American Bedu

The following was shared with me and in turn I am passing it along to others in the Kingdom and specifically Riyadh as FYI:

Encounter of a ‘Third Kind’

After leaving the garage at dusk last Sunday and threading my car through unconsidered traffic into the left lane of Al Ahsa Street, I successfully challenged the u-turn in front of the Pepsi-Plant to make my way home.

The idea was that after circling the Pepsi-plant, I was once again to test my driving skills by diagonally crossing traffic to reach another u-turn located under the Al Khurais highway.

A black sedan hitting my rear bumper, not really hard but enough to get my attention, did however change the flow of my travel plans. After a short inspection and a glance at the youthful driver, guessing the other two occupants were of similar age, I waved ‘malesh’ and got back on my way.

Just when I thought I could make a run for the second u-turn, I was hit again by the same car and into the same spot, my vehicles rear end.

Stupidity was one explanation for the second encounter but the real reasons behind this incident were far more sinister, a frightful scheme of which I soon became aware of.

When one of the passengers got out of their car, pretending to inspect the bumper on my car and the second occupant waving me over for a talk, the penny dropped. They were after my car.

I immediately locked my doors, pretended that nothing had happened and completely ignored any communication attempts made by the trio. As other cars arrived the ‘damage inspector’ rushed back to join his comrades, their car took off like a rocket with mentionable skills displayed by the driver.

My Advice:

Stay in your car, lock the doors and phone the police.

By: Pieter Giessen

Filed under: culture, Economy, safety, Saudi Arabia, Saudi culture, Saudi customs, travel, Uncategorized | 25 Comments »