Tue 02 Sep 2025
Having made the most of my luxurious surroundings, I forced myself out at 0600 next morning, headed for the border. I rather expected a straightforward passage; oh, was I mistaken.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/O-uiOyHImqE/edit
At the UAE border, the only sign indicated “Exit Saudi Arabia” needing a stamp on my CdP I couldn’t exit, so I rode around in circles just shy of the gate until a border guard came out of his office to see what I was up to. He pointed me towards a small building in the near distance which involved going back against the traffic, which fortunately was scarce, then taking a road that looked like it led to a building site. I got my stamp and was told I could now go.
The barrier was up as I approached, but the advisory sign regarding the “tyre destroyer” made me hesitate. I tried hard to find a sensor to make it fall. There’s a certain sense of abandonment and helplessness comes over at times, when the answer to a puzzle is not evident and the place is deserted. At the same time there’s an unwarranted(?) feeling of stupidity, for not being able to solve this simple riddle.
Then, after a few minutes, it dawned on me! 😁 “Maybe it falls if you go the right way, only rips your tyres if you try to go the wrong way!” Sure enough, and I was on my way. Or so I thought! Maybe that feeling wasn’t unwarranted, after all.
At the next checkpoint I was sent back to the customs office – a different one – where I had to show my passport, my registration document and pay an exit fee (AED 30) in return for which I was given an exit slip. This I had to show three times before I was finally on my way to Saudi.
If I though my difficulties were over, I was mistaken. At the Saudi passport post, I was directed into the office. Here, in relatively short time, my fingerprints and mugshot were done. The thing about this place was the 19 unmanned desks surrounding the one soul doing business. I imagine at certain times, it gets hectic on this border.
Anyway, back to the job in hand. Again, with an absence of signs, I headed for the obvious exit. Nope, back to customs. Here they made a note of my details and invited me to take a seat. Shortly I was directed outside to have my bike inspected. Having rummaged perfunctorily through my big bag, I was instructed to go to X-ray and then come back.
X-ray was in interesting set up in which I parked on a ramp and a truck with the x-ray apparatus, drove slowly by taking the scan. Unfortunately this was unsatisfactory, so after waiting for 20 minutes, chatting to the customs inspectors, I was sent back. The repeat scan obviously answered the unanswered questions, and I was allowed to leave. Apart from this inspection, there were no formalities; no CpD required and no temporary import procedures. Surprising!
At the gate, I was asked for my insurance. I had none, so I was directed to another small office to buy it. I jumped the line of cars with the excuse that I was too hot to sit in the queue on my bike. When I said I was only in the country for a few days, I was given a leaflet with a link to an app, and told I should enrol online, where I could buy insurance for a week; the shortest period available at the kiosk was a month.
The attempt to do this started another comedy! Naturally I had no internet connection. I thought I had seen free WiFi in the passport office, but this was a way back. I asked my friend the customs inspector and he took me inside to put me in the care of a colleague. After several unsuccessful attempts on my phone, this kind gent, not only did the application for me, but he paid the subscription too!
So finally I was able to go on my way, having taken some 3½ hours to complete the paperwork; at least this was an improvement on the 7 hours it had taken when I entered Saudi from Sudan back in 2019.
I reached my destination a short while later, but found it with some difficulty. It was in fact at the back of the same building (a shop) in which I was asking for directions; I could have walked through the connecting passage!
This place, called Dream Home Apartments, was a huge come down from the Beach Bay Hotel. My room had two beds and a dresser, a grubby, zinc sink and a fridge. Although it did have aircon and a kettle, making me happy enough, as a home, it certainly didn’t feature in any of my dreams.
Weds 03 Sep 2025
Another early start, and another day of uninspiring riding. I made a rookie error by not filling up when the opportunity presented itself; my excuse is that I was trying to beat the heat. The truth is that I didn’t really pay attention to the distances and take into account the 30 kms I had done the day before going to the bank.
In any case, I was well into reserve and no fuel station was in sight. I wasn’t far from my destination and would have made it, even if only just, but decided a stop to top up from my spare canister was advisable. Of course, 10 km later there was a petrol station!
The Continent Hotel was my return to luxury accommodation. After a somewhat protracted discussion with the hotel receptionist, who was insisting I had to pay 45% of a night’s stay if I wanted to check in 2 hours early – “It’s the system,” he kept repeating – the manager was called and he, not only waived the extra charge, but also upgraded my room! 😁 That is the Saudi hospitality I was more used to.
