So I spent the weekend trying to book a train ticket to Riyadh. When I say I spent the weekend, I literally mean that I spent the weekend doing nothing but that. The first step was making sure I could board the train with only a copy of my passport and and an expired visa. Like everything here, I heard conflicting answers. Some insisted that I would need an iqama. Others said they had traveled with just a photocopy. Still others had been stopped not in Dammam, but in Riyadh when they tried to return for not having a roaming letter from the company. To cover my bases, I asked for a roaming letter from the admin lady in our office. Of course, they can not issue a roaming letter, it has to come from the men's campus, and it just so happens that the man who has the official company stamp which is necessary to make the roaming letter valid is on vacation, and took the stamp with him, or locked it in his desk and took the key with him, or something. Bottom line, there was no possibility I could get a roaming letter.
So I called the office in Riyadh and got no answer as usual. Then one of the other teachers told me the secret, she said that if I texted Mohammed first to tell him I would call, he would pick up. So I tried that, and miraculously it worked. He answered and I asked him if Osama was telling me the truth about the iqama, and he told me that he thought this time he was. Then I asked him if I could have a roaming letter from Riyadh since I couldn't get one her in Dammam. He told me it would take until Monday to get a letter to me. I asked if he could just email it to me as an attachment so I could print it off rather than wait for the mail. He acted as though he had never considered the possibility of attaching anything to email before... Hmm... That might work.... He promised to email me the letter by 1pm that day. I reluctantly hung up, not anxious to severe the first two way communication I had had with the company in over three weeks of trying to reach them. True to his word, Mohammed delivered, sort of. I got the email with the roaming letter attached at 2:45. Just in time to find paper (there is always a shortage of paper) and print the letter before the end of the workday on Thursday.
Roaming letter safely in hand, I begun the process of trying to reserve a train ticket. I started with the website, which only sort of works. I was able to find the train schedule and could see that there were seats available, but when I clicked to reserve a seat, I was always redirected to the home page instead of the reservations page. I tried on three different computers and had the same problem. I tried hours apart and still had the same problem. Finally I attempted to call and make a reservation. Thankfully there was a menu in English. I followed the prompts and selected the destination, and the class (there are three classes, third class for 60 riyals, second class for 75 riyals, and 150 for first class), and then the time, and finally they asked for the date. Only they wanted the date in Hijri calender, not Gregorian. In Saudi Arabia, they follow two calenders, the Gregorian calender we all know and love, and a calender based on lunar dates where it is currently the year 1437 or something. I obviously did not know the Hijri date equivalent to Sundays date and wasn't fast enough at googling it. The phone reservation timed out before I could make my selection. So I figured out the dates of travel, and just in case they asked, the Hijri date for my birthday too, before calling in again. The second time around, I got the dates entered, and was nearly done when they asked for the iqama number. I felt like screaming.
Well, so much for a phone reservation. Luckily, because of all our adventures with Fozia, I was not without hope. I contacted one of the guys from a party we went to and asked him to help me make a reservation. I gave him all my information, and my passport number and he was able to make a reservation for me online. I guess the Arabic version of the website was working while the English site wasn't. He used my phone number and told me I should be getting a text from them with the reservation number soon. All I would have to do then was get to the train station to pay for my ticket, or go to an ATM or pay online before Saturday at 8pm. My phone is a Nokia, the old school invincible kind that can be dropped two stories and into the toilet keep on going (I know, I've done it). The only problem is the charging port doesn't work anymore so to charge the phone, I have to remove the battery and charge the battery separately. It just so happened that when he made the reservation, my phone was on charge. I didn't think it would matter, but apparently it did because I never received a reservation number by text to confirm.
The following day, I met up with another of Fozia's friends for lunch, since he was leaving for Jordan for a quick vacation. I asked him if we could swing by the train station so I could confirm and pay for my reservation. I figured I could go in and give them my phone number or passport number and they could retrieve the reservation. My friend wasn't so sure. He felt thought it would be better if he went in for me because he didn't think they would speak English, and as we are not related, we should not go in together. So I waited in the car while he went in to try to sort it out. I tried to give him money to pay for it, but he just told me to keep the money and wait until he came out, then I could pay him. After some time he came out to get my passport copy and said they didn't find the reservation and he would make a new one. I asked him to try to get third class but if there were no seats left second would be ok. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me I should take first class, or at the very least second class. He said that third class was with all the smelly people. I told him I planned on sleeping the whole way, so it didn't matter to me and wasn't worth the extra 80 riyals. He looked doubtful. Again I tried to give him the money but he told me to wait. Finally he came out and gave me my reservation paperwork. I asked if it was paid for and he said, no he just made the reservation. I told him I thought the reservation would expire if I didn't pay at least 12 hours before the train left. He told me he didn't think so and anyway there would be plenty of seats, it wouldn't be full the day of. I was doubtful since I had looked at seats on the train the previous week and they had been sold out. I told him it would be better if I just ran in and paid myself. He said that would be suspicious since he had just gone in for me. I didn't push it since he had already done me the favor of making the reservation and because I figured I could just ask someone to go to the ATM and pay for me (I couldn't do it myself because we can't get bank accounts without an iqama) and I would pay them back.
Finally, it was Saturday. The day I had to give back Snoop, the kitty and my last chance to pay for the ticket. So I asked Snoops owner to use his online account to pay for the ticket for me and I would give him cash. He was happy to do it, and when he pulled up the reservation number, it was clear that my friend had booked me for a first class ticket instead of 3rd or 2nd class. I know he thought he was doing me a favor, and didn't want to see me stuck in with all the smellies... But you know, he was not the one paying for it... best intentions. So I offered Snoops owner the 150sar in cash, and thought perhaps I could ask at the station in the morning to have the ticket changed. He refused to take the money, insisting I might need the cash in Riyadh, and that I could pay him when I got back. I told him I would be more than ok with cash and that he should take it. He refused. We played the game of shoving money back and forth insistently for a while, and finally I gave up. I think he wanted it as an excuse to see me again, and I was happy to have it as an excuse to see Snoop again. So, I was relieved. The ticket was bought and paid for, now all I needed was a ride to the train station. Luckily, another of Fozia's friends came through and said he would take me to the train station at 4 in the morning. He told me he always stayed up that late anyway. I was surprised, but grateful. Thank goodness for all of Fozia's friends. So I packed my bags, set my alarm for 3am and went to bed (sort of) early, praying that Bobshi wouldn't decide to fall asleep early...
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