More weirdness...

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop and then it did. Of course it seems like this beast has more shoes than a centipede. Late this past Monday, just before midnight, my cellphone rings, which is extremely odd. It was a recorded message from my company saying that all of Jeddah is on a 24/7 curfew/lock-down effective immediately. I checked my messages and there is the same thing - "contact your manager for further instructions". Being as it is so late (after midnight by now) and I am such a nice guy, I send a text and an email asking for direction. Didn't go to work on Tuesday since I heard nothing back. I got a call from one of the Saudis who work in our office and is on the same schedule as I am, asking where I was. I told him I did not have any letter to allow me to travel. He got my Iqama and license plate numbers and by late that day he sent me a picture of the permission to travel letter from the military.

There is a good reason for having that letter. This isn't like 'Murcia, where one might get a wrist-slap or just a verbal warning. Here they are serious. If you are stopped while out during curfew with all this panic you will be hit with a 10,000 riyal ($2,667) fine for the first offense. I don't know what the second offense penalty is but I do know that jail is in there somewhere. I don't think I'd fit in very well there. I never did hear back from my local boss although my boss in CA did talk to me about what the heck is going on. He seems like a nice guy.

At any rate, I went to work on Wednesday and picked up a hard copy of the letter. This was a good thing since as I was coming back to HAFH I got stopped and the officer wanted to see that letter. I found out from my wife that the royal family had all relocated to the Jeddah palace recently. This explains why the southern part of the city was on 24/7 lock-down before the rest of the area was. The royal palace is on the Cornishe Road just to the south of where I work.

Well, next week is 'off' for now although there was some noise about going back to a day on/day off schedule. Hopefully I will get a little more caught up here. I've got a couple posts to complete about some more interesting visits that I have yet to post pictures from. We shall see.

Oh, and my flights home were canceled except for the R/T from ORD to DTW. With no way to get there it was rather pointless that they preserve the last leg I would say. Only about a 15 minute wait on the phone to get my refund kicked off; very pleasant and helpful real-live person from British Airways.

Still no word on when the airport may be reopening.