Can a Trip get any worse?

During my vacation, I had to get to Dubai for a Funds conference that I was the Chairperson for, Funds World Middle East 2006. Since I was in Jerusalem, I had asked many people the entire procedure of how to do it, cross border, go to Amman airport, etc. and even wrote it down with prices of how much each taxi would cost, so as not to get ripped off. I planned, and Allah Plans, but Allah is the best of planners.

I got up early in the morning and went with my mother in law to the taxi area that was to take me to the Israeli border. When we got there, they told us that I couldn’t go the close border because I had landed in Tel Aviv. It was a Jordanian rule that I had to go to a specific border 120 miles north, which would take 2 hours. After much thinking and talking to other drivers, I decided this was the only option. I got and in taxi and drove the 2 hours to the border. It was entirely on the West Bank and it was beautiful. I saw small towns, desert Arabs with camels, and even saw a glimpse of Jericho. Enjoying the view, I thought to myself I still have time so no problem, alhamdulillah. The Israeli border was no problem either where I exited with the proper procedures, and extra security checks for me and no other people, and waited for a bus to take me across the border.

As I got to Jordan, I went in and got my visa with no problem and then proceeded to the immigration. This is where the problems began. He looked at me, at the passport, and said come with me!!! He took me upstairs into a room and as I sat down, a man walked in who spoke no English, at least that is what he told me. He began asking questions as to who I was, where I was going, why I was going there, where was I before, where have I visited, why, and a list of 20 other questions. He asked for my business card, some brochures of the company I work for, saw all the pictures in them and asked me who each of them was. I thought the questioning would never end, and I was pretty smooth with my Arabic, but after a while, because of the concentration, I was getting a headache. Finally, he looked at me and said, “you can go” and apologized for the questioning.

I got out of the border and took at taxi, the only one there, to the airport. It was a van similar to a Vanogan by Volkswagon, but much older, a bit beaten up, and no AC. I negotiated with the driver and from 40 JOD, came down to 25. We got in and left. As we got out of the airport, there was a police checkpoint and one policeman came over and asked the taxi driver if he could take one of the police officers to Amman. He turned to me and asked if this was ok, and I looked at him and said “do we have a choice?” he replied, “not really”. So the driver, I, and the police officer started our two hour drive south. I don’t know what came over me to start thinking about if I had everything with me. Suits? Check. Passport? Check. Brochures? Check. Ticket to Dubai? OH MY GOD… I had forgotten the ticket in Jerusalem with Iman. My heart started to race and I began to think I would tell the taxi driver to turn around, but there was a cop sitting behind me and he might think that was suspicious (plus he wanted to go to Amman), and that would not go over well and land me in jail or something. I thought, that there is no point in worrying. I would just go to the airport and tell them I forgot it, and they could issue me a new one. Cool…… actually, not really, because as the drive went on and the day wore on, it got hotter and hotter, and we were in a van with no AC. To distract my mind, I began speaking to the driver and the police man about random things, and inevitably, politics came up. I remembered the constant droning that Iman gave me about not speaking politics, and just acted like I couldn’t understand what he said. The policeman was asking if America was good or not!!! A common question that I have heard before, as if to provoke me. Anyway, there was silence for a while, and then suddenly, the car slowed down and pulled into a gas station to put air in the tires. No problem we were off on the road for in a short while, for a short while. On the side of the road, about 5 minutes later, the taxi driver say his friend who needed a ride as well, so he pulled over and pulled him in. All four of us again began our trip to the airport through Amman, in the heat. The the 120 mile drive south was mostly small town villages and one major mosques of a Sahaba that I couldn’t read fast enough to make out. And then we went over a mountain which took longer than usually cause the van was not too powerful and had to slow down on the inclines. We finally got to Amman about two hours later, dropped off the two other unexpected passengers, and then made our way to the airport, which was still about 30 minutes away. By this time, the temperature outside was a cool 120 Degrees.

I still got to the airport about 3 hours early and sat to wait for the Gulf Air counter to open. It finally did, and I explained my story of the lost ticket, but to blank faces, staring at me and probably thinking, who is this guy who asking to Board without a ticket. The agent told me that he could see my name on the computer as having a ticket and a reservation on the flight, but without the actually coupon, nothing could be done. I had to buy another one. Well I did, and proceeded to the gate. By this time, I was exhausted, having done all the traveling in the heat, worried about the ticket, the conversations in Arabic, and oh yeah, even if I got to Dubai, there was no guarantee I would get in cause I had an Israeli stamp on my passport. I tried to call Iman to tell her I was at the airport, and to tell her my story, but the phone would not go through. I later found out that the line in Jerusalem had died and they had to install a new one.

Anyway, I got to the gate, went in the plane and sat down in my seat thinking finally, in a couple of hours I will be in Dubai and can relax at the nice hotel/resort I was staying at for the conference, compliments of the organizers. No sooner had all the passengers boarded, and the plan was about to leave that the captain came on and said the plane had hydraulic failure and we could not leave. It would be a minimum of 4 hours. After all that had happened today, another delay!!!! We go off the plane and I was sitting close to business class so they allowed me to enter the business lounge which I thought would be great. It turned out, however, that the sections for smoking and non-smoking were non existent and all the smokers were chain smokers. As the seconds turned to minutes, it seemed like hours. I had a headache and was sick to my stomach. The headache from the whole day and the smoke, and the stomach, as I just realized, because I hadn’t eaten all day. I got something from the lounge, but after one bite, I could not eat. The smoke made me nauseated. I told myself that if one more thing goes wrong today, I will just turn around and go back to Jerusalem. The ground staff kept coming in and out of the lounge and speaking on the phone, looking at computer systems, etc. basically looking busy!! They tried to get us on another Dubai flight (direct, as mine was through Bahrain) but as the boarding call came for that flight, our plane was fixed. All passengers were forced to get on and go to Bahrain, knowing that our connections were missed. I would have to spend the night in Bahrain, hopefully at a hotel, but with my luck that day, probably at the airport.

Alhamdulillah, as we landed and I deplaned in Bahrain, the Dubai flight was also delayed and I had enough time to get on. After getting on, however, this flight also took another hour to take off and when I finally arrived at my hotel in Dubai, it was 3:00 am. I had had a 19 hour journey of heat, stress, smoke and no food. But now I was at the hotel, and before I went to bed, I wrote a small note to Iman very briefly telling her of my ordeal. As I wrote, my eyes welled up with tears and I went to bed dead tired. Even as I write this three days later, I am filled with emotions. However, alhamdulillah ‘ala kulli haal, Praise be to God in all occasions…