It’s Time to Say Good Bye Saudi Arab

Hello friends. Thanks for coming back. Let’s rotate the wheel further. It is the morning of 25^th Jul’20, time is 0630 Hrs KSA time. Riyadh is very hot in summers (Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep). But it is pleasant today because it has drizzled in some parts of Riyadh last night. And off course, Riyadh was seeing me off today. Raising sun was painting the sky with saffron color. Yes, It’s Time to Say Good Bye Saudi Arab.

(This post can is sequel of the post “Getting Ready to Fly from Saudi Arabia to India during COVID-19”)

Uber taxi is running towards airport. Passing air, roads, buildings are so new and fresh as they were 10 months ago, the day when I landed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the first time. The only difference is that they were welcoming me on that first day and are saying me Good Bye today.

The Expectation

The travel agency asked me and also mentioned in the instructions for passengers, to reach 4 hours before on the airport. This was due to time-taking process of Covid-19 test and some other guidelines. I was expecting some medical procedures on me before getting the boarding pass. Hence I reached around 3 and half hours before. Since I have been working in professional IT environment, I was ready for any last minute surprise.

It usually happens that if we are confident and certain about our plans, then there is definitely some last minute mess up. And, if we are really well prepared with our risk assessment and mitigation plans, then nothing happens. Same way I was prepared for all the known risks, even with all the irrelevant documents handy for the travel; i.e. my Aadhaar card (UIDAI), salary slip, organization ID card, copy of my ID card of Saudi Arabian customer, all the visa renewal soft copies, etc., face mask, plastic gloves…

After all I had to put great efforts to get the flight ticket in Vande Bharat Mission.

(Please click to read the post “How I got flight ticket in Vande Bharat Mission”)

The Reality

I was given 2 forms at airline counter to fill and returned one of the filled forms, and got the boarding pass.

I passed the immigration counter, then security check. While walking towards the boarding gate, I was looking for some medical team to interrogate and do some tests on me but didn’t find any. I was very vigilant if there are any tests are being conducted in any corner of the airport because I didn’t want to be missed so that I can be barred from boarding the flight. I was expecting some officials to come and do some tests or do some paperwork.

The time has come to board the flight. I waited for more than two hours but what is this; no Coronavirus test was done, no special / VIP treatment? Disappointing.

The Idiot

It is Indigo Airline aircraft. Inside the aircraft, a kit was placed on each seat which was having mask, face shield, plastic gloves and all the middle seat passengers were given a skinny disposable medical gown with hoody to maintain the physical isolation between the nearby passengers.

Our hero of this segment appeared on our middle seat. Please allow me to elaborate more about his appearance if you don’t mind (THIS IS MY BLOG so I can). This is a healthy, overweight (actually ‘fat’), young adult boy, wearing two heavy winter jackets in the Arabian hot summer (seems to save some weight from luggage).

As per the guidelines, since he is at the middle seat, had to wear the medical gown but he was reluctant in wearing it. And his excuse was that he feels suffocation if will wear that skinny medical gown. I was really shocked to know his demand of luxury in this pandemic. I called a crew member and requested her to make him wear the gown. She also requested him but the guy was still reluctant.

I told him that remove any one of the jackets or both of them, it will ease you but please wear the medical gown. Also asked if he has any medical issues with it but he was fine. His next classic excuse was, “there is so tight space in our seats that he can’t get up, wear it and sit again.” Wow, it’s just legendary, blown my head. I tried to make him understand that if you with your body can reach to middle seat and fit into it, that means you can move yourself to wear the gown as well, else how will you de-board the flight in Lucknow? I said this statement seriously, but couldn’t stop my laughter after realizing the statement.

We were requesting him but he was still denying. Then I strongly asked the crew member to either make him wear the gown or change his seat, else I will lodge a complaint against the airline that the government guidelines are not being followed, will use the social media as well and will not let the flight take-off from Riyadh. Because we cannot put all the passengers lives on risk for the sake of comfort of one person.

Finally, he dressed in the medical gown. He had no problem during whole journey. He seemed much comfortable.

When the aircraft left the runway and just lifted in the air I could feel the detachment of my heart from the ground. I could now be sure that I am going home, finally.

Arrival at Lucknow, India; Salute to the Aircraft Crew

Our Indigo Airline flight arrived at Lucknow, India at night. I could really see the great level of efforts of the aircraft crew in managing and supporting the passengers. Aircraft crew gave us two different forms to fill; one in Hindi and another in English & Hindi both languages. The crew members guiding each person how to fill and what to fill in the form. People were so wrestles that they were not ready to wait for their turn. Crew members were running from person to person to make the form filled. After getting the forms filled they cross-checked each passenger’s forms. Main reason was that most of the passengers were not able to read/write. This is the common problem with most of the passengers traveling to Gulf countries from Indian subcontinent. Even I filled forms for some of my co-passengers, even for the middle seat guy.

It was very tough to maintain the decorum inside the flight. All this procedure took around one and half hour inside the aircraft after landing in Lucknow, India. Also, the airport authorities did not use to allow the passengers of next flight to deboard until the passengers from previous flight have gone out of exit gate after clearing the immigration and customs. At the immigration as well, airline staff had to put great efforts to manage the queue with physical distancing but they made it.

I was so overwhelmed by their support that I personally thank some of them for helping us from source to destination. Great respect to all the airlines’ staffs.

I was happily feeling my sweat and hot & humid air of summer evening of India at Lucknow airport.

I came out of the airport, hired a taxi and headed towards the hotel for 7 days of quarantine. Now, I am into my jungle.