 50) I have an early morning presentation scheduled to the VP and his managers. I'm assured that I'm on first and I should be out of there in plenty of time to meet her 10:20 arrival at the airport. I'm sure your keen senses are already seeing how this turns out but I'll continue regardless. In typical Saudi fashion the meeting doesn't start at 08:00 as scheduled and I don't get on until about 9:20 which is fine because it turns out they only want about 1/3 of the material I prepared based on their meeting request. Fine by me. Before I start my presentation I double-check KKIA arrivals and verify her flight is on time, due to arrive at 10:20. Perfect, another 1/2 hour to clear customs and get her bags so I should be golden if I'm done my presentation by 10:00.

So getting back to Paula, she touches down in Riyadh, dons her abaya as per the "instructions" and heads for customs. Expecting a dour and brusk puritan official from the birthplace of Islam (as KSA is) she was pleasantly surprised to find friendly, welcoming and helpful faces. Well done Riyadh! My instructions said that after retrieving her luggage she'd go through security again and then "you'll come through the last gate, look for the blue eyed Canadian boy, that'll be me!"

So, I finish my presentation, answer a few questions and check the time, 10:00. Not bad Brian, right

Picture borrowed from http://www.zongonews.com/?p=6677

on schedule. Then I noticed a text on my phone from Paula, it reads "I looked right and I looked left but I don't see you!". Often times people miss the obvious answer and get hung up on the improbable, regardless of how improbable. And so it was I spent the first few seconds trying to figure out how she sent a text from the plane that hasn't even landed yet? I didn't think that was possible. But then, my acute deductive reasoning began to suspect there might be an alternative truth. Yup, next I thought it was a prank so I reply "Are you shitting me?" Well it was getting pretty obvious by this time that her flight had come in about 1/2 hr early and she'd breezed right through customs with nary a delay! CRAP!!! My wife is waiting at the airport and I'm not even there!!

I dispensed with the good byes, scooted out and zipped off to the airport as fast as I (almost legally)

could. I was really disappointed not to have been there but fortunately she's a good sport that way and didn't "throat punch" me when I finally did arrive to pick her up about 30 minutes later! I gave her an eye-opening first exposure to Riyadh's "middle of the desert" scenery and Saudi driving acumen on the way to Al Waha compound where I live for the reunion tradition typical for married couples here. Of course I mean a brief nap and then off to the Steakhouse for the welcome dinner! What else?

It was great to have her here and I'll get to the rest of our Middle Eastern adventures in the next part!