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Memory of the month the way things were. (Part Twenty-Six)

Saudi Arabia 4

A few weeks after the arrest incident we were told there was a problem and we would have a meeting that evening, at the end of the shift we lined all the heavy equipment up in the desert and went back to the villa and had a meal and then the meeting.  We were told that we would have to leave the country immediately due to the company having a cash flow problem caused by the company being the victim of a scam. 

Doing business there is not easy as foreign companies had to have a Saudi partner company who received funds from the government and then passed them to the contracting company, this was to give their own companies experience of business, this was not happening hence the problem and they couldn’t pay the bills and as foreigners we would have been thrown in jail with hardly any food until payment was forthcoming.

All the cash the company had was divided up between us more for the Americans who had further to go and in the hope we would have enough to get us home and then we would have to fend for ourselves.  The mechanic and I went off and gassed up our pickups, the price of diesel was equivalent to three pence a US gallon (3.78 litres) petrol was five pence, around forty pence in today’s money this we paid for from our own pocket. We packed our bags quietly so none of the locals would hear, then at one am we headed off for Arar a hundred miles away and the end of the tap line.

We had decided to go via Jordan and once past the tap line there were no phones so they couldn’t ring ahead to the border, we made good time and soon passed Arar.  I’m not sure how far we had gone before the engine failed on the other truck so we had to dump it in the desert and press on in mine, fortunately it had a crew cab as there was seven of us. As it’s not allowed to take vehicles with Saudi plates out of the country we had to get taxis once we neared the border but with no maps we were not sure how far away we were, so stopping at a small town we negotiated for two taxis to take us to Amman and dumped my new truck in the desert with $1000 worth of tools in it.

We must have actually been quite a long way from the border as we came on another town and found out that these drivers were not licensed to cross the border, then following more negotiations with another firm the first one paying the second one to take us on to Amman. As we were driving along I noticed that the driver who was Jordanian had an old English pre-decimal penny on his key ring and I had a half crown in my pocket goodness knows why as it was four years since the currency change so I gave it to him and he was delighted, this turned out to be quite beneficial a few hours later.

On arriving at the border another serious problem surfaced, there was a certain hostility to us and one of the young Americans was missing a stamp on his passport so they would not let him through and despite us trying various ploys nothing worked, they were insisting we go back which of course was out of the question. Our taxi driver drove over the border stopping just past the armed guards, another young American and I walked over and they inspected our passports and we waited, we walked to and from a couple of times and the guards lost interest, the two Americans then swapped passports he walked over with it open at the right page with the stamp on and we were away. It would have been tricky if it hadn’t worked.

As the Saudi’s and Jordanian’s do not like each other there is a gap of a mile or so between the borders, when we got there it had to be seen to be believed, three lines of traffic trying to drive between two rows of tables and suitcases being emptied out. Cars driving into each other trying to push through, by this time we had built up a good rapport with our driver and he really came into his own, because he knew the chief border guard I got out my camera and took some photos, we shook hands etc and he just waved us through, we had to change some Saudi money for Jordanian to pay the dues but a marked difference in attitudes.

We reached Amman at 4 o’clock and went to a hotel this turned out to be full as were the next two mainly due to a religious festival, eventually the fourth hotel had rooms, it was called The Alcazar and looked like something out of a 1930s movie but it was fine.  We then headed for the airport where all the airline offices were in arches under the road, we each took one office to see if flights were available and it seemed that none were, I did not believe this so went into the Jordanian Airlines office and they told me they had seats so I ordered seven.

The next problem was they would not accept the Saudi money we had so it was off to the moneychanger, time was short but our driver knew of one and soon dropped us off at the bottom of a long flight of steps upwards, a long way up we came to a small building with stable doors, there was a minder outside and the top door was open, a single naked bulb hung from the ceiling and sitting on the floor in the middle of the windowless room was an old wizened man surrounded by piles of bank notes of many denominations quite a sight really, all dusty but we didn’t care as long as he changed our money.  I’m sure we probably got a poor rate but beggars can’t be choosers and we soon dashed down the steps to the taxi and back to the airline office with ten minutes to spare.

The following morning, we took off about 08.30 we were a bit relieved of course.  On landing in London, a company rep met us but had no information, some of the men got at him about our outstanding pay but with no luck and I could see it was a write off. I went to Reading station telephoned our friend Marilyn who rang Angela to let her know I was home and to pick me up from Plymouth then got a train home, I remember it was raining and even then, I had to wear sunglasses because the colours of the grass and trees etc were so bright after the dull browns of Saudi.

The company owed me about £2250 and I tried to get it back through the International Union of Operating Engineers that I had been a member of in Canada, but because the company was based on Grand Bahama Island they could do nothing.  I had received £100 a week into my UK bank so it was not all bad and I had enjoyed the experience, also I got on well with the locals they used to call me Mr Bill. At this point I should mention our Jordanian taxi driver, he was absolutely brilliant and without his knowledge and help I think it would have been a very different outcome. The co-operator