A few hours sleep, a stroll to the beach and a dip in the sea followed; swimming was impossible because even 50m from the shore the water only reached my knees, reminding me of the beach at Dili in Timor Leste, where the water was also hot like a bath. I substituted a few lengths of the pool to end my afternoon. Dinner was a very lemony, poached fish with lemon sauce, and that was day 3 done.
Thurs 04 Sep 2025
Breakfast was uninspiring, and I set off for a half-way refuelling stop, having learned my lesson. All was pleasantly boring until I reached Dammam, obviously in rush hour. On a 6-lane highway, with almost nose-to-nose traffic guys were driving like they were in a video game.
One particular idiot overtook a car in the outside lane by passing between it and the concrete crash barrier. Another under-passed me at speed, shot left across two lanes, dodging between three cars in the process, and then weaved back again to exit at the next intersection. Mad!
Me? I just kept going a straight line, trying to be as predictable as possible, and hoped, while using my back-of-the-head eyes, to avoid being hit by anything. Thankfully, I succeeded, reached the refuelling point and an hour and a half later reached my destination at Al Eairy Furnished Apartments in a town called Nairyah.
Here, it was back to accommodation reality. A perfectly adequate room with a small kitchen, but no equipment whatsoever, and little in the way of furniture; as I type, I’m sitting in my camp chair. Still, there was a café just next door where I went for coffee and was served the most enormous piece of tiramisu ever.
Temperatures were such that it was really impossible to do anything outdoors, not that there was much to do here in Nairyah. I spent the day in my room and only ventured out late in the afternoon to fill up with fuel. Then, having started with an uninspiring breakfast, I finished with an underwhelming dinner from the Luxury Specialty Burger (Bar). The place itself was quite smart, and the burgers looked good on paper, but were just a small step up from McDonalds.
Fri 05 Sep 2025
With nothing to keep me it was an early start again. An uneventful ride to the Saudi border was followed by an exit procedure slightly less ad-hoc than the entry had been. The impression I had was that dealing with a travelling biker was not something they did often, so it was make it up as you go. Anyway, at least it didn’t take too long.
On the Kuwaiti side, I had my e-visa checked and was then finger-printed and iris-scanned. Customs looked into my bag from a distance and said I could go; there were no formalities at all regarding the bike. Nearly! Next stop was the insurance kiosk, where I was robbed of € 40 for a week’s worth of insurance.
The procedures at both sides took only a little over an hour and I was then back on the highway towards Kuwait City.
The Continental Inn Hotel is billed as a 4* establishment, but it’s not. I did get a free breakfast snack, so wasn’t complaining. WiFi turned into a bit of a story and finally I was given a router of my own in the room, which worked, so again not complaining. One of the two lifts went out of action, which, in a 10 storey hotel, meant somewhat long waits – I was on the 9th floor. The swimming pool, that I was looking forward to using, was out of bounds as the hotel didn’t own it and it was hired out to a swimming academy. Ho hum…
I had a good view of a sizeable mosque and watched with some interest as the faithful came for midday prayers. It was a special religious day, but the numbers attending was notable, to me. Obviously the attendees were mostly men, but with a full mosque, a considerable number came with their own prayer mats and took up position around the mosque in the adjacent car parking areas. This made me think that the Muslim faith had got something right that the Christian faiths in Europe, with their falling congregations had obviously got wrong.
Sat 06 Sep 2025
Funny how waking up early quickly becomes a habit! Here I was, at 0500, all dressed up with no place to go.
The plan for today was to recce the Ports Management office, so I wouldn’t struggle to find it tomorrow morning, then find my oil supplier and service the bike.
The best laid plans …
Google took me the wrong way so I ended up doing the oil and service first. Of course the promised oil didn’t materialise, so I ended up taking what seemed to be the best alternative.
The Ports Management office was supposed to be closed, but someone pointed me towards an open door, saying the office was open. There I was informed tha the piece of green paper I was seeking was no longer required. Happy days! This good news meant I could head straight off in the morning, and made up for the very unpleasant ride around the city in the searing heat.
Back in the hotel, I set about trying to find accommodation in Iraq. I struck it lucky and made contact with Paul Dunn, the Project Manager at Iraq Energy City. This establishment provides accommodation and other support services to companies with contract workers in the area. So although it wasn’t, as Paul said, he agreed to give me a bed for the night.
Belfast-2-Belfast-By-Bike